Vang Vieng and quickly down South in Laos

The next stop off in Laos was Vang Vieng - a town renowned as the capital for the artful sport of tubing. This, for those unfamiliar with the term, involves sitting in an inflated rubber tube and floating down a river. It's not a very difficult sport.

Tubing begins with you renting out a tube and being given a lift 3km up stream. The government has taken away most of the rope swings and slides into the rocky shallow water due to people breaking themselves, so the trip downsteam is apparently a lot more serene than it used to be. In fact it's about the most relaxing way to spend a sunny afternoon. You can break up the serene by mooring at bars along the way to discuss tubing tactics with fellow tubers and have a game of bowls or basketball.

In the tubing

As the day winds down and you approach the town there is a section of rapids where a crudely scrawled "End of Tubing" sign stands next to a restaurant. Trying to disembark here may result in you falling on rocks, losing a flip-flop and flailing desperately for your life. This happened to us. Tubing was super.

Still in the tubing

The scenery around Vang Vieng is really quite something, with huge limestone rocks jutting out of the ground and a scattering of caves and pools. We hired a couple of mountain bikes to explore and headed out towards "The Blue Lagoon", known for it's azure pools of loveliness - but again we were duped by a crudely drawn fake sign to a tiny blue-ish lagoon where a lovely but unwanted Laos guide led us to a nearby cave in flip-flops and without a flashlight. Our concern grew as he slid off rocks in the dark and we decided to instead visit nearby "Nam Borkeo Phaboua Cave" by ourselves. Here was a clear swimming pool full of impossible to catch fish, some crazy stalagmites like something out of the film Alien and some terrifyingly large, and even more terrifyingly fast, spiders crawling about in the pitch black humidity.

Caving and whatnot

Being in a town surrounded by big rocks also made us fancy a climb, so we booked a day of top-rope climbing on Sleeper Wall, which is basically two cliffs which face each other and shade each other from the sun. We ended up doing 8 climbs of increasing difficulty with a helpful Laos guide who would encouragingly shout tips such as "Left foot to right hand" and "Right foot above your head" before chuckling wildly. He was actually reasonably trustworthy though and encouraged a Canadian vs English climb-off - not a victory for the English thanks to my inability to get my left foot to my right ear.

The sleeping wall

The town is a great place to relax in the evening as well, but our visas were running out so we got a bus South to the capital Vientiene and applied for a week's extension. The process took a day longer than expected, and we couldn't find much to do in the big city so we moved on quickly.

Vientiane getting ready for Christmas

On the way South we were wanting to see Konglor Cave, a vast 7.5km cavern system which can only be explored by a boat on a river that runs under a mountain. We had missed the first bus of the day due to the visa extension so instead got a later bus to the town of Tha Khaek, asking the driver to drop us off at the only crossroads en route (Laos has few roads so crossroads are rare). Here we stood looking helpless until a taxi picked us up to take us to Ban Nahin (also confusingly known as Ban Khoun Kham) which is an hour from the cave.

The road there was cold. However, to cheer us up there were rows upon rows of Jurassic hills covered in mist which didn't get photographed due to the aforementioned chilliness. This village was the least developed we've visited yet, with no wifi and very few English speakers. As usual for Laos everyone was super friendly, with one restaurant owner making me take some free plasters when he noticed, with horror, that I'd bandaged my split thumbnail with electrical tape.

The next day we hired some awful piece of Chinese engineering they were passing as a moped, and tried to head to Konglor cave. At first we made the mistake of asking directions from a non-English speaking shopkeeper who did the Thai/Laos thing of pointing down any road and nodding (this is at least the third time it's happened to us). After following this track for a half an hour we thought we should double check, and upon asking another local I was laughed at (in the kindest way you can be laughed at) and pointed back down the road we'd come from.

Anyway, we eventually found the cave an hour and a half away down some mud roads and paths and past lots of "Sabaidee!" shouting smiling children. We paid for a guide and a longtail boat and set off.

