Mornnnnning!

35 degrees, birds, construction work, peeling arms, need some shampoo....

Another gorgeous day in thailand, although thank the dear meteorological gods that there is some cloud cover today. When you're sitting in Canada going SUN, HEAT, TROPICS it's easy to think that's all you will want all the time, but I'm telling you right now it debilitating. I'm currently in Chiang Rai after an amazing 5 day stint in Pai.

Pai is a small little...village?...in NW thailand and every backpacking, long short/short pant, dread lock wearing hippie seems to find himself in. I think I mentioned last post of my accommodations, little outdoor bamboo bungalows, and although they were quaint and natural I also had to share them with a multitude of creatures. There was a gecko about the size of my forearm who lived on the roof and although blogs aren't a very good way to represent sounds here was my 3am wake-up call. WEEEH OHHH WEEEEH OHHH. The party was rounded off with mosquitos, roosters, dogs and BED BUGS. Obviously I could not see the bed bugs but they could certainly see me, and I was the proud owner of a string of red dots down my arm. Yum. All told though it was a brilliant experience, especially on the third night when the power in the whole town went out and I had a massive, eerily beautiful sky full of stars to swing in the hammock and count. I got to 47.

Pai also consisted of my current travelling crew! Within the second day I had made friends with and excellent posse varying in nationalities, and we spent most of our waking hours motorcycling to various attractions and drinking the dreaded buckets (pint of whiskey with and equally potent bottle of thai red bull) Pictures will be following...sometime?, but a few of the best activi-dandes included butting heads with elephants, breaking my ass on a waterfall 'slide' and watching fire dancing the last night while getting giddy by the pool. PS if you find yourself in Pai go hang out at the pool. The food, drink and friends are bar none.

To take a sentimental side step for a minute, I'd like to comment on meeting people on the road. For four days you party, converse, assist, get assisted by and generally just get on with these people then one morning comes and you say 'adios', more than likely never seeing them again. If I hadn't been sitting on the exact Internet seat, at an exact time I would not have met the person introduced me to the group and my time this past week, and currently for that matter, would be completely different. You meet, you greet, you party, and you part but every soul you meet on this sweltering track plays a small role in your trip, and I'd like to thank and fore-thank (word?) everyone who I will be experiencing these next couple of months with.

Before I left for this trip my heart was divided in that I'm not getting any younger, haven't finished school, have no applicable skills other than being a professional smart ass and am slowly going to watch my friends slip into RL (real life) The cure for this angst, or at least a salve to relieve the symptoms is being here where the median age is no median age at all. Nineteen, twenty eight, forty, sixty-five! All walks of life throw down their pack and tell you their story, and realizing that the whole world isn't figuring it out while you sit in the dust and stew over a career choice is relieving. That's not say that everyone should pack their shit into a 40L backpack and hit the road while stopping showering, but it works for me. It's been almost two weeks and to hear other points of view from all over the world and age span is heartening. Go pick cherries in australia, clean up after the tigers in san fransico, teach english in eastern europe, go get a degree in reflexology (all real things!)...the bathroom stall was covered in graffiti the other night but one line stood out the most. Don't let life happen to you, make your life happen.

Anyways, Chiang Rai is a sleepy little town but I have one more night here before crossing in Lao. The room is air conditioned, the food is cheap and a motorcycle costs 3$ a day. Next post will be from Lao, which is "Like thailand 20 years ago"<----literally said to me about 12 times. Ciao Ciao.