Cycling Through Chiang Mai and Pai

I love to ride bicycles. Whenever I go somewhere new I try and rent a bike and explore the area. I love walking too, but the bicycle is the best way to figure out my bearings in a new place and get exercise in too. Life at about 5mph, sometimes a bit faster and sometimes a bit slower, cycling through new cities and life.

Chiang Mai is known for it's biking culture, most guidebooks will say rent a bike for 100 baht or less (about $3) for the day and prepared to get lost in the maze. The old city was once a walled city, only some of the wall remains at the gates and corner walls. Outside of the walled city sits a moat enclosing the squared city. Chiang Mai is the old capital of the Lanna kingdom and it's layout is based on ancient military and astrological beliefs. If one pays attention to where the sun is and what time it might be then you can never get too lost. Nature always has a way of helping us find our way.

Kelly met up with me in Chiang Mai just in time for the Thai new year, a water festival called songkran. Before the festival started we had one full day exploring the city by bike, before we would got soaked and waterlogged. Chiang Mai has over 300 Buddhist temples, or "wats" in Thai. As we were biking Kelly said, in her poet stream of consciousness way; "Wat! That's like watts in a light bulb. You know, like how they measure energy in a light bulb, the watt." She is forever explaining things, as she is in her Saturn return and understanding her life in a new way. "And wats, they are like big energy sources- spreading the light." True Kelly, true.


Life is a pattern of cycles and stages. The cyclical symbolism is present all around as we fly through space on a blue sphere. There is the earth cycling around the sun, the moon around the earth. There are the cycles of days, weeks, months, seasons and years. In mathematics there is the Golden Ratio which is expressed in nature in the arrangement of parts like leaves, branches, shells, and even our cells out to our limbs and further to all growth in a cyclical nature, spiraling outward like the Fibonacci spiral. (Yes, I've been studying in my free time as I travel.) These cyclical patterns allows an organism to grow without changing shape.We are made of the same elements as the stars and we find patterns to understand our lives. We look to nature to see these patterns expressed and try to understand the changes inside and outside of us.

Songkran, the Thai new year commences with the rebirth of the astrological cycle starting with the Sun in Aries in April.The celebration is rich in symbolic traditions, visiting local temples, offering food to Buddhist monks. Pouring water on Buddha statues is an iconic ritual for the holiday and represents purification and washing away sins and bad luck. Thais will come home if they have moved far away and their are traditions of paying respect to ones ancestors Water is a great symbolism for rebirth and cleansing in many different cultures. From baptism to the imagery of the lotus rising up from muddy water, to the use of water to daily clean ourselves. We grow as humans from our mother's water and our bodies are composed of 50-60% water. Perhaps water rituals not only wash away but also reminds us of our natural human state, cycling back.

And so, for 5 days Kelly and I got soaked. I had 2 small water guns and Kelly had a big one that unfortunately after one go had a constant spray, the trigger had broken. It was a lot of fun to play fight, to become like children and interact with everyone in a big game.We also visited different wats each day and participated in those ancient rituals and we got blessed by monks. After a week in Chiang Mai we journeyed north to Pai.

Before I left for Thailand everyone told me I must go to Pai and that I would love Pai. And it's true I love Pai. They say Pai moves at it's own time and pace and lets the world come to it. If Chiang Mai was a cleansing water fight, Pai was a place to find tranquility, reflect and find a new rhythm. In face we stayed in a place called The Place of Tranquility, Thailand has some amazing names for things. Kelly had been previously in Rishikesh in India doing her teacher training in Ashtanga yoga, so she guided us daily in yoga practice and in turn I guided Kelly in meditation practice.We motorbiked through the hills of Pai, soaked in the hot springs, explored the walking market, took a cooking class and ate delicious food.And then Kelly left for the south to continue on her path solo. I stayed for another week in Pai; studying more about astrology, anatomy and my emotions and my patterns. I looked at the cycles of my life. I felt the depths of longing for something similar, something comfortable, for family and companionship all while celebrating my independence and freedom of "viajo sola" travelling alone. I looked at my insecurities and patterns that no longer served me. As I went down in this cycle, I grasped and reached and tried with all my might and tools to reflect to grow and change these patterns. I decided to head back to Chiang Mai after a week and attend a Vipassana, a silent meditation with monks at the MCU University and I decided to go to Cambodia, explore the temples there and go to a yoga/meditation retreat.