It's really, really big in there. All you can hear is dripping water and the boat engine. The headtorches barely reach to the ceiling in the high parts and the rock is twisted into some obscure apparitions around you. The guides were constantly adjusting trajectory for dangers in the water, and at points got out to push the boat up small waterfalls and rapids! We walked a dryish section of it which they've fitted with Doctor Who lighting to emphasize the weirdness. The scale of the cave is quite crazy. After emerging at a Lost World like scene on the other side of the mountain we had a little snack then headed back for a slightly faster run. Here the Laos guys laughed heartily as we splashed down mini rapids in the fragile longtail boat and took us under low shelves at health and safety breaking velocity. Fun for everyone!

Konglor Cave

Then it was unfortunately a big transit day to Pakse. Starting with a four hour freezing tuk tuk ride to Tha Khaek, we arrived at the bus station just as the seven hour bus for Pakse was leaving. We reacted with cat like ferocity and were on the bus lickety split. Luckily it stopped for food about an hour in as we had eaten nothing all day - so we had a bag of sticky rice, a papaya and some coffee coated peanuts. You don't forget a meal that grand.

Pakse was just a town for us to get some planning done. It's obviously the town where the money is in Laos as everything costs more and, well, there are a lot of banks. There's not much to do in the town itself but it's a major gateway town to Southern Laos. It was a surprisingly nice place with some cool architecture. After a day we raced further on South to get to the 4,000 islands in time for Christmas and to get out of Laos before those pesky visas expired.

- Jon

Pakse looking all nice

Hills, films and big empty jars in Laos

After travelling South to Luang Prabang, we took the logical next step and went back up North to visit Nong Khiaw. This small village is a few hours away by minivan, on a winding road alongside the Nam Ou river (a fun journey despite having 5 passengers for every 3 seats). As we neared our destination the karst scenery became more and more jagged, and the village itself is set in some of the most fantastical landscape I've ever seen. We spent most of our first evening there haltingly crossing the main bridge, pointing at everything and saying "well that's just ridiculous".

The village has a quiet, chilled atmosphere and there's a great Indian restaurant called Deen which does a mean Rogan Josh. As with all of Laos, we felt completely at ease walking back even on unlit streets. Gangs of kids with sticks are more likely to play fight you than beat you up and nick your bike. The only fear we felt was when we thought we had a snake down the sink plughole in our bungalow - but this turned out to be a persistant frog which is probably still there.

We were intending to go on the '100 waterfalls' trek, but Tiger Trail have a monopoly at the moment and the price was a bit much for us. Instead, we met up with some French travelers for a explore out to caves used by villagers to hide from US bombs during the Secret War.

For some exercise we also climbed up to Nong Khiaw Viewpoint, which started out steep and then became markedly steeper, more jungly and very sweaty. It was worth it for the Lord of the Rings-esque tangled forest near the summit and for the panoramic view of the whole area when we did make it up.

We headed briefly back to Luang Prabang in time to catch the first day of the 2013 Asian Film Festival, which had loads of free screenings around town. Of what we saw P-047 was my favourite, an incomprehensible but entertaining thing about a couple of Thai guys breaking into homes and 'borrowing' them for a few hours.

Also worth our time was the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre which had interesting information on local history, livelihoods and religion, plus a cafe serving an awesome 'ethnic sampler' meal - the everyday favourites of locals in a Westerner friendly format.

Then, we traveled a bit South and a long way East to Phonsavan on the Plain of Jars. This was something I was very keen to see - the stone-age jars are scattered over more than 100 sites and vary a great deal in size, although most are big enough for someone to hide in. Most intriguingly no one is sure what they're for. The best guess is funeral urns (or perhaps better, giants' whisky jars) but as they don't exist anywhere else and no other remains of the civilisation have been found, evidence is severely limited. They are very cool.

We ended up also learning a good deal about the Secret War, as the Plain of Jars was at the centre of conflict between the communist Pathet Lao army and the CIA-backed 'secret army' of Hmong people, before and during the war in Vietnam. The US dropped more bombs on Laos than it did on Germany and Japan combined in WWII, but this didn't quite have the desired effect as the Pathet Lao party took power in 1975.

Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) remains a major hazard, and all over the place you can see craters and bits of bare ground where Agent Orange still prevents growth. You can't go off the beaten track as they aren't expecting to fully clear the bombs and chemicals for another 100 years. The Laotians make aluminum cutlery from melted war scrap and use cluster bomb casings as stilts for houses, being very resourceful people.

