November 2009: This page is not yet complete, hence why it cuts off about half way through.

After having lived in Thailand on 3 seperate occasions it struck me that I'd not actually seen much of the country due to having been training at Lanna Camp up north in Chiang Mai. So I decided to go check the place out.

I saw a pretty girl sat on a bench, reading a book and asked if she wanted to come with me. She said she would when she'd finished that chapter so I waited patiently and when she was done we set off to Thailand for 5 weeks.

In the months leading up to our leaving for Thailand -and after we'd shelled out over £900 for plane tickets so there was no turning back- Thailand's military overthrew its government and the country looked a little bit unstable. However, I had faith that it would all blow over and luckily I was right. I also know a lot of people in Thailand so I could ask them first hand what it was really like and they told me it's actually very peaceful and looks like it will be sorted without violence. Not only that but it was only really affecting Bangkok and we were going to Chiang Mai, 700km north of that. So that was okay. A news article to prove I'm not just making it up.

As for the route we ended up taking around Thailand, this handy map should show a pretty good picture. The only thing wrong with it is that I marked Chiang Khong in the wrong place (it's above the blue area I gave it).

England - plane to Dubai - plane to Bangkok - plane to Chiang Mai - bus to Chiang Rai - bus to Chiang Khong - boat over to Laos and back (twice) - bus to Chiang Rai and then Lampang - bus to Phitsanulok - bus to Khon Kaen - train to Nakhon Ratchasima - train to Auythya - train to Bangkok - bus to Trat - boat to Koh Mak - boat to Trat - bus to Bangkok - subway and Sky Train around Bangkok - train and taxi to Bangkok airport - plane to Dubai - plane to England...

Simple!

Other points of interest:

• The Thai baht was about 70 to the British Pound which was a good exchange rate.

• We used The Lonely Planet considering it turned out to be pretty useful in Kenya.

• We had hoped to do some of the West side of Thailand (especially Pai) but time didn't allow it. We weren't particularly bothered about doing South Thailand. That can wait for another trip or something.

• We didn't really take that many photos or much video for various reasons, mainly because my video camera is so damn old and bulky now that I couldn't even be bothered getting it out half the time. Therefore there will be much less pictures than my other write-ups. Just so you know.

Friday night, 5th January 2007, Nay and I got a lift to the station from my slightly-crazy half-uncle Will who happened to be visiting at the time. After narrowly avoiding several crashes we got out, thanked Will and jumped on our train. We were virtually the only ones in our carriage for most of the way to Manchester, both excited about the five weeks ahead of us but also aware of the trip invoved just to get to Thailand in the first place.

Once at Manchester Airport (at around midnight) we had to wait around for an immense eight hours until our check-in. Eight hours is a long time and we spent it lying back on some comfy chairs we found (but not comfy enough to sleep) and reading. I'd brought a book my parents had bought me, Richard Branson's autobiography (I think that the guy's great) and Nay was reading some weird, abstract English thing which I could probably never even understand.

Airports are interesting places, just for the people constantly passing through them. I like waiting in train stations and airports because everyone is going somewhere. Airports are gateways to the world. All you need is some tickets, some money and a passport and you can go ANYWHERE! Amazing.

At long bleedin' last we could check in. After watching our luggage roll away it was into the duty-free we went to have a look around at 1000s of products that we couldn't afford.

Finally we were on the Ethihad plane and were on our way to THAILAND, baby! YEAH! Well, technically we were on our way to Abu Dhabi but Thailand was getting closer by the minute.

A couple of hours in the bizarrely shaped Abu Dhabi airport terminal and we found ourselves Bangkok bound. Since I was last in Thailand Bangkok airport has completely moved locations and is now further out the city whereas the original one is used only for cargo planes apparently.

Walking around Bangkok airport we decided we would get it out the way and fly up to Chiang Mai for about £30 each rather than take a train or coach for £3, the difference being a one hour flight compared to a 12 hour journey. We were tired and just wanted to arrive.

