Days R1-3: The Samui Pre-Renewal

April 28, 2025 to April 30, 2025

Koh Samui was the jewel of Thailand I hadn't set foot on until now. Talk about epic paradise! Now I didn't want to return to Bangkok at all. But it had to be done for the passport renewal.

There's work to be done too. I'm trading on $100k of paper money to practice for two months before joining a prop firm

A plan was concocted and it made sense to use the water damage in the passport as leverage. Since this "water damage" means losing the original passport then whatever so-called "valid" Chinese residency permits inside would die with the passport. Sophia "just happens" to be friends with the human resource manager of my former company who is in charge of procuring visas. How convenient is that do you think. The claim is that this person never canceled my work visa and residence permit without my permission but I absconded from the company and reneged on a contract. How the company couldn't cancel a work visa after this doesn't make any sense. This were the consequences I knew before doing the midnight run.

But let's just say for the sake of the argument I was to come back to China on a questionable document. "Best case scenario" it's exactly like Sophia describes and I walk back in. But walk into what exactly? No job, ex-employers that want me out for blood, and a massive uphill battle in procuring release documents to switch employers. And then what? Surrender my passport to the Embassy in China and be stuck there for the renewal all the while now dealing with a wife who saw firsthand that I was willing to run away from her.

Only a complete moron would try to go back under these circumstances. If you're going to run you have to do it all the way.

The most likely scenario is that Chinese immigration was contacted and my document is invalid. Let's say I show up at the airport, they would deny me entry or say I have 10 days to leave the country. For as much as I despise the CCP, I respect their immigration laws and they are strict as hell about letting people in. ChatGPT and I discussed this over 100 pages. Not worth the risk of trying to go back on an invalid document.

It makes zero sense to go back to China now but in order to solidify this I need to kill that visa once and for all. The best way is simple: accept the "water damage" on the passport, have the Embassy take it back, apply for a fresh one and start all over again.

This will mean of course being "stuck" in Thailand for 6 weeks but oh darn how terrible is that. What I will do is travel back to Koh Samui without a passport -- yes you can. Then enjoy here for longer, catch a full moon party on Koh Phangan then finish the biking to Bangkok as a beta-test for the Thailand Night Rides.

But enough about logistics. The time here on Koh Samui was turning out to be nothing short of amazing! My former teaching colleague at one of the schools I used to work at in China (not the one I ran from) was a PE teacher and I was certainly taking notes on how he interacted with people. For starters, he knows every person, every nook, every cranny of this island. When you move around with someone who’s lived here for years, the whole island feels like one big extended living room. We had a fun little adventure, one of those adhoc, let's-see-where the day goes kind of days.

It appeared to be going sideways rather quickly

What surprised me the most about Koh Samui was that everything you could find on the mainland was here: Big C, Makro, Central, and yes even Starbucks and McDonald's

When you have more liquor stores per capita than even Pattaya, you know this is going to be dangerous

There was a lot of information to take in as Rob toured me around the neighborhood on his scooter. I was trying to learn as much as I could, not just about Koh Samui, but about the kind of life it was possible to build here. Rob pointed out hidden gems, local shortcuts, small communities tucked away behind the tourist front. All the while, I wasn’t just looking at the scenery. I was comparing and contrasting Rob’s style and lifestyle here on Samui with what I had learned from Chris back in Songkhla as well as John in Pattaya.

Three men. Three paths. Three completely different ways to build a life after running from the machine.

Model 1: Chris (Songkhla). No partner, self-contained minimalist lifestyle. Happy, independent, and focused in a more remote area of Thailand. He built a quiet life of routine, personal projects, and no attachments that he didn't choose.

Model 2: Rob (Samui). Has a partner, a Chinese wife who shares his worldview. Even she isn't here right now and dealing with an emergency back in China, you could feel the bond between them. They actually loved each other, but crucially, they shared the same fundamental values: pro-freedom and anti-CCP. Pro-rebuilding life on their own terms. It wasn’t about co-dependency. It was about partnership in the real sense.

Model 3: John aka "Dad Verson 2.0" (Pattaya). Older than the others, 78 years old. Has a Thai partner, someone who upgraded his life and didn't burden him. He built a warm, emotionally supportive final chapter. He built routines among playing golf in the morning and bridge in the afternoon. He saw partnership not as a trap but as a way to grow together.

All three men had made it and provided the blueprint as it were to escape the machine. I'm sure that I would meet many more retirees later, and also even people closer to my age or even younger who could also act as role models.

But the real question is where would I end up post-run? Which model would I craft out? It wasn’t about copying any of their lives. If I simply slotted myself into someone else’s template, this would put me right back inside another version of a machine. Maybe it was about understanding what trade-offs each life carried, seeing the strengths, the blind spots, the hidden costs, and then building my own version from the pieces that felt most real.

We stopped off for ice cold Changs here first

Rob explained how he trained the people are the restaurant. As a retired teacher, of course he would be into training and testing.

He said, "I want two ICE COLD Changs please."

The waiter just nodded and grabbed some random Changs.

