Mae Hong Son Motorbike Loop

Mork-Fa Waterfalls

Inside a bat cave

View of a jungle highway.

The final leg of our journey.

Found some gooseberries at the market and so I stuffed my motorbike full of them.

After spending a week on Mindful Farm I decided to hit the road. Quite literally. My friend Arthur and I rented motorbikes and did the well-known (dare I say infamous?) Mae Hong Son loop. The roads are incredibly beautiful, with many interesting hikes, waterfalls and hot springs to see along the way. However I think that its fair to say that the roads are as dangerous as they are beautiful. The hairpin turns are surrounded by lush jungle, and occasionally poor infrastructure means that you often drive no more than 25 km an hour for three hours at a time. But all in all it was a great trip, and the roads were well-maintained for the most part.

Cooking Class

Proudly displaying my Pad Thai

As I'm sure most of you can imagine, my cooking class at We's was the highlight of my time in Chiang Mai. My gracious teacher, Wee, took me to the market and taught me how to identify many foreign looking Thai vegetables. Then I made: Pad Thai, Green Curry Soup, Vegetarian Spring Rolls, Papaya Salad, and Mango Sticky Rice. Bryce showed up at the end of the day to help me eat everything of course :)

Learning about veggies and spices. That yellow is actually turmeric!

Green curry paste I made with ingredients for green curry soup

Wee. the owner and teacher at We's,

Chiang Mai Temple Tour

There are over 300 temples (wats) here in Chiang Mai and each one of them is as beautiful as the next. I did a walking tour of the city on one of our first days here, taking in all of the most recommended wats. The Lanna style architecture is beautiful and I'm not used to seeing art and buildings that are 700+ years old - they really are something.

I even got to talk to a Monk, who was studying English at University as well. He told me of his daily routine, and that he had been at the monastery for seven years already. When I asked how long he will stay he gave me the very Buddhist reply of: I do not plan, I will just "be".

Monday, January 7 2013 : 1:32pm - How to describe my time at mindful farm?

Mindful is a relatively obvious one.  Serene.  The landscape is beautiful.

So beautiful that you don't even mind the blistering heat during the day, and the freezing cold at night.  I haven't seen community quite like this before.  Every day someone comes, and every day someone leaves.  But everyone helps.  Gardening.  Building.  Cooking.

The past few days I've been the designated fire starter.  Funny, because before this I had never made a fire before in my life.  I will miss everyone, but at the same time I know it's the right moment to leave, like the last day of summer camp.

I learned a lot.  About mindfulness, farming, and pouring urine on plants.  I think life will be good.  My isolation big city madness has faded, and now I have... things!  Plans, and so much more.  This is all gravy.

 This is the first monk to ever stay at Mindful Farm, and the first one I ever met and talked to in real life!

Today a bed I spent an entire day making and seeding, and all week watering has sprouted.

And maybe it's a weed, quite possibly is.  But you know what?  I created that weed with my bare hands, and I'm proud of it.  DANG proud!

And these are all pictures mostly for Audrey, to see how the place has changed, even in the last few days!

I made that back wall!

January 1, 2013 : 1:01am - I've been living more and more in the past.

Like, visions of a past life.  From Ken Kesey being released from prison, and even before that, Magical Mystery Tour, The Grateful Dead, Merry Pranksters, Allen Ginsberg, Hell's Angels, a dust storm of death, and Hunter Thompson, always, right there in the midst of it all, grinning maniacally from behind his typewriter.  Tim Leary, the sage, and Neal Cassady, the who-knows-what behind the wheel of a day-glo bus.  Jack Kerouac lamenting what he helped create, and then threat!  And dope!  And acid, good God.

I've been reading, books, articles, anything, and listening to that fiendish old time music, and I wonder.  Seems that's all I do now.

"Just gimme that rock and roll music, any ol' way you use it."

My mind is ricocheting off these walls like a lightning discotheque and BANG!  BANG!  BOOM!  It's new years.  Don't forget.  Don't sleep.  Yes Thailand, thank you Thailand.   Point!

Yes, what did they start that they did not, or could not finish?  Did the drugs rot out their brains like the television ads say?  Did apathy take hold?  What was it that stopped people from fighting, only not fighting, living, for more.  Honesty, up frontedness, synchronicity, harmony.  Why stop?  Seems silly to me.  Though in truth, what have I done lately?  I'm too scared to say hi to Johnny from Toronto when I see him in the hall. Well okay.  I'll try.  People can be happy.  I saw it once in a dream.