Touched down in Chiang Mai and BOOM, I felt like I was home again. Everything still the same as ever we hailed a taxi and were on our way to Lanna. Totally familiar terriroty for me and totally new for Naomi. Walking up the street off Hew Kaw Road we got to the Cherry Mart where we got ourselves a nice downstairs room and after a quick shower were finally able to lay down. The weather outside was HOT and SUNNY and wasn't going to change from that for over a month. Our Thailand adventure had begun! But we weren't aware of it yet as we'd fallen fast asleep.

We were in Chiang Mai but it wasn't going to be how I was used to it. usually I'm there for months at a time, training at the boxing camp every day, making friends with the other boxers and hanging out with everyone on a night, riding around on our bikes going places, going to bars and doing whatever the hell we wanted.

But this time around I'd only be there for a few days, I wouldn't be training so I wouldn't get to meet any of the boxers and I had Nay with me so half of the usual activites wouldn't be going on.

But this didn't matter. Nay and I did and saw a lot in our brief time in Chiang Mai.

We'd rented a bike from our landlady, a woman who I remembered from the last time I was there and someone who I'm pretty sure fancied Nay. I wanted to show Naomi the view of Chiang Mai from up Doi Suthep, the mountain up which I used to run once a week before training. We drove up there on our trusty 100cc and stopped off at the lookout point 8km up the road to which I set the Lanna Morning Run record back in 2001 (32 minutes if you're interested).

On the way back down I turned the engine off and rolled in neutral. This was fine until we reached the bottom and I tried to start the engine up again. It just died on me. This wasn't good although I guess it could have been worse because we were only about half a mile from our guest house. Still, I had no idea what was wrong with the bike and we went over to the side of the road to scratch our heads and look confused. It was then the first weird coincidence of our trip happened.

We'd been stood there for no more than three minutes when this guy came over. His motorbike was parked right next to where we'd parked ours. He pointed at our bike and looked confused and I signalled to him that it was "kaput". He took hold of the bike, looked at some stuff, tried the engine and then said "Ah, spark plug not good". This is when things got really weird. The guy then pulled a brand new spark plug out from his pocket, got a screw driver from under his seat, opened the panel to our bike's engine and replaced the spark plug. The bike started first time. I was amazed! I asked him how much the spark plug was, he said 500 so I gave him 600, thanked him again, he smiled and went on his way.

So, to recap:

• Our bike breaks for no apparent reason.
• Luckily it breaks at the bottom of the mountain we just drove up and down, rather than miles from anywhere.
• We have no idea what's wrong with the bike.
• Luckily there's a guy who knows how to fix bikes right at that very second getting on his bike which is parked right next to us.
• The spark plug has burnt out.
• Luckily he has a spare spark plug in his pocket!
• He fixes it for us, everything works fine, he drives off smiling.

Amazing!

Nay and I visited a couple of temples in the middle of the city one blazingly hot day. I've never been very interested in Thailand's Buddhist temples for the fact that they are ALL the same and I feel that the whole Buddhist religion is a bit empty and crap. As a disclaimer I'd just like to point out that if Buddhism makes someone happy then that's just great and I wouldn't want to stop that. I also admit that I haven't studied Buddhism in minute detail, I'm just going on what I know and what I've seen. But anyway, the temples were pretty, as they always are, and we ate an ice-cream afterwards which was AWESOME!!

I took Nay to the fantastic Riverside restaurant in town one night, conviniently located by the side of the river. I remember going there with a group of the boxers several years ago and thinking if I was ever in Chaing Mai with a girl I'd take here there. So I did. Three courses of good food each for the price of a starter dish in England... you can't complain. Plus the live music, plus it's all open air and looking onto the river with the bridge all lit up a few hundred meters away. It was a good place to eat!

Naturally, we had to go at least once to the Chiang Mai 700 Year Swimming pool, a regular hang-out for my boxing buddies and I over the years. As usual it was virtually empty (all the kids are at school during the day) and after messing about on the dive platforms Nay took to sunbathing and I befriended some kid who was amazed at my ability to hold my breath and dive to the bottom of the pool to retrieve coins. I will admit though, I didn't dive the 10 meters this time. I felt that I've done it enough times in the past to proove myself and didn't want to screw the trip up by injuring myself this early on. There was only really Nay there to see it anyway and as if I needed to impress her. Pffff...