Rob shook his head and said, "No. ICE COLD! Are these Changs you brought out ice cold?"

The waiter remembered his training and reached into the icebox that was absolutely freezing cold and got the beers we wanted. Rob started slamming them down and I followed suit. Now this was retirement.

Rob explained that he trained the staff over many months to serve ice cold beer as it helps generate better business. He also explained how he trained them to set up a Super Bowl Party. After they set things up the way he told them, the restaurant staff said they were so busy they couldn't handle all the customers.

It became clear that Rob was in the business of making people better everywhere he went. We could probably fill pages on all the other things that Rob did, not just now, but also in the past to make a difference. Almost every story Rob shared circled back to the same pattern: Find someone struggling, step in quietly, make it better

He talked about a student with ADHD,picked on and bullied not just by other kids,but even by loser teachers. Rob intervened. He persuaded the parents to get a proper diagnosis and treatment and the kid transformed. From an outcast to a classroom leader.

But here’s the part that really makes me angry: There was no shortage of haters among his teaching colleagues and administrators. Rob was constantly getting dragged into the office. Constantly talked down to and targeted, just like me. His crime? Doing what weak and petty people were too scared to do themselves. Sound familiar? It’s the same garbage that drove me to execute the Midnight Run. Unlike me, Rob chose to fight more than flight. He stood up to bullies, protected the students and challenged the incompetent admin. They also tried to rescind his teaching license as they attempted with me also.

Here's what it is: when you can’t beat someone on merit, you attack them on paper. But they failed. For fucks sake who has the last laugh now? He's retired on Koh Samui with a mansion with multiple maids and cleaning staff who come over constantly. He treats them all equally, speaks Thai, gives them cokes on hot days, and I saw him do things like this with nearly every other local we met on the island too.

After drinking a few Changs, Rob said, "Check this out I'll show you a little shortcut. Make sure you have your swimming gear." He found a secret back entrance to a hotel swimming pool.

We literally swam through a hidden hole, emerging on the other side inside the hotel pool, pretending to be guests. There were cocktails on offer, not free unfortunately but by then who cares. This was what freedom looked like. A few more drinks later, we bumped into a group of British travelers. hey were friendly,genuine,and curious. I felt comfortable enough to share a light version of my Midnight Run story. The Brit laughed and joked:

"Watch out — he's on the run!!"

And for the first time in a long while I laughed too. Actually I found myself laughing nearly the entire time I had stepped foot on Koh Samui. Like maybe this whole Midnight Run (now 56 days in) was a big cosmic joke after all. It was serious, yes. Deadly serious. But maybe the real victory was realizing that you could still laugh at the absurdity even as you built something real on the other side.

We then circled back to the restaurant for more Changs and to watch the sunset.

By then we figured it was smarter to head back to the villa and keep the drinking going under safer conditions.

Drinks and barbecue at a villa. What more could you want? There went my strong soju mix.

We spent the evening watching video after video of China's economic collapse unfolding in real time. Empty streets. Closed restaurants. Factories shuttered under the weight of Trump's tariff policies.

The footage wasn’t just shocking, it was infuriating. Even with a VPN,it had always been nearly impossible to access this kind of content inside China. And seeing it now, wide open from Koh Samui —it hit differently. Was this anti-CCP propaganda? Or had everything I seen for nearly 20 years been propaganda instead? I already knew the answer. But my mind was still trying to catch up.

The facts were undeniable: people in China weren’t spending money. They weren't eating out. They weren't doing takeout. They weren't staying in the cities but they weren't going back to the villages either. Where were they going and what were they doing? They were leaving but not leaving the country because Xi Jinping had long since made it nearly impossible for Chinese citizens to emigrate or get their money out. They were trapped inside a machine that was collapsing from within.

We genuinely believe that we are watching the end of the CCP unfold in real time. It’s not a matter of years anymore. It could be months. As we discussed, Xi Jinping is trapped in a corner. That makes him incredibly dangerous. He and Putin are cut from the same cloth. When trapped like mad rats, both autocratic strongmen have shown they will act in reckless, violent ways.

We assessed, seriously, that war with Taiwan was a very real possibility. For that reason, sadly, I was glad to have visited Taiwan when I did and decided to pass on the persuasive attempts by my friends there to find jobs. The geopolitical risk is too high. War is not something that anyone wants. The Taiwanese don't want it. The Chinese don't want it either. If it happens? It will be because of one man. Xi Jinping: a reckless madman, desperate to save a collapsing machine by lighting it on fire.

After that I don't remember much except waking up later and checking my trading account. Well that can't be good, there is a sudden $700 paper loss. But strangely, there was no panic. I assessed the situation, let the positions ride, and sure enough they recovered. Freedom, even in finances, felt closer now.

The next day brought something different: six cleaning staff arrived at the villa. As always, Rob treated them with respect —offering them Cokes and joking around. I took the chance to practice Thai with the ladies. Basic greetings, questions, and small talk. They were super friendly,warm,and easygoing. Just another reminder:

The good life isn’t complicated.It’s built out of a hundred small acts of kindness stacked over time

Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 681 km (423 miles)

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