We made the picturesque journey from Chiang Mai to Tha Ton (up near the Golden Triangle) by local bus, winding our way through misty hills and green paddy fields, stopping every so often to deliver the mail to the villages enroute! The pretty little town of Tha Ton sits on the banks fo the Me Kok river, at the foot of the mountains which partly form the border with Myanmar (Burma). From amongst the trees on the forested peaks, Tha Ton is overlooked by four ornate waats and a huge white statue of Buddha. One of the best things about traveling has got to be the people you meet along the way and the next few days were not at all as expected thanks to a lovely French guy, Cyrille, who was on the same bus as us. We all checked into the Apple Guesthouse which overlooks the river and after a little explore of the town and up the hundred or so steps to the wat which overlooks it, we had a few drinks and some dinner, suring which Cyrille somehow convinced us that hiring motorbikes the next day was a good idea. As I can't even drive a care it would be nothing short of suicidal to get on a bike, so it was decided that I'd go the back of Cyrille's, as he is an experienced rider. The next morning, we found a place in town that hires bikes, negotiated a price (hampered a little by the fact that he was the only bike hire place in town!) and set off into the beautiful countryside on our Honda Dream and Honda Wave with the roads almost to ourselves! We had made it quite a distance, stopping to see some smelly hot-springs and to take countless photos of the scenery, when we became aware that we were making a loud thudding noise. We all pulled over and stared helplessly at our flat back tyre and wondered what on earth we were going to do. Unbelievably, at that moment the man from our guesthouse rode past us (MILES from home!), stopped, knew of a place a couple of minutes away that could change tyres and then when we arrived at the house (with chickens and children running amok) and were told by the repairman's harassed-looking wife that he wasn't home, he shrugged and changed it for us himself! The rest of the trip went more smoothly, our luck continuing as the only rain of the day fell as we ate our lunch and by the time we reached our destination, the village of Mae Salong, high up among the mountains on the Burmese border we had been through an amazing diversity of scenery - from paddy fields and villages of straw huts to tea plantations and beautiful teak homes overlooking waterfalls! Mae Salong and the surrounding villages actually look more Chinese than Thai as most of the houses were built by Chinese (Yunnanese, to be precise!) soldiers and their families who fled from China after the 1949 Chinese Revolution. A lot of the signs on the shops are still in Chinese and the prime position in town - the highest point with a stunning view over the surrounding villages and countryside - is dominated by a shrine for the leader of the renegade army. We stopped here for a little while to admire the view and drink some local oolong tea of which we ended up buying a bag for a small fortune. We had a bit more of an explore of the area, the numerous army checkpoints a constant reminder of how close to the Golden Triangle (ie opium smuggling territory) we were and by the end of the day, Nige was completely hooked on riding! We had a vague plan of doing some trekking around this area but from both our own experience and speaking to a few people, we'd realized that the days of organised treks to untouched tribal villages are long-gone in Thailand and a lot of the villages are more like trinket markets, so when Cyrille suggested taking the bikes for a 2-day circular trip through a fairly remote region nearby we jumped at the chance and, the next morning, backpacks safely in storage at the Apple Guesthouse, we set off on our little adventure...