Of course, on several nights we drove to the night bazarre to go look around and buy bits and pieces. It was as busy as ever. One night we were driving along the main road through the bazarre and I heard someone shout "HEY DAVE!" in a really high pitched voice. I looked round and saw that it was a girl called Joy calling me with Johan and another girl (who I just knew was Johan's sister as she looked just like him), all crammed onto one bike, pulling up beside us. This was so funny. I used to hang out with Johan back in 2005 when we were both training at Lanna. Even back then he was going out with Joy. It was great to see they were still together. Since then he'd been home to Holland a couple of times but had always come back out and was now training at Chay Yai gym for as long as he could. Even though it had been two years since I last saw them it was like no time had passed at all. Johan told me that when he's out in bars and clubs on a night he still gets approached by random ferrang strangers who shout "Hey! You're that dude from the video!".

This is referring to the DVD I made a couple of years ago "A Lanna Trilogy" all about living and training at Lanna Muay Thai (you should buy it). Johan features in it a lot and has gained international stardom because of it (well, almost). I found it hilarious that he was getting recognised because of my video. Johan told me that I hadn't changed a bit and that I was still crazy. I took this to be a compliment.

That was another weird coincidence although still not as weird as when I had been in Chiang Mai in 2003 and had gone into McDonald's to take shelter from a sudden rain storm (I swear that's why) and by AMAZING chance found myself face to face with a girl called Rachel to whom I lived next door 6000 miles away back home at uni. Now THAT was weird!

Another familiar face at Lanna at that time was Sean Wright, a Scottish guy who I had last seen in 2003. He was back out there fighting on a regular basis and not doing too badly at all either! Nay and I were eating our breakfast at the Cherry Mart's cafe when someone put their hands over my eyes and said "Well if it isn't Brave Dave" in a thick Glasweigen accent. It was really cool to see Sean again and he had some impressive swollen shins to show off from his last fight (which he won).

There was also an English girl there called Laura who I'd last seen in 2005. It was like a tiny little Lanna reunion of sorts and it's a good thing Nay was with me otherwise I would have almost certinaly ended up staying there for the whole 5 weeks rather than actually getting up and seeing the rest of the country.

One day I decided to go see Andy (owner of Lanna Muay Thai) and say hi. He was sat in his house, probably stoned, but he recognised me all the same. I told him I was only around for a few days this time but was curious to see his brand new boxing camp that he has been having built in the mountains. A day or so later, early one morning, there was a knock on our door and Andy was stood there saying that he was driving to the Hill Camp to take supplies and did I want to come along! Naomi wasn't so keen but I knew she didn't realise how cool it would be. There was no way I was passing over this chance to check out the new camp. I convinced her that it would only be for one night and so we threw some stuff in a bag, locked our door and walked round to the gym where we jumped into Andy's truck. I've written all about Lanna Doi Modt on the next page!

As for Chiang Mai, well, in the five days or so we spent there (minus a day spent at the Hill camp) Nay and I did pretty much all of the usual things the city has to offer. We went our drinking a couple of times, saw all the sights, ate out all over the place. The only thing we didn't get to do was watch a fight night at Gawilla Stadium. Lanna boxers were fighting one of the nights we were there but it was at some fair many, many miles away and would have been too far and taken too long to get there and back to be worth it. Nevermind.

On day 5 we were feeling restless and knew it was time to move on to Thailand unknown. We checked out our place, said bye to the woman who loved Nay and caught a Songtow to the bus station. Next stop Chiang Rai! From this point onwards it was all as new to me as it was to Nay.

But first some info about Lanna Doi Modt Hill Camp...

After packing a few things together Nay and I jumped into Andy's truck, ready to set off to Lanna Doi Modt. As well as us and Andy there was also an American guy called Avery coming too. And of course, all of Andy's dogs. We drove a good 70km out of Chiang Mai, along the road that leads to the Burmese border town of Maisai. We cruised along the long winding mountain roads and I remembered when I had driven this route myself in a car on a border run in 2005 with Liz and Gareth. I'd pulled some impressive skids that afternoon!

We had been driving for about an hour and a bit when we suddenly turned off the main road and hit a track that led into a valley. About twenty more minutes of 4-wheeling it along these dirt paths and through some small villages we finally came to a stop at the base of a steep hill. But we still weren't there. We each loaded up with the supplies we'd brought for the camp and started the kilometer walk up hill to the camp. It was very hot and not the easiest climb when wearing flip flops.

