Two hundred kilometres away lies Chiang Rai, We arrived at noon after an uneventful journey which gave us ample time to tour the local area.

Yet another history lesson, Chiang Rai was founded by King Mengrai in 1262 and became the capital of the Mengrai dynasty. Subsequently, Chiang Rai was conquered by Burma and remained under Burmese rule for several hundred years. Eventually, Chiang Rai was returned to Thailand again in 1933.

We went for a leisurely walk around Chiang Rai taking in the temples and sights, with the guide of a map. While Helen was waiting for Nick on the street, a seemingly friendly Thai chap came over to Helen to make small talk but as Nick returned the Thai guy immediately held up a newspaper that said 'Evil Police' and walked off. Naturally we were dumbfounded, until a shopkeeper told us to ignore him and we must have seen the same guy at least 3 times that night doing the same thing to various people. It kind of reminded Helen of the type of people she had to work with back in London!

As we were unable to visit a hill-tribe due to time constraints, Helen was gutted about this so we decided to visit the hill-tribe museum which was packed with information and we learnt about the different tribal groups, the history of opium, and certain cultural beliefs amongst other things. Not quite the same as visiting a tribe but there have been rumours that the hill tribes are not genuine and its all a tourist trap - We don't know what to believe.

We then watched the game where Murray played his best ever tennis against Djokovic - it seemed to go on forever but nevertheless was a great game despite the result. The evening was spent at the night market eating and drinking; We have gotten into the habit of ordering spicy thai soup and fruit shakes!!

After stocking up on baked goods from a Swedish run bakery (this was our good deed for the week as all profits support work with local orphans who have lost their parents to HIV or AIDS). We caught a local rickety bus to Chiang Khong and found ourselves squashed in, we have to say the bus was a lot worse than any bus we went on in India. While staying in CK we had lovely views of Lao and went on a leisurely walk along the Mekong River.

We enjoyed Chiang Rai as it was far less polluted and much more laid back than Chiang Mai.