All I know is that it happened somewhere between Krabi and Bangkok. I don’t know when exactly it happened. I mean, I know it happened some time between 10am on 31 May and 10am on 1 June. Anything more than that, I don’t know.

I left Krabi on 31 May. I caught a local bus to Krabi’s bus terminal. Then I waited for the bus for Surat Thani. The bus left the terminal at 12:30pm. When I got to Surat Thani, it was about 5pm.

I caught another bus to Surat Thani Station. I went there to catch a night train. I could only get a 2nd class normal seat. No sleepers. This is what happens when you don’t book in advance. But this is not what I’m talking about when I say it happened.

I suppose most trains in Thailand don’t run on time. I had thought I would arrive in Bangkok around 8am rather than 6am, which was the expected arrival time. On the contrary to my low expectation, I did arrive in Bangkok around 6am.

I was planning to go to Bangkok BJJ’s lunch time open mat session. I killed some time at Hualumpoon Station by doing my regular copywriting exercise as well as some other writing exercises.

I was glad to be back in Bangkok and looking forward to seeing my friends there.

I caught a subway to get to another part of the city and went to a favorite cafe of mine in Bangkok.

There, I did some more writing.

And there, I noticed something.

It was just before 10am. I decided to leave the cafe and took out my wallet. It’s actually a small coin purse with a money clipper. I keep my cards–a credit card and a debit card–in the pocket of the purse.

There was only one card in the pocket. My debit card was missing. It was the only means for me to withdraw cash from ATM. And I lost it.

Lesson: Always have a backup plan. (I actually did have two cards before, but I cancelled one of them when I got spiked and got my money stolen from the account linked with that card in the Philippines last year. I didn’t get a replacement card for that account. The bank seems to have forgotten and I couldn’t be bothered too much. Big mistake.)

I’m not upset or anything, but this changed my plan.

After spending a few days in Bangkok… now I’m back in Japan.

In a sense, Japan is another destination, even though it’s my home country. So, I actually don’t see this move as the end of my travel at all, but I will be there until… I leave there again. It might be soon. It might be more than a couple of months.

I’ve been thinking about gratitude a lot these days. Those who let me stay at their places. Those who buy me food. Those who do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with me. Those who inspire me. Those who support me. Those who read what I write. I feel grateful for all of you.

I feel like I haven’t given back enough. I even feel I haven’t given back at all.

I hope I’ve become more compassionate than who I was before, because I know what it’s like to be in trouble and to be helped by kind people everywhere.

All these experiences are pushing me into the path of a sharer and giver, and make me want to have power to create something valuable so I can share it with others.