You can’t have a red curry but you can piss on the gate.

Recovering in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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 first time I was there I secluded myself in a private room living off of Coca-Cola and peanut M&Ms as rehab from a ridiculous time in Vang Vieng.

This time it was to rehab from India.

Every morning I woke up and just thought, “I don’t want to go anywhere today.”

And the great thing about long-term travel is that if I don’t feel like moving, I don’t have to.

And so I ended up staying in Chiang Mai for eleven nights. Besides my failed-attempt at bungee jumping, and a couple of nights out to watch Muay Thai, my time there was pretty uneventful. I drank beers with friends at the hostel. I got a lot of blog posts written and some other “work” done. I walked through some markets. I did a little shopping. I read a couple of books. I hung around doing nothing. And it was a much needed break.

It was hard to leave, but I needed to force myself onwards. Though, when, on my last night, the guy from the hostel jokingly said “you’re not leaving, you’ll be working in the kitchen tomorrow,” I almost wished he wasn’t joking.

But I did want to head to Pai. And I wanted to not be around a guy. And I wanted to force myself to travel alone again. Which was something I haven’t really done in a long while. Because I spent three months with Jaime and then the last two weeks hanging around familiar places.

But, I will probably be back again.