We had a private transfer arranged to take us from the Chiang Rai hotel to Chiang Mai - something like a 3 hour trip. It made sense to do it at our leisure and to link up chucking out time in Chiang Rai with checking in time in Chiang Mai. It was fab to have a sleep in (now defined as getting up any time after the sun has risen). Also a leisurely breakfast. Our driver was early and spoke English well, so we really felt like we’d had a successful day already w...

Thursday 30 June, This week is high on the adventure scale as we are about to head off for 4 days/3 nights in Satun, Thailand. The border town of Satun is only 15 kms by ferry from Langkawi - but a whopping 948 kms to Bangkok. Australians get a 3 month visa stamp heading into Malaysia and we're here for 4 months. So in the time honoured tradition of ex-pats, we are taking a visa run to Thailand (where oddly you get 15 days stamped if you arrive by land or sea,...