I stayed about a week in Chiang Mai.  Not much was really done except biking around in circles, making multiple visits to the life coaching center, and trying to decide something.  The world was making decisions far faster than I could keep up with.  Malaysia closed the border within days and that option was no longer on the table.  Many other countries were doing likewise.

[Update November 2022]  In the end it was understandable but unnecessary panic.  There were in fact thousands of people stranded or potentially stranded abroad and I know quite a few who did nothing.  The teacher partier in Bangkok said there's no point in moving, he'll just stay and he did during the first partial lockdown.  Thailand in fact never really locked down as the people in the life coaching center had predicted.  It was only social distancing.  I could have stayed put in Chiang Mai and survived then figured out a way to get to Malaysia later.  But at the time it was all panic mode.  Hindsight really is 2020 vision.

I was hoping to get the bike to Malaysia and visit the school and park myself there while finishing the rest of my current school online but that wasn't happening anymore because of the border closure.  They had wanted me to renew the passport so as to process the work visa and get started but since the attempt failed they were quite flexible and said don't worry about it we have other solutions. 

They suggested why not do the passport renewal in Shanghai then fly out to Malaysia after that.  It seemed like a good idea, plus all my stuff was still there and so was my fiancee.  My current employer was on board too with this.   

It seemed more and more likely I was going to fly back directly to China, at least temporarily.  As for the Canada option that wasn't looking good at all, yes it would be nice to spend more time with my father but I didn't get along with my stepmom  (never did actually) and the idea of being locked down there wasn't appealing.  But if I flew back to China it would mean a quarantine for sure.  It seemed there was no way to win.

[Update November 2022:  Canada never locked down either.  It seemed that I mistakenly believed that all countries were going to act like China did with the virus]