Loi Krathon... We were whisked there on a strange looking vehicle,sort of an inverted tricycle where you sit at thefront and the driver sits behind. As we belted alongthe highway we picked up the flaming torches burningat regular intervals, lining the route. We passedhouses bedecked in fairy lights twinkling away andfirweorks would burst periodically around us. We wereso excited and the air was so crisp but made murkyfrom the smoke from the torches and caught by...

We caught the train from Lampang to Phitsanulock early on Tuesday 31st. We had the option of paying 780 Baht for the rapid train 2nd class which would take 2 hours or so or wait a little longer and pay 80 odd Baht for the 3rd class train. Didn't really clock at the time that it was scheduled to take 5 hours but hey - it was cheap ok? Third class is pretty basic. The seats are a hard brown beige plastic, but there are fans whirring continuously overhead a...

After a gruelling 3 hour journey up the most alarming mountains in a tiny little minivan we arrived at Pai, close to the mountains that separate Thailand with Burma. Pai is a really great place to go as it has all the conveniences of a town with stacks of cheap guesthouses and cool bars and restauants but is small enough to escape from within minutes into the hills on a little motorbike.The day after arriving we booked a rafting trip down the Pai river to a place...

So, picking up the threads... we travelled from ChangMai to Lampang by bus on Saturday 28th which took a LONGtime and the back seat that we were on was a bitrickety and was seriously bouncing us about all overthe place and left us both with very sore headacheswhen we arrived! The bus station is nowhere nearanything of note as the town is a bit fragmented butgot ourselves into a beautiful guesthouse by the riverwhich was an old teak mansion built up allhiggledypig...

Arrived at Chang Mai quite late and was a bit worried about the accom issue. All guesthouses we had dealt with would close at 10pm and it was already gone midnight, so we checked in at a proper hotel instead (Top North Hotel, near the Tha Pae gate) with porter service and pool and TV in the room! Although it was more expensive than we were used to paying at 650 Baht a night (instead of our usual 200-300 baht), it still works out than less than a tenner a night so...