Chapter Four: Thailand:

Ah, Thailand. I spent about five months there. Plus, we had entered into a new century. However, it still felt like we were in the nineties. However, that wasn’t going to be the main focus of this trip. Sure, Thailand is beautiful and there is so much to do. But, that’s not what we were here for, now were we?

Just note, that it’s only the same activities that we do throughout this journey. Again, more questions began to follow. I looked over at An as she was about to go to sleep in the sleeping bag in the hostel that we were staying in.

“An,” I whispered. “An! An!” I about jumped when I saw her thick brown eyes narrowed on me.

“What?” she asked. I almost want to stop and go to sleep.

“How long are we going to be out of Vietnam?” I asked.

“That will depend on you,” An said.

I gave her a strange look. “What do you mean?”

“It’s your journey, I am just guiding you.”

“So I can go home if I want?”

“Not yet.”

“Okay… so how long will we be away from Vietnam?”

“That is up to you.”

I frowned and gave up on that question. However, I still had more to take its place. Three countries and months later and I didn’t know anything about An. She seemed to want to keep it that way. Sure, I’m used to her not being sociable and not smiling. But she could at least let something slip about her. All of my attempts ended in failure to date. Somehow, I wouldn’t give up.

However, Thailand led me to think about my life so far. To be honest, I haven’t had much going on. The nuns taught us how to read, count, and write in the temple when we were little. I wasn’t the artistic-type, but I was close to this one little boy who could draw. I would try to get him to draw for me all of the time.

I moved my hand to my chest. I used to have serious heart problems when I was smaller too. Mother Hoa allowed me to take my medication for them once they approved it with the local priest. I cringed as I remembered the bitter taste of that dull white powder I had to take with water. I hated it and Mother Hoa would pretty much have to pull my teeth and my hair to get me to take it.

“You need to take it because of your heart,” she told me when I was five years old. “I don’t want you have another attack.” Apparently when I was three years old, I had an attack of some sort and had to be rushed to the hospital. I don’t remember everything that happened to me that year, but I ended up taking that horrible tasting medication to this day.

An brought it with us in fact. Long enough to last me a whole year. But then what happens? An did move of the talking when we came across the checkpoints to many countries. So far, there had been no problems with my medicine being outside of Vietnam. I still have to wonder however.

“Hey An,” I said on another night in the hostel.

“What is it, child?” she asked as she was trying to go to sleep.

“How is my medication getting into different countries with us?”

“I declare it upon arrival.”

“What does that mean?”

“I filled out the forms asking if when have anything questionable so that we don’t have to pay a fine. Your medicine has been legal in the countries that we have been in so far.”

“But what happens when I run out of medicine?”

“I will deal with that when we come to it.” Her tone hinted that I should stop talking and go to sleep. I nodded to myself and lay my head down on my pillow.

An and I left Thailand the day after my birthday. I looked out the bus window now sixteen and wondered where we would go next and if any more of my questions about An would be answered in the near future.