Passing through a tight canopy of trees and bushes we turned a corner and at last, there it was, the Lanna Doi Modt Boxing Camp.

For those of you not familiar with Lanna Muay Thai, here's a quick summary: Andy Thomson owns and runs the Muay Thai camp in Lanna and has done since the beginning over 10 years ago. His latest project is building a new camp to serve as a training area for more serious fighters. It's far away from the distractions of Chiang Mai and is not at all easy to reach, thus it filters out any tourist boxers happening to pass by and give it a go. The idea is that fighters preparing for a fight can come to the Hill Camp and train hard core alongside other serious boxers whilst getting quality one on one training. It is also a place for Andy to escape to. Like I said, it's very awkward to reach and doesn't even have electricity or hot water. It does however have good quality bathrooms, sleeping areas, a fully equipped kitchen and a cool social area overlooking the whole camp and the valley below. The view is very impressive.

The first thing that strikes you about Lanna Doi Modt is how quiet it is up there. The small villages are far below and you can hear the very faint buzzing of a chainsaw on the other side of the valley but except for that it's just bird song and the breeze making the sound.

Despite having been sceptical before we set off Nay loved the Hill Camp, just for the fact we were so far away from everywhere and it was so quiet. I wanted to film the place so I could knock together a short video about it for my website MuayThaiLand.com so Andy took me on a tour, showing me the boundaries of his land and what he planned on doing with the acre or so that he still hadn't built on. At that time there were only two bedrooms in the main cabin. Andy is planning on building several more cabins, adding a herb garden and ultimately having his own cabin built at the top of the land, overlooking the whole place.

The gym was a brand new full size Muay Thai ring with various bags and ropes hanging up all around for drill work as well as a range of pads, gloves and other pad work/sparring equipment. The place was currently set up to take 4 fighters at a time. I could tell that training here for a few weeks would be pretty intense.

Nay and I went off exploring about the hills for a bit. I found a crossbow in our room and tried to get it to work but the damn arrows wouldn't load properly. Fortunately we weren't attacked by any wild pigs so it wasn't needed anyway. Phew!

That evening we had a great dinner cooked up for us by the wife of Andy's business partner who co-bought the land with him, a Thai guy called Verrin. Verrin was having his house built a couple of hundred meters further along the mountain side around the corner from the camp.

As darkness fell we were all sat around the camp fire, talking and looking at the stars which, given our distance from the city and our altitude, were extremely clear and bright. After a short while I realised how completely knackered I was when I started drifting off by the fire. It was time to go to bed. Nay and I had our own room and were impressed by the chunky wooden bed in there, complete with bright pink mattresses and a load of blankets. Given how cool it becomes at night up the mountains we were very comfortably warm in there and slept extremely well.

I can't even remember what time we woke up the next day but it was quite early due to the light. Avery was gearing up to go for a run. I hadn't done any exercise in far too long and felt like running too. I put on my trainers and off we went, a quick 5km circuit around the valley. Now, the thing about running on a mountain is that you are never on flat ground, it's always either going up a steep hill or down a steep hill. Andy had told me earlier that to train at Lanna Doi Modt it isn't necessary to be technically skilled at Muay Thai already as that's what you're there to learn. The important thing is to be fit. If you're not used to running and hills then you're going to find yourself in a world of pain after a couple of days on the mountainside.

Luckily for me though, I'm a natural kickass runner and even after about 6 months since the last time I went running I still managed to storm those hills like they were nothing. Well okay, maybe not like they were nothing but hey, I still powered up them like a pro :P

Avery and I jogged down into the valley, along it for a bit and then wham! We hit a slope and it didn't stop from then on. Up and down we went, through all these villages, past the locals, further into the valley until we had done a full loop. Remember how I said that the slope leading up to the camp is very steep? Well, it seems EXTRA steep when you're jogging up it after having done 4km of hill running already. Ah man, it burns your thighs but hell it feels good!

