Finally, after sixteen months of toil and hardship, acts of bravery and endurance, cowardice and betrayal, itching and scratching, life and death; finally we had reached our goal - the heart of an impenetrable darkness, the source of all Backpackers. Khao San Road. Bangkok. "It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of
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