CHIANG KHONG The journey to Chiang Khong, via a change of bus in Chiang Rai, took us further north and through the increasingly smoggy countryside. The hazy conditions and smoky air were the result of the slash and burn policy of the local farmers who burn old crops to get rid of insects and disease at this time of the year, and to help fertilise the soil. Doesn't do much for the environment or air pollution, though, or the scenery, although it's stunning even d...

CHIANG MAI Long train journeys are generally far preferable to long bus journeys (more room to move around, no stopping for traffic jams, buffet car often available), but when a sixteen hour journey becomes 20 hours, it's not so great. From the start, it was going to be a long day - the train left an hour late from Bangkok. But we've become relaxed about long distance travel, and were looking forward to sitting back and watching the beautiful Thai countryside pa...

WAT? DON'T BE STUPA! STOP NAGA-ING! WE'VE ALL SEEN THE RETURN OF THE CHEDI… We survived the Arctic Express and emerged bleary-eyed from the Dutch-designed Hualamphong railway station into the hustle and bustle of early morning Bangkok which was already gearing up for another day of frenetic activity. We had a mini tour of the city courtesy of the #53 bus and saw shopkeepers opening their shutters and market stalls being set up as we headed in the direction of ...

KOH TAO Next morning we caught a modern catamaran full of Western tourists which stopped off en route at the Full Moon Party island of Koh Pha Ngan. We stayed on until Koh Tao, keen to do some more diving. En route, Duncan did some great negotiating with a bungalow resort rep, who arranged for our direct transfer by bumpy pick-up truck from the port to the Grand Coral Resort, which had a diving centre on site. We booked ourselves onto two dives the following day...

KOH SAMUI If we thought that the journey to Koh Kradan had been a long one, that was nothing compared to getting from Koh Lanta on the east coast to Koh Samui on the west coast, certainly in terms of the number of different forms of transport involved. Rather than waste time breaking up the journey, we decided to do it all in one day which involved a minibus and two car ferries to get to Krabi on the mainland. After various other minibuses and coaches with fello...