One of my favorite Buddhist quotes is "before enlightenment chop wood carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood carry water." This quote reminds me that there is not an end point to our own personal "enlightenment". It's the cyclical action of nature and growth that reminds us to stay present and at times look at those questions we might not like. Or even those thoughts that plague our minds in their hamster wheel repetition. As I celebrated Songkran I meditated on my own thoughts... how I present myself, how I stay grounded as I travel throughout the world. How do I take care of myself in new situations with people and how my thoughts effect me and my spiritual life. It's not all happiness and rainbows when traveling. I've been extremely lucky and fortunate to have this time to travel and to reflect on my life, but it most definitely does not mean each day is bliss.

For me this cycle of growth has been a long one, trying to get that forward motion and energy. Sometimes it feels like I'm slipping back, but I trust that I am moving forward. At the Vipassana our meditations guided by Phra (monk) Sinlapachai Santikaro taught us to focus on our breath. To find that mindfulness or break of karma or balanced flow in Buddhism we look at the body, feelings and thought. By focusing on our breath we can let go of those harmful attachments or thoughts or actions. Phra said to acknowledge the thoughts, identify them as just thoughts to release attachments or emotions to them, and always to come back to the breath. To let go of patterns we forgive, forget and let go and focus on the breath.The cycle of in and out, the breath that connects us to nature, to ourselves and that helps us understand patterns and cycles of life.


Today I leave Thailand. There are children screaming in the internet game shop I am in, so hopefully I'm not repeating myself and hopefully, dear reader you can understand my words. My hope in writing this post and this blog is to express my experiences, to connect with you dear reader, to let you know that you aren't alone, but you are also alone in that only you breathe your breaths. I hope to share what has inspired me as I travel, that there is beauty and nature all around that wants to help us grow. And that no matter what you believe in, no matter how you tell your story that there is something that connects us... even if it's just a cycle of breath.

Diving In: Koh Lanta, Phi Phi, Phuket & Khao Lak

My best friend gave me the journal I write in as I travel.  It has a picture of a mermaid on the front with the caption "I must be a mermaid, I have no fears of depths and a great fear of shallow living."

I took a ferry to Koh Lanta, the sea is beautiful blue green with a hint of brown and the coastline is unlike any I have seen before with the limestone cliffs covered with green fauna jutting out of the sea.  Koh Lanta is called the lucky island because during the tsunami of 2004 there were few casualties. My friends Frankie and James lived in Koh Lanta during that time.  James had been out diving when it happened and he didn't know about the tsunami until hours later when they got to land. (Frankie was of course worried about him the entire time.) When I lived in Honduras I heard an earthquake underwater. It sounded like the loudest crunching noise, sort of like loud crunching of plastic or bones. I looked around to see if my divers were ok, they all were fine. I glanced at the surface to see if there was any motion above, there wasn't any. And forgot about it until a few hours later when someone who had been on land had felt the shift. The divers and I had forgotten about the earthquake because we had a great encounter with a free swimming moray eel that had been very interested in one of the diver's flashlight from his go pro. I'm still on the fence with the go pros but they do offer an amazing view.


In Koh Lanta, I stayed at a quiet and cute hostel called Seahorse on the waterfront. The owner Nui was so sweet and we quickly became friends. Mostly we would talk about the weather and how hot we were. Sometimes it was about food, and she tried to help me get a job in diving.

The plan was to stay in Koh Lanta and finish the diving season (about a month) as a freelancer. I walked around distributing my number and name. The shops were all very interested and helpful, but then I realized my big mistake. I did not have my own gear, and without my own gear I would be unemployable- no matter my personality, experience diving or proficiency in 2 languages. Oh well, live and learn. But I did end up diving. I paid to dive 3 dives off of Phi Phi.