Phonsavan itself is only 40 years old, as the old town was completely destroyed in the fighting. It is industrial and cold at night - the 1200m altitude outweighs the latitude here. It is a good environment for mulberries however. We went round a silk farm which grows mulberries; feeds the leaves to silk worms; spins, dyes (with dye produced from plants on site) and weaves the resulting silk; and does a line in mulberry tea, wine and jam on the side. Perhaps unsurprisingly they are very successful and the lady who set it up was nominated for the Nobel Prize for her efforts. Now I just need to think of something that tidy that'd work back home...

- Kath

A Nibble of Northern Laos

Laos is beautiful. It's full of never ending hills and rivers - although so far we have only followed the hilly road which follows the river so the rest may be a dump and flat.

Our first port of call was Luang Namtha in the north. From the border this is a 7 hour bus ride through a national park of solid forest which may or may not feature tigers. We saw no tigers. Tourists are made welcome in the town by a row of boards advertising the kinds of activities tourists like to do. We chose to rent a bicycle and go kayaking although not simulateously.

The kayaking is done on the river Namtha because everywhere else is too dry. We had a 2 person kayak to ourselves which was initially faulty and kept spinning in a circle. Eventually, we persuaded it down some rapids and through some trees. It's apparently severely more technical in the wet season, but it's still a giggle when it's not too treacherous.

Our guide stopped us to tour a couple of small rural tribe villages, of which there are lots in Laos. The first village was a "Lanten", or "Indigo", tribe - thus named for their dyed clothes and handicrafts (which were swiftly presented in case we may wish to purchase any). They live in bamboo houses with earth floors and have recently begun to enjoy TV and mopeds and whatnot. The tour, while giving some interesting insights, felt a little too personal though; as the people were just in their homes getting their stuff done.

The second village was of the Khmu tribe, who build houses on stilts up the side of hills. They have cooking hearths in the wooden houses made of flame resistant termite nest material, which is pretty cool; and a little ironic that termites end up protecting the wooden houses.

We took the rented bicycles around some nearby gnarly paths through some more villages to a classic Russian style dam and a watertrickle. Really though, what was striking while riding is the fertility of the land. The fields are full of grain, trees are full of bananas, rivers are full of fish and streets are full of babies. In fact, there were more babies, puppies, kittens, chicks and piglets than even Kath had time to say "aww" at. Rumours say surplus puppies, from the untrimmed hounds which roam the streets at night, are shipped off to Vietnam or to the local Chinese restaurants for delicacies. But that can't be true... right?

Next was a shaky bus ride to Luang Prabang. Shaky because the road is unfinished, but still used. Shaky because of bad timing for a vomiting bug for Kath. Shaky because we arrived in town 10 minutes before the nationwide midnight curfew and our booked guesthouse was locked tight. Everything turned out OK though. We lost a few days to illness, so spent a while relaxing and rediscovering cake and baguettes (the tasty legacy of French rule).

To burn off the bagels we did a 60km bike ride to the rather stunningly dramatic Kwang Si waterfall with its pools of azure loveliness. En route we rode through numerous villages which, like the rest of Laos, seem to be almost entirely under construction with every third house being built into classic European style digs painted in primary colours.

Luang Prabang itself is a really chilled out riverside town. You can grab a super cheap vegan street buffet, climb the hill in the middle of town to see Buddha's footprint, browse the mile long night handicraft market, watch a cool movie at L'etranger cafe or listen to Tom Waits at the Icon bar (although the owner would like it if people requested some other music from time to time - it has become a little bit of a Tom Waits mecca). Or you can just eat lots of bread.

Anyways, Laos is beautiful. And hilly with rivers. And bread.

- Jon

The Loi Krathong festival and onwards to Laos

The Loi Krathong festival is a big celebration of floaty floats and flying lanterns. We were in Pai, but heard that the finest city for celebrating was back in Chiang Mai so decided, with two of our Tacomepai farmstay compadres, to make sure we were there. Easier decided than done, as all the guesthouses were long since booked by forward thinkers, but after over 20 phone calls we bagged a couple of rooms at "Jo's House", and so from Pai to Chiang Mai we embarked.

