All I wanted was dinner. Scratch. Dinner and wifi. That was my plan. My mission. That was what I was looking for when I was walking down the street on one of my first nights in Pai. I certainly wasn't looking to meet a guy. In...
Johnny came into the bar one night. He was older, Thai, with thick black dreadlocks. He sat next to me and took out his guitar, playing with a cigarette perched between the strings. It was, maybe, 1 or so in the morning. I hadn't been drinking...
Everyone’s told me that I’m so brave. But I’m not. I’m a chicken. I’m scared to death of this whole thing. I hate being out of my comfort zone. But I just think I want to be a braver person. A different person. July 3rd, 2011...
Finally, the moment I've been waiting for my entire life happened (for the third time on this trip...
Renting a bicycle to visit Mor Paeng Waterfall in Pai, Thailand, seems, in theory, like a pleasant way to spend a day. Until, after maybe ten minutes of peddling, when you realize that you'll be traveling uphill the entire way. Until your ass hurts so much...
I still wasn't quite sure where I wanted to stay when my minibus pulled up in Pai. I knew that I kind of didn't want to stay at the big party hostel. I wanted to drink when I wanted to drink and sleep when I...
Almost every day in Chiang Mai I said, "tomorrow I'm going to Pai." It was the same thing that happened last time I got there five months ago. It seems to be where I end up going, and staying, when I need to recover. The...
In 2009, I mounted a motorcycle for the first time. I made Mat take me. I was screaming before I even got on. 40 feet later I yelled at him to pull over, jumped off, and ran away. Jenny remarked the other day that I seemed...
I want to throw out there this idiom (or whatever it is, The Google seems to think it's an idiom) that I'm sure you're all familiar with: "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free." Really, I never understood the quote....