Happy New Year everyone! I thought of home yesterday when it was 2004 here and still 2003 there, wondering what sorts of insanity you were all getting up to. Oh, I've put up some new photos including ones of Tyler eating grasshoppers in Bangkok. Don't miss them! Act now and check out the Bangkok album (page 2) and 'The North' for photos of N. Laos and I'll throw in some extras of Ayuthaya and Kanchanaburi specially for you.

Chris arrived in Pai on Dec. 27 with his friends Jill and Matt Matt (say it twice), both also from San Francisco and connected to other friends of mine, but neither of whom I'd ever met. I waited for them at the bus station and when they arrived, I knew right away that New Year's would be a lot more fun than Christmas. I packed up my things and moved with them to Spa Exotic Home, an awesome guesthouse a little way out of town that Jill had read about. The place had about 12 tubs fed by the nearby hot springs that we could fill and adjust to any temperature and we spent the evening skinnydipping in our cold, hot and warm tubs. It all felt so damn California I could hardly stand it, and conversations about things that felt so familiar to me made me feel the most homesick I've felt since I arrived.

After two days there, the owner of the place announced that our room was booked for that day and we had to check out (!), so we spent the next two days moving around and hastling with annoying logistics (high season makes things so much more complicated), which put a slight damper on our jovial spirits but landed us in a very comfortable mountain lodge where we spent the last three nights. There were some parties going on in town, but we opted to avoid the crowds and the long, cold motorbike drive home and spent New Year's Eve in. After some ambience modifications (good music, incense, candles, comfy seating arrangements, sugary snack foods and beer go a long way), we spent New Year's Eve huddled around a roaring fire.

Jill and I came to Chiang Mai yesterday and left the boys in Pai so we could check out the famous night bazaar, but they will meet us here tonight and we'll get on a night bus back to Bangkok. Then it's back to Koh Chang, the island where I started in Thailand almost three months ago, to spend a few days with the gang. This is an unexpected detour but I've been craving going back there and this seems like the time. My Thai visa expires on January 10, which happens to be right around the time Chris is going to India. I planned to go there, it was just a matter of when and with whom (going there alone wasn't so appealing), so we'll spend the day together in Bangkok tomorrow looking into flights and visas. If all goes as planned, I will be on a plane to India in a few short days.