First we hitchhiked from the farm to Pai town. That was a new and surprisingly easy experience. Unlike in England, you wave your arm up and down (preferably while smiling) rather than our familiar thumbs up. Most people have pick up trucks, so us four bag-laden farangs fitted easily in the back. Then, rather than getting a deathspeed minibus we were convinced into waiting for the local bus by our German friend Markus. "It'll be an experience" he said. "Adventure" he said. Well, once aboard we had to stand for around 5 hours in the 4 square inches of aisle not taken by bags and legs while our heads bounced off of the "safety bars" throughout the mountain pass. Finally the bus, which had been groaning up the hills, broke down for a third and final time around 36km from Chiang Mai.

We hailed a taxi which, due to the language barrier, took us 3km off our destination - so as the celebrations were getting under way we struggled with directions from locals and a confused google maps until, with a breath of palpable relief, we found "Jo's House"... which had already rented our rooms out.

Overcoming our fury, we grappled with the probability of a night on a park bench, but decided to get a cornetto and enjoy what we could of the festival. Even weighed down with bags we had a great time and found our way towards the river where there was a very cheesy procession of youths looking awkward in loin cloths and pointy hats. The bridge over the river, and just about everywhere else, was a take off point for thousands of Chinese lanterns ("khom-loi" in Thai) - which filled the sky (and the odd tree) with light. Some were sneakily modified with high powered fireworks for a bit more of a thrill. Under the bridge, hundreds of "krathong", or "floaty things with candles", were released onto the river. Our camera was entirely incapable of capturing any of this.

Eventually we found a hotel room on the outskirts of town which all 4 of us piled into. The festivities on the next day were like a much bigger, less stressful version of the last.

As the festival wound down, so had our visas. We got a minibus to the border which stopped for curry and a white temple photo opportunity at Chiang Rai.

On the border of Thailand, with just the Mekhong river separating it from Laos is the town of Chiang Khong. There's not much there except a bike museum run by a Liverpudlian cycling enthusiast and some pool tables, so the next day we checked out of the country, paid 80 pence to cross the river and paid $35 for a month's worth of Laos visa. Most backpackers here were squeezing onto the slow boat headed to the town of Luang Prabang, but we were looking for an experience and an adventure. So we waited for the local bus.

- Jon

A Slice of Pai, Thailand

Pai is a small town in the northerny north bit of Thailand. It's full of bad pun restaurants like "Pai in the Sky". Because it's up in the hills you get baked during the day and shiver at night if you only packed t-shirts. We stayed for 2 weeks there - which means we're probably more like settlers than travelers.

The road to Pai...

...is 762 curves of woo! A savvy business called Aya in Chiang Mai lets you rent a little motorbike and drop it back at their office in Pai so that you can enjoy the hills. They even take your luggage in one of their breakneck speed minibuses which will be in Pai long before you get there.

The road is generally good with the odd yawning pothole and slow moving pig wagon. It's about 3 to 5 hours depending how often you stop to gape at mountain scenery.

Woo!

What kind of Pai?

Pai has a tasty filling of hippies and eco-warriors, garnished with riverside bamboo huts, herbal tea cafes and sleeping dogs. The pace of life is extremely leisurely.

This sums up Pai

The expat community is big enough to get home comforts like fig rolls and lasagne; and if it's your birthday, and you're so inclined, then you can buy a guitalele from Boy's music shop.

Pai by night. Pai by day.

What else is on the overstretched metaphorical plate next to the Pai?

Well, there's a big white Buddha on a hill over looking the town and there is Pai Canyon which is an astonishing geological oddity with an unsettling lack of fences.

"Fences, please" - Jon

There's also Piranha Fishing Park which has a lake of genuine imported teethy fish (or so we're told) among others. Us first time fishers found the supposedly relaxing pastime quite intense as Jon caught two huge (non-teethy) fishes in two hours - both of which required me to net the fish, take the hook out their mouths with pliars and release back to be caught again. Amusingly one of them managed to slime Jon's new trousers on the way down.