One thing I learned quickly about diving in Thailand was that it was a different kind of diving, more mass produced and not as planned out or mindful of preservation and safety that I had been used to.  Our first dive was to a wreck. There were about 20 divers on the boat and all divided into groups of 4. We dropped in and there was an extremely strong current. After about 30 minutes the other two divers in our group had to surface because they were running low on air. My buddy, a french dive instructor and I stayed down finding that sweet spot between the massive schools of fish where little effort was made to fight the current. After we surfaced, my buddy remarked to me that everyone else on the dive now had cuts on their bodies and were bleeding from bumping into the wreck. I looked at him and said "Shark bait?", half joking and of course a bit worried about the irresponsibility of bring novices to an advanced dive and the impact on nature.

For the next dive our divemaster briefed us about Sharks! how they are very shy and how to maneuver around them and not mess with their patterned swimming so that everyone could see the sharks. But it seemed we were the only ones who got this briefing. I saw the 3 nurse sharks I saw a diver from another group following the sharks in hopes of getting that picture on his go pro. All in all, they were great dives. It's always good to get my head underwater and clear out and relax.The abundance of nature in Thailand is more than any other place I have dove.

Each day in Koh Lanta I rented a bike and explored the beaches. I fell in love with the chill atmosphere and beautiful beaches, but it was a bit too hot. After a day of biking to my favorite beach of all in Thailand (Klong Klong) I had a bit of severe dehydration. Of course I didn't know it right away. My head hurt so bad and felt on fire, much like when I had malaria years ago. I couldn't keep any food down and wanted to vomit after eating. I drank water and wanted to vomit. But then I remembered that the water in Thailand is distilled, no minerals and the lack of minerals was making my body freak out. Luckily the solution was just a 7Eleven away. (Have I mentioned there are 7Elevens everywhere in Thailand?)

As I healed myself with coconut water and electrolyte packets I spent time chatting with family and best friends. One of my best friends has been struggling with a confusing disease and hasn't been able to get any answers, it worries me a lot to see her in pain but also it's frustrating that there isn't an answer. No where she has asked over the course of 5 years has she found an answer, and to make matters worse she gets new pills to solve the problems. The pills that unfortunately don't actually heal the problem but mask it and make other issues come up. As I was worrying about her I came to this realization that I have a passion for how the body works and how to heal it. I love yoga, and meditation, I have been getting into anatomy and nutrition over the years and I really love helping people feel better. I like the process of figuring out what the problems are and how to solve them, it's fascinating and like a mystery. But also can be very simple in how it all works- mind body and soul and in Ayurveda a huge part is digestion. A few years ago, thanks to google, I started a cleanse (that I researched and kind of made up myself) based on the teachings of Ayurveda. Ayurveda- the science of life and about 5000 years old. And so, as I was healing myself I came to a new path, one that I am already on and learning about Ayurveda. Maybe some day I will become an Ayurvedic Practitioner. It will probably take a lifetime to master and it's a good thing I have a life and time.


Back to another passion- diving. As I was chilling, recovering and contemplating my friend Robin messaged me that she was coming to Thailand. She had to take an English exam, a requirement for a residency in another country- which is kind of crazy since her first language is English and she's from the USA, but I was very excited she was coming. And she'd be in Thailand for my birthday. And she wanted to go diving- to the Similan Islands. The Similan Islands where my friend Frankie told me was the best place to dive in all of Thailand. And so, Robin and I booked a live aboard for the Similan Islands for my birthday- 5 days and 4 nights.