We arrived back at the camp a sweaty mess. Avery then went straight into the gym and started doing padwork with Andy. The boy's got power! But then again, he did have a fight coming up in two weeks so he needed it! I myself opted for the shower-then-sit-in-the-sun option. Nay told me that when Avery and I were running she'd been talking to Verren about our plans to head South to the beaches and islands and Verren had recommended that we check out an island called Koh Mak. It's close to Koh Chang but much smaller and much less well known therefore it's quieter and less touristy. It sounded good. Verren also gave us the phone number of a friend he had down there in the town of Trat, the port town from which boats leave for the islands in that area. It's always good to make notes of any potential contacts you could use on your travels so we did just that.

After I'd filmed around the camp including footage of Avery doing padwork, we read out in the sun for a couple more hours and ate dinner. Soon after Andy said he was heading back to Lanna to fetch more supplies. We got our stuff and walked back down to the truck. Avery stayed as he was there all week. A couple of hours later and we were back at the Cherry Mart, very content with the night away that we'd just spent up in the mountains. What an awesome place!

We were in Chiang Mai a few more nights after that and just did the things I wrote about on the last page. When we felt it was time to move on we got our stuff together and head on down to the coach station to catch a bus to Chiang Rai...

A few hours in a coach and we arrived in Chiang Rai. It was weird, after having been in Chiang Mai, the Northern capital full of tourists we found ourselves in a town much less accustomed to tourism, to the point that people were actually staring at us! We followed the map in Lonely Planet and made our way to a guest house recommended in there. As we were walking up the drive way to the place a little old lady stopped us and convinced us that her guest house was better. She was convincing and the prices were pretty much the same so we went with hers instead. That crafty little thing!

Our room was great and we even got free hot chocolate! First things first though, we took a shower. When trapsing around a hot country such as Thailand with a backpack full of stuff you learn to make the most of every opportunity you come across to wash.

We decided that we were heading to Chiang Khong in order to cross the Meikong river into Laos and get our VISA renewed. This is because tourist visas last one month and we were in Thailand for 5 weeks so we had to get a re-stamp any time after having been there for a week or else risk forgetting about it and then getting fined by immigration for our overstay when we leave.

We checked out an opium museum which was very interesting. I'm not sure if it was the intention of the place but after having spent a couple of hours learning all about the opium trade and accounts from users I was feeling very tempted to try it myself. Opium is basically a cleaner more pure version of heroin which you smoke. It's very easy to get hold of in Laos and, I imagine, in Thailand if you know where to look, especially on the border towns. However, after weighing up the pros and the cons I decided that experimenting with a class A drug in Thailand/Laos whilst being responsible for Nay's safety and well-being probably wasn't the best choice to make. But I'm telling you, it was tempting. I mean it's not every day you get to experience a drug like that in a relatively safe environment (very small chance of getting caught). It's not like we'd get addicted or anything. One hit and we're out of there! In fact I think that... wait, what the hell am I even saying? NO, DAVE!

The first night in Chiang Rai we found a tiny little hippy place called Teepee Bar full of old rock and roll memorabilia, including this old ferrang guy who'd been in Chiang Rai for ages. He sat down next to us on our rugs (it was a sit-on-the-floor bar) and started telling us all about the place, recommending we rent a bike and drive an hour out of town into the country as it's amazing scenery. It sounded good but alas, it was one of the many recommendations a traveller is given but isn't able to follow up due to time, money and effort. Nevermind.

However, he also pointed us in the direction of a night market food court. We walked up some back alleyways and came across this huge open area full of tables and chairs and packed with people. Around the edge of the table area were numerous food stalls selling all sorts of things. Nay and I were in food-lovers heaven! There was SO much and it was SO cheap we didn't really know where to begin. Once we'd loaded some plates with a bit of everything we found a table, sat down and enjoyed the live shows going on in a small stage area including a Katoy caberet! Eating fried locusts whilst watching lady boys dance about on stage: Only in Thailand!

And then to top off the Thai experience, I was stood up at a stall watching the guy make our mango smoothies and an elephant walked past down the street behind him.

One of the days we ate at the interestingly named restaurant "Cabbages and Condoms" so called because it's a charity which uses profits from its restaurants to educate people on AIDS awareness.

