Chapter 6: There's Something Happening Here (and what it is ain't exactly clear)

---

January 19, 2012 - The Golden Triangle - Chiang Mai en route to Chiang Rai

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and did my best to catch up with what our tour guide was saying from the passenger seat. My spot in the back of the 15-passenger van was getting cramped. The Englishman in front of me decided to move his seat back as far as possible while I was sleeping. It was probably out of spite because of a comment I'd made to his girlfriend earlier in the trip. It was just too hard to keep my comments under control because I just couldn't believe my ears. She was actually chastising our tour guide because her seat didn't have a seatbelt. After refusing my offer to switch seats, she continued to detail the importance of "safety" to our guide. I really couldn't help but chuckle a bit too loudly to myself and nudged the Welshman next to me saying something along the lines of, "She can't actually be serious, this is fucking Thailand." A sharp look from the glamorous twentysomething issuing the complaints snapped my mouth quickly shut and I trodded off with a skip and a smile into the marketplace.

It's January 19, 2012 and I'm at the Golden Triangle, the point where the Thai, Laotian, and Burmese borders meet along the Mekong River. The beauty here is intense. The area is full of the usual Thailand hustle and bustle of marketplace transactions, food vendors preparing meals for the busloads of tourists, and the occasional MekongTravel.com party boat music and firework display, but it also offers a certain serenity from the panoramic river views that is unique in itself.

A giant golden Buddah sits atop a colorful dragon-shaped ship overlooking the river from the Thai side and the calming melodies of temple music are being played from the its base over some hidden loudspeakers. I let the energies of my surroundings shape my train of thought and do my best to burn this moment into my memory. Tonight when my group goes back to Chiang Mai I asked the driver to leave me in the Chiang Rai, three hours north. It's beautiful here; mountainous, peaceful, and a step above the chaos of tuk tuk drivers and wild night life of Bangkok and even Chiang Mai to some extent.

As for my next step, it's still unclear. But it's places like this that have me thinking that the forever-imminent question of "What's next?" is losing its importance with every passing moment. My Dad will be far from pleased to hear that I'm considering renting and learning to ride a mortorbike tomorrow to do some solo-riding through this region but in the undying words of our beloved jungle guide...

Neva try, neva know!

---