Hope isn't a friend Win Hlaing can afford to give up on. It sustained him when he was a student leader in the 1988 protests in Myanmar that left an estimated 3,000 dead; it sustained him when he won a seat in the 1990 elections which the military junta refused to recognise; and it sustained him through the 10 subsequent years he spent behind bars in a squalid Yangon jail.
It supported him when, just six months ago, he left his wife and 17-year-old daughter to flee Myanmar and join the struggle with the exiled National League for Democracy in Thailand, knowing that while the military remained in control he could not return.
Win Hlaing was in the Thai border town of Mae Sot on a black Friday a week ago, when 300km away in his home city peaceful demonstrations were being crushed, with monks and civilians beaten and shot. It was clear that even hope could sometimes be a fickle friend.
Like many of his compatriots, he found himself watching from the sidelines as Myanmar endured its bloodiest week in almost 20 years.
A trip to the Myanmese border town of Myawadi reveals a people filled with anger and frustration towards a regime that had forced up food and fuel prices, apparently with no concern for the impact it would have on the impoverished population. And like Win Hlaing, they were convinced that only external pressure or intervention could bring change.
However, the visit in recent days of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari might have done more harm than good, 42-year-old Win Hlaing said in a furtively arranged meeting at a friend's house in Thailand, 4km from the Myanmar border. Even in Thailand, Win Hlaing and his fellow political exiles were wary of government informers.
