We took a local bus to Luang Prabang, it was supposed to take 9 hours, not because the distance between Luang Namtha and Luang Prabang is so great (288km), but because the road winds through range after range of hills and the road is little more than a rocky dirt track. The traffic along this road threw up such clouds of dust that the the roadside trees, shrubs and grass were a red brown colour. I did wonder how the roadside villages ever got their laundry done i...

It was a pretty easy border crossing into Laos, a two hour (130km) bus ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong 65 baht each. Then a two kilometre tuk tuk to the friendship bridge, which they wanted to charge us 50 baht each for - it is a truth universally acknowledged that taxi drivers are a bunch of scheming, scamming rogues. (Oops, except for our friend Brian). Anyway we haggled it down to 3 for 100 baht (£2) as we had met a lad called Ian from Cumbria on the wa...

It was 350 baht (£7) each to take a 3 hour boat trip from Thaton to Chiang Rai. It certainly beats the road trip. We and five other tourists took the boat at 12:30pm. It was a covered long boat with an outboard motor, which they levered up out of the water in the shallows. The ride was at quite a pace and we all got an occasional soaking. Apart from the winding ride snaking through the valleys and hills, we also got to witness a smooth Scot called Cameron chatti...

We braved some of the 1864 curves again back towards Chiang Mai. We were tipped off that a bus to our next destination went through a town called Ban Mae Ma Lai, so we hoped that the local bus from Mae Hong Son would stop there. The bus driver dropped us and another woman off in the town. She asked if we were going to Tha Ton, which we were, so she escorted us to the correct bus stop. She didn't speak english but managed to explain that not all buses went to Tha ...

After the busy Chiang Mai, it was time to take things a bit slower, so we headed further north. Mae Hong Son is in the northwest of Thailand on the border with Myanmar. It is close to national parks, "genuine" tribal villages and amazing scenery. There are t-shirts in Mae Hong Son that read "Mae Hong Son 1864 curves from Chiang Mai" This means there are 1864 bends on the road and we felt every one of them during the 6 hour minivan journey. The destination and the...