Just spent a wonderfully relaxing four days at the Akha Hill House, a guesthouse in an Akha village 23 km north of Chiang Rai. My days mostly consisted of reading, trekking, getting extremely lost while trekking, talking to a hilarious guy from Quebec, eating yummy-but-way-too-greasy food, writing in my journal, playing with a tiny black kitten, listening to music, and thinking a lot about what comes next for me. I find my plan-making is extremely volatile in large part due to the rants and raves of other travelers and that every day the big itinerary in my head receives another tweak.

The village and environs were remarkably reminiscent of Laos and I was happy to see that N. Thailand still has some untouched mountainsides. The village chief who runs the guesthouse wanted me to stay and teach English for a few weeks in exchange for free room and board, but at this point I still feel compelled to move forward. I did, however, spend two hours today helping him with his website, which I found surprisingly enjoyable in a "hey! It's nice to remember I am good at this!" kind of way. Check it out... http://www.akhahill.com. My changes aren't live yet but you can see where I was anyway.

It still doesn't feel much like Christmas and in fact I find myself losing track of the day quite often. Today I went into a Boots pharmacy (a British export I am rather thankful for) and they had a little plastic Christmas tree that put a smile on my face. Pai, where I will spend Christmas and possibly New Year's, is supposedly full of expats and other travelers. God willing, I will find some like-minded good Christian folk with whom I can celebrate the birth of our little lord Jesus. Or, you know, like sit around and watch movies over a plate of pad thai.

Tomorrow I am off to Chiang Mai armed with a kick ass map some Belgian girls gave me. I will spend a few days there both before and after Pai as it seems there's no shortage of things to do there.