After Bangkok, I headed to Chiang Mai, a small city in the north that acts as a kind of center for tourists that are either heading north for outdoorsy kind of stuff, or heading to Cambodia/Laos. It’s got nice restaurants, pretty good bar scene, good live music scene, a university with a beautiful campus on a hill, and an endless stream of backpackers and tourists coming through. I went up to meet Andrew Potter, an old friend from McGill who was in Effusion A Cappella with me. He is teaching English in Thoen, a small village next to the highway that is otherwise the middle of nowhere. He had spent a month in Chiang Mai at the beginning of his trip so he knew the city quite well and speaks some Thai. We had a lovely weekend consisting downhill mountain biking, waterfalls, too much drinking, and lots of quality time. After Andrew left to prepare for his class the next morning, I decided to stay another night and leave the next day. Unfortunately, even though I left my motorbike outside for only a few hours, it was stolen during the night leading to a whole ordeal of trying to find it, then trying to find a new bike to replace the old one, and finally giving up and just paying. Luckily, I had a thai friend to help me through it (THANKS ANN!), it was a shitty bike, and the people were really nice about it. In the end it costed me $650 and I’m still safe and healthy and life is good. Much worse things happen to people with bikes here…

So I did manage to finally leave and head to Pai where I am staying with an amazing old british hippie guy I met on the train up to Chiang Mai named Lazer (also known as Eliezer HaLevy, Shamantrix, DJ Lazer and who knows how many other names). We had a nice chat and he invited me to come up to Pai and stay with him. He was a 60′s british rocker, a wandering traveler, a kabalist rabbi, poet, author, dancer, drummer, trance dj, founding member of the rainbow, etc. etc. etc. He is well versed in all sorts of spiritual teachings, has loads of amazing stories, and overall just has a lot of wisdom to give. Unfortunately, when I called him and said I was heading up to Pai, he informed me that he had just entered the hospital and needed some surgery. The timing turned out to be very fortunate though as he insisted I come up and use his house and bike since he wasn’t and in return could help him out a bit. After a week of too much partying and feeling a bit crazy in Chiang Mai, it was just the sort of grounding experience that I needed. I’m able to help someone that is truly in need of help and now I have made a lifelong friend and someone that I can consider as my first spiritual guide. I can also tell that it is extremely therapeutic for him to be talking so much and telling so many of his life stories. It’s one thing to sit and reflect quietly, but it’s much more effective to be forced to put everything into words, especially when someone hears them right away (as opposed to say writing in a journal). So I think I’ll save the Pai photos and a more full account for after I head south again. Now it’s time to go home, have some lunch, and try to figure out where the hell I’m heading in this amazing life that I am so fortunate to be experiencing right now. Much love to everyone.