The second night we thought we'd go check out some of the bars on our road. The first one we went into was called 24 and even though it was completely empty (I can't remember what night it was but it was very quiet) we thought we'd have a drink in there and make the most of their great big comfy sofas. The floor was an interesting design with half the bar being a pond and stepping stones leading you around the place and a waterfall behind a pane of glass to the side. I thought that yes, even though it looks pretty stylish I imagine that when it gets busy and people start feeling the effects of the drink then you're kind of asking for trouble with soaked legs and sprained ankles all around.

We had a drink and were thinking about moving on when this American guy called Joshua sat down across from us. He told us he was the owner and would we like to try some special shots. We thought yeah, go on then so we went over to the bar and he started mixing some cocktails together. We bought more drink and got talking to him for ages. He was from New York and owned a chain of hotels around the world. This bar in Chiang Rai was just a little thing on the side he liked to have going. Apparently. Well I didn't know what was true and what wasn't, all I knew was that he knew everything there was to know about alcohol after having done a degree in the stuff and was happily pouring shot after shot for us to try out. His barman was doing all sorts of spinning tricks with the bottle including setting them on fire and we were having a great time, the four of us and a DJ in our own little private party in this water-filled bar in Chiang Rai.

Needless to say, when it came to heading home around 1am it was a good thing we were only staying 100 meters around the corner otherwise we could have been in trouble. I don't drink much and I can safely say I'd not been that drunk in a very long time. The same went for Nay. That night was quite eventful, right into the early hours...

We wanted to get our VISAs renewed so we needed to cross a border and then come back into Thailand. It made sense to get this out of the way so we went to Chiang Khong, the closest border town which led onto Laos.

There was a young Canadian couple on the bus with us. We didn't really speak to them much until the bus stopped in some town for about half an hour during which time we all realised just how badly we needed to go take a piss. Myself and the guy headed off in search for toilets and managed to find some by walking through a tiny internet cafe into some back alleys, going around a few corners and coming across a couple of urinals fastened to a cement block. Pretty typical of Thailand really.

The bus arrived in Chiang Khong that evening. As is the case with most border towns, Chiang Khong was basically just one long road with guest houses, shops and apartments built alongside it. Nay and I checked into a place called Bamboo Lodge which looked pretty cool as all of the huts were made from bamboo (of course) and it was covered in trees and vegetation.

However, just because something looks great it doesn't necessarily mean that it's practical. That night we were woken up by a group of three or four other travellers who were in the room next to us (our hut was divided into two) and who had obviously been out drinking all night. The walls don't block sound at the best of times so when you've got a load of people shouting at each other and laughing like idiots and it's literally meters away from you and it's 3am you start to get a bit pissed off. Then an hour or so later one of their phones just KEPT on ringing and they were obviously passed out and couldn't hear it. This made me REALLY angry, not just because of the ring tone being perhaps the most irritating one ever created, not just because these guys were too drunk to hear it but because someone was actually phoning them at 4 in the morning again and again and again. You'd think that if you call someone at 4am and they don't pick up after 5 minutes of non-stop ringing then perhaps they're not going to pick up at all. It doesn't make a lot of sense to then ring them again for 5 minutes and again and again and again...

When you're really tired and your sleep is being broken by totally stupid and pointless noises and people then that is when you start to get really mad. But what the heck can you do about it? Pretty much nothing, that's what. Bastards, whoever they were.

Needless to say, Nay and I checked out of that place the next day and moved into another guest house which didn't seem to have anyone in it and was much, much quieter. SCORE!

The full day during which we were in Chiang Khong we made our way down to the immigration office and went over to Laos. This involved getting stamped out of Thailand, walking down to the muddy banks and jumping in a long boat to be taken over the Meakong River. Crossing borders is so annoying sometimes, with all the forms you have to fill in, all the stuff that needs checking and the fact that you have to have two passport photos etc etc. However, the Laos guy at the immigration office on the other side of the river was great. He was very friendly, spoke good English and was making sure everyone was okay. We got the boat over with two Australian girls who were heading on through Laos and then Vietnam. I kind of wanted to do the same as I've heard from several people that Laos really is a beautiful country. I thought that we could perhaps work our way through Laos and appear in North East Thailand later on. However, this wouldn't have been too practical because it would have taken at least a week, we hadn't prepared for it at all, we didn't have a guide book or currency or anything and our trip was only five weeks in the first place so venturing off into other countries would have meant we would have been much more cut for time in Thailand. Oh well, perhaps next time.