So I left Koh Lanta, it's beautiful chill beaches and Muslim thais for the hectic and wild Phuket with tourists from around the world. Bright lights and loud noises. I spent two quick days in Phuket and then Robin and I met up and traveled north to Khao Lak. Khao Lak has a similar feel to the place we first met- West End, Roatan, Honduras. Since Khao Lak is the jumping off point for the Similan and Surin Islands there are numerous diveshops on the one lane road. The dive community is part party, part chill, part adventure and part naturalist. Robin and I had a blast; we shared dive stories, travel stories, boy stories, and we laughed and ate and went into 7Eleven just for the air conditioning and amazement of it's products. And of course, we went diving!!

The Dolphin Queen MV was our home for those 4 nights and we dove, ate, dove, ate, slept, dove, ate, dove and then slept. On repeat. We were off to the Similan Islands, once 7 islands now 9 and Richelieu Rock, discovered by the great Jacques Cousteau. Since we were the most advanced on board (Robin is an instructor to my divemaster) we were paired up with other advanced divers- an Italian couple, who were adorable and constantly bumping into each other underwater and had only one sign for communication underwater (which if you know Italians you know what it is), and there was a guy who I can only call Dude Bro. Dude Bro immediately acted like a loud mouthed american dude bro, I told Robin "Maybe he'll be our best friend after the trip?"in a hopeful optimistic way. Dude Bro had higher accreditation in PADI (Staff Instructor) and had more dives than Robin and I, and I knew all this because he told everyone onboard within the first few hours. He was super excited about diving, diving is his life, diving is his thing... but his diving left much to be desired. And here's a quick story about Dude Bro and how I got into a fight with him underwater.

Our divemaster was from Mexico, was an expert at finding small things (skeleton shrimp, nudibranchs, seahorse, the smallest starfish I've ever seen and a pineapple fish) and big things. One of the dives he took us on an adventure to find a something big. Through a crazy current we got a glimpse of a sleeping Leopard Shark. It was so cool and Dude Bro took up the prime watching spot and camera angle for the entire time we were down there and of course kicked a lot of coral. Not cool of a professional for an organization that preaches about awareness of others and preservation. The next dive was a night dive, wanting to stay a bit away from him and also to find things on our own Robin and I ventured a little farther off. At one point I glanced back to find our group and saw (gasp!) Dude Bro holding a Porcupine Fish from it's belly. The fish seemed startled but in a trance. The Porcupine Fish, with his needles puffs out when in danger or fear as a defense mechanism that can also end the fishes life in some cases. Also, you don't touch the nature especially when it is in a protected marine park. I was shocked and when Dude Bro let the fish go, I swam up to him and gave him my No signal (waving that finger back and forth), to which Dude Bro gave me the finger and swam off. I was livid. Luckily Robin was there to remind me to breathe, my heart was racing. I cooled down. After the dive I told the divemaster what had happened. Then as we were taking off our gear and Dude Bro came up to me and yelled at me telling me that he didn't know who I was but I have no right in telling him what he can and can't do. Luckily he didn't talk to me for the rest of the trip and got changed to a different group of divers. I was upset, as I'm not the best at confrontation but I know I did the right thing. The next day was my birthday and I had great dives and every single dive I saw an octopus and hundreds of barracuda, a cake was made for me and people sang happy birthday, twice.

After the live aboard, we lived on land in Khao Lak until Robin left for Europe. We did another few dives with an older German in a loose speedo on a longtail boat, which was just a bit unfortunate and not so nice to look at. We also met a guy who asked us when we were going to get "real jobs and real lives"to which we both looked confused at him and said this is our "real"life. After I told the guy my age he actually was shocked and a bit speechless.


For me, my life is about experiencing. Being in nature and traveling help me experience it in my own way. Everyone has their "real"lives, just as everyone has their own way of diving (if they dive), their own personalities and needs and wants. Diving became my passion because first of the adventure of it, then came the beauty, with the quietness and I love the way the water engulfs me like a hug. All senses are alert. I love finding cool things big and small, watching interactions, I love all of the colors. And I still love the adventure of it, the exploration like Jacques Cousteau.

Diving requires one to be present. To simply be, to breathe and observe. One thing we can all use a bit of now and then. To be, to breathe and observe.