Chiang Mai is a wonderful little city. The frustration I felt in Bangkok melted away, and I fit right into the vibe in Chiang Mai. It is a much smaller city, but has great culture, arts, alternative scene, food and a music scene that rivals many in the United States. One night as I was walking I heard a band playing inside a training school. I went inside and joined a party of 50 or so Thai teenagers for a punk rock show. I have some video that I will post f...

Imagine a place that has traffic much worse than LA, air pollution much worse than Houston, heat more suffocating than Miami, the worse transit system in the world, people that constantly try to scam you and rip you off, 12 million people, not a lot of culture and no personality. That is Bangkok. At least to me. One month in Laos, I was not ripped off once. The first 4 people I met in Thailand tried to rip me off. It didn't help that I lost my passport, one ...

Laos will stay in my heart. I am thinking about coming back here for their huge water festival in April. I really connected with the place in a way that I have not done before. It's magical.

I feel at home, I'm making friends that I will keep forever. That's the thing about Laos, you feel like you have family in every town. I'm making family in each part of the world. I met Lucky through couchsurfing, and he showed me around Vientiane and invited me to his house to have some drinks with his friends and family. He lives with his family, and helps them tend their vegetable garden. There does not seem to be such a class system here, what's important to...

Riding a motorbike through the Bolevan Plateau, my hair blowing in the wind, the sun beating down, spectacular countryside and villages become a blur. It was the best day of my life. I could go anywhere, have all the time in the world. Time has stopped ticking. I feel peace that I have never felt before. Peace, peace. I had a dream the other night that told me "When you surrender to the present, the future takes care of itself." I'm living in my heave...