Post-Christmas 2006

Three months since the booking of my flight to Chiang Mai, about 45 minutes prior to boarding, and I still can't shake off this weird feeling. A reluctance to leave. An inertia that's holding me back to familiar grounds. An unwillingness to return to a place that is actually no stranger to me. Yet every time I return to Chiang Mai, it feels like I'm there for the first time. Maybe the prospects of travelling more or less alone doesn't appeal to me as much as I thought it would. Perhaps the unfamiliar holds as much insecurity as it does allure.

Stranger in a strange land for a strange ass.

But here I am, anyway, awaiting my entry into yet another tale to tell in my personal life in a land I know, yet could not call my own. With trepidition, and a waft of unrelenting sleepiness in my head. It's 5 am in the morning, post-Christmas caroling, Japanese sake, and a whole bunch of wild thoughts running through my head while waiting for this trip to happen.

Here goes, for what it's worth.