I am still here in Pai after a week and I am starting to get that nagging feeling that I need to move on. Maybe it's the holidays (with no friends or family and only a 20 minute conversation with my sister and nieces over a shitty line), maybe it's the mass quantities of western food I've been consuming (has anyone ever had banofee pie? holy mother of yum), maybe it's how lazy I've been (after those first two days of mountainbiking, the most exercise I got was paddling with my arms on a tube down the river), maybe it's just the feeling that it's time to move on. Not just from this town but from this country where after two full months, it's beginning to feel like old hat. That's not really the feeling I want or the attitude I want to be conveying so here I am, hours after the last of my American Christmas Crew has left town, trying to figure out what's next.

My current companions in the Golden Hut now that Nina and John have left are a young German guy who gave me a great restaurant recommendation, a Dutch couple with questionable fashion sense and Chris and Michael, middle-aged twin brothers from California who enjoy bragging about how many passport stamps they have and who I swear are *both* still in the closet. Unfortunately, I took the liberty of outing Chris on Christmas Eve after the rum and cokes we'd had on Nina's porch kicked in. Fortunately, in his insistent denial, he was good humored.

I got an email this morning from Chris Pryor, a friend of my ex-boyfriend Jon's from Rhythm Society who I got to know at Burning Man this year telling me he'll arrive in Pai with three friends this afternoon. He has also been traveling around SE Asia for the past few months. Until now we've missed eachother; while he's been off in Indonesia and Burma, I've been in Thailand and Laos. So my plans to leave tomorrow will be on hold while we spend some time catching up and comparing travel notes. I'd like to pick his brain about Burma since that's likely my next destination. Who knows, some time with new company could breathe new life into this town.