"One day, I'll come back here and live this life again."

It's the thought that ran through my head as I laid on my hard, sweat-dampened Thai mattress on a clammy November morning in 2013.

I remember the thought vividly because half my body was tingling with numbness. I took it as a sign to keep moving eastwards to Vietnam where the visa I had sent away for would soon start losing days. I later found out that the numbness was actually the symptom of a tick that rudely burrowed into my leg while I hiked the jungle trail to Wat Phra Doi Suthep.