Part I: A Discombobulated Void

I silenced my alarms, entirely unbothered by schedules. I finally sprung awake at 9:40 AM, a mere 20 minutes before the restaurant closed for breakfast. My Oura ring awarded me another sleep crown, a distinction reserved for scores >85/100, as last night’s score peaked at a rare ‘91.’ From a purely statistical standpoint, my performance was Oscar-worthy.


By the numbers:


  • Duration: 9 hours and 21 minutes of actual sleep out of 10 hours and 37 minutes of total bed time.
  • Current Sleep Debt: Reduced down to just 2 hours.
  • Autonomic Balance: Average Heart Rate Variability recovered to 30ms - a threshold I have not crossed since March (Ideal would be >40, and I’ve been down in the high teens and low 20s for longer than I remember).
  • Circulatory Status: Average heart rate rested at 57 BPM, trending closer to my low-50s ideal baseline.
  • Neurological Recovery: 2:37 of REM sleep, a staggering PR compared to my 6-month average of 1:08.


Obviously, one single night of deep rest is not a full cure, but it’s an incredibly uplifting baseline, despite the way I feel. Curious if part of the breakthrough can be credited to my first experiment taking L-Theanine before bed.


Unfortunately, despite the record-setting data, I felt entirely off. I canceled all daily activities and wandered toward the pavilion cafe in a fog. My chest felt tight, deep breathing proved difficult, and I was challenged maintaining cognitive focus. I felt profoundly discombobulated, as if I had been struck by a stun gun (an ode to the Call of Duty days).


I had consumed a couple of large Chang beers during my video call with Jeff and Chris the previous night. In a past life, the local 6.4% ABV labels were a game of roulette, as the notoriously unregulated brews easily spiked to 10-12% and were infamous for ‘Changovers.’ However, industry regulations have since capped them to a modest 4.6%, meaning last night's casual intake should not have reasonably caused this magnitude of physical crash.


Either way, I left my breakfast half-finished, stumbled back to my room, and declared today a state of emergency. I downed my chemical protocol: blood pressure meds, ADHD stimulants, an electrolyte tablet, and a daytime dose of L-Theanine for focus, and welcomed the art of pure nothingness for the following hours.


Part II: The Couch Papaya

Today was a worthy day to abandon productivity and embrace life as a couch potato, or more geographically accurate, a couch papaya. For most of the day, I enjoyed the sanctuary of my balcony and lounge chairs, while I focused on journaling and working through elephant photos (over half way done!)


By 2:00 PM, a wave of stir-frazzled restlessness set in, prompting me to strap on the Teva’s to explore the resort grounds, specifically the dedicated organic farm. A full-time agricultural staff maintains the massive garden plots, cultivating a dense array of Chinese kale, bok choy, pumpkin, cucumber, salad greens, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime, and sweet basil. The on-site kitchen sources roughly 50% of its raw vegetable inventory directly from these soil beds.


Moving at a glacial pace ultimately revealed itself as a blessing in disguise. Being in absolutely no hurry, I was forced to pause and closely observe the ecosystem. Butterflies glided past my shoulders, chunky bees hovered nearby, lizards darted through the undergrowth, and I even spotted a harmless green tree snake climbing a rustic wooden post right by the main lobby structure.


I exchanged quiet smiles with the gardening staff and leaned into the serenity of the environment. There was no traffic, no human crowds, no music, and no artificial noise, leaving nothing but the rhythmic static of cicadas, the buzz of insects, and the occasional sharp slap of my own arm targeting an unwelcome mozzie.


I have actively started leaving my phone behind in my room, a liberating habit that only backfires when the rare bird calls present. However, even when I manage to capture a recording, the Merlin app has completely failed to map the soundscapes of Koh Chang, and my bird recordings remain unidentified and speculative.


Fear not - I am still saving my recordings and logging my wildlife encounters.


Current Biosphere Log

Insects: Broad-handed carpenter bees, Common Mormon butterflies, and Golden Birdwing butterflies.
Reptiles: Common house geckos, local Tokay geckos (this MUST be the gentleman trouncing around the side of my hut), and a harmless green tree snake.
Avian: A copper-throated sunbird, an elusive unidentified canopy singer, and a Black-crested Bulbul that failed to escape the focal path of my 70-200mm.


Today was all about slowness. A tough assignment, as I conceded to the gap  between being my quantitatively elite horizontal-ness and my real-life capacity. But, it slowed me down, and for that, I’m grateful to be noticing  the butterflies, geckos, insects, watercress, and pretty much everything but the damn mosquitoes.