We did get to visit Laos twice though, although not in a very useful way. When Nay and I were done with all our forms and things in Laos we got stamped into the country and went wandering a little bit up the street and then head back to the boats and Thailand only to be told at Thai immigration that we hadn't been stamped out of Laos. This actually meant we were in Thailand illegally which was kind of funny so we had to get another boat back to Laos to get stamped out of Laos so we could be stamped back into Thailand. On the boat for the second crossing we were joking about how we were nomads, sat there between two countries and not legally belonging to either of them. The friendly Laos office guy found it funny that we were back within half an hour anyway.

That evening Naomi and I decided to explore up and down the road to see what there was. To be honest we both found the place a bit depressing. That's the thing about border towns. Their only reason for existence is that they serve as temporary stop for people who are moving on to the next place soon after. Therefore there isn't usually much to do. You just turn up, get a bed, sleep and then leave the next day for Laos.

We did find some great places to eat though. The first being this muslim guy making pancakes of which we must have eaten about three or four each (they were big). 20 baht for a banana pancake with chocloate sauce was not a bad price at all. We just sat down by the side of the road, amongst all these kids playing in the street and old women gossiping to each other and chewed on our pancakes, happy as can be after which we got up again and ordered another two. The pancake man liked us.

The second great place to eat was a cafe which we stumbled upon by chance. We were just passing and it was empty but the owner shouted us over so we thought why the heck not. When we had sat down we realised that the white walls of this outdoor cafe were covered in messages from 100s of travellers who had come and gone over the last few months. It made for interesting reading, that's for sure. Most of the messages were going on about how great the Pad Thai was at this place so naturally we had some for ourselves. Yeah, it was pretty good, I will admit. So Nay and I added our own contributions to the wall although I have to say, I may have been writing slightly tongue in cheek.

The third place we found was an All You Can Eat buffet where they bring you your own little cooker and you go up, fill your plate with all the different kinds of meat they have, take it back to your table and cook it all yourself. There was some interesting stuff available, like squid and splodgey things that we couldn't even identify. The good thing about cooking it all yourself is that you could make sure it was well and truly done. Nay and I are good at eating and that night we got our money's worth.

We then went to a nice little bar and enjoyed a couple of hours knocking back various drinks. Even if Chiang Khong was a bit bleak and depressing, at least their food and drink was the same as anywhere else in Thailand i.e. cheap and excellent!

It wasn't excellent enough to keep us there for any longer though. After our second night in the town we checked out of our guest house and went for one last plate of Pad Thai before walking back to the bus station. However, that morning it was a bit odd because both Nay and I felt like crap. It wasn't because of drink and we were pretty sure it wasn't from the food. We worked it out to be our Malaria pills. They do have the occasional side-effect of causing nausea and it was only after we'd ordered our food that we suddenly felt properly ill. I was pretty sure I was going to be sick and it reminded me of being back in Kenya when I went out to eat for the first time in two days after my Malaria had cleared up. I asked the guy where the toilet was, thanked him, went over and BLEW my guts out. Without going into too much detail (a habit that I often have) I'll say that the guy's squat toilet was not built to cope with my load and it took a fair bit of time and effort to clear the place up and unblock the pipe. But hey, at least I did! I could have just grabbed Nay and got the hell out of there.

Nay and I felt much better after we'd both sorted ourselves out anyway so all was well. But we still couldn't finish the Pad Thai.

After a mile or so walking in the heat with our bags we reached the other end of Chiang Khong although not before I took out another 10,000 baht from one of the banks. With absolutely no idea about bus times or even where the official bus stop was (Thailand has a habit of being a bit relaxed with sign posts sometimes) we sat down on a bench in the shade to think about what to do next when almost by magic our bus pulled out of a side street and after waving it down we jumped on.

We had got our VISAs out the way so we didn't need to worry about that for the rest of the trip so now we were free to head down through Thailand towards our ultimate destination, Koh Mak. Our next stop? Lampang!

November 2009: There is more stuff to be written and added, I just haven't got round to doing it yet for various reasons.