We used human toes exclusively for bait

Other attractions like waterfalls and hot springs were not visited due to 4 days of rest necessary after our experience at Tip Off-Road Motorcycling where, after an adrenaline fuelled morning on Honda 250cc enduro bikes in the countryside, Jon messed up a corner which in turn messed up his knee for a little bit. He's ok now though!

It's worse than it looks

In the evening there is usually something-a-happening in Pai. The Bebop Bar (a new contender for worst pool table ever) has a massive open mic night on Wednesday which, on our visit, featured gypsy jazz, computer game themes and rock flute solos. At Edible Jazz Bar, Nai Noi, the Thai double acoustic guitar tapping maestro, entertained all, and Jon was able to turn some of his injury-frustration into sound on drums at Mr Nong's practice room. Mr Nong being the hooded stickman in Giant Bar's Hendrix worshipping house band.

Musicians of varying ability

Tacomepai

No that's not an obscure pun (as far as we know), it's the name of a permaculture farm stay on the outskirts of Pai. In our 4 nights there we got stuck into some rice paddy harvesting, coffee bean peeling and roasting, mushroom watering, fruit and vegetable foraging and lots of cooking. And washing up.

Simple Living

Work is more or less optional, but whether you join in or not everyone eats together which really makes you feel part of community (despite our short time there). We had a surprisingly successful attempt at making pizza (sans cheese) and garlic bread in the clay oven which pleased even Sandot, the farm owner (not known for his love of foreign food).

Back to basics. Farming and Pizza.

The farm employed some interesting systems, such as using ash instead of Fairy liquid, bamboo for everything from plates to hut construction, and the 'food forest' in which plants provide shade, protection from erosion, habitat for pollinating insects and nitrogen-fixing for the soil as well as food. On the other hand for an organisation so keen on minimising waste they certainly get through a lot of wood cooking on open fires! However, if you were thinking of growing some food in a sustainable way you could probably get a lot out of the courses they run.

Which machete to buy?

It was a fun to stay somewhere a bit different, and even our spider web riddled shell of a hut we slept in had some amusing surprises such as a frog on top of the mosquito net (how?) and a midnight puppy visit. The latter actually became a puppy stay and we missed the early morning getup because you can't sleep through 5 hours of puppy crying unless you're made of stone. The next night we actually had 2 puppy visitors but we'd tracked down the owner by then who gave the puppies to a rather exhausted looking mum dog!

Cutest. Puppies. Ever.

...and that was Pai.

- Kath

Milling about in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Recently, we stayed for 2 rather wholesome weeks in the northern Thailand town of Chiang Mai. Specifically we stayed in the Old City which is a 1.5km square in the centre of the town surrounded by crumbling walls and beyond that a full-fledged moat. The moat no longer prevents intruders, but it does seem to ease traffic flow which means the Old City is the quiet eye of the bustling Chiang Mai storm.

The town is lovely, especially as it's flanked by jagged forested mountains to the east and west, but it's not really the cultural hotspot it's often referred to as - there are treks to visit hilltribe villages and suchlike, but in the south of the city these are advertised in every third shop, and every second shop is a coffee shop. This does make it very easy to find things to do and drink coffee but not really see any proper culture. Whatever that is.

So apart from sip Americanos we took a Thai cooking class, did the Samoeng Loop twice (covered in the previous epic sprawling blog post), went downhill mountain biking and watched the 2013 CDC (Chiang Mai Downhill Challenge).

We didn't fancy visiting the elephant parks, snake farm, tiger kingdom, monkey centre or other such ethically dubious attractions - but here are a few of our favourite Chiang Mai things...


1. Sunday Walking Street

Every Sunday from around 4pm, Ratchadamnoen Road and adjoining lanes are closed to vehicles and market stalls are set up in any available space. As the sun sets the Walking Street starts to get so busy that the foot traffic becomes two slow-moving trains, down one side of the street and up the other. These trains weave in and out of Temple courtyards and across junctions in all directions.

So what can a mile or two of market sell? Well, apart from the obvious souvenirs (anything you like in elephant form) there are more unusual things like traditional musical instruments, miniature furniture and wooden postcards. You can buy glass jewellery that is blown to shape in front of you, or a freshly constructed leaf hat (better than it sounds).

The atmosphere is really quaint. There is very little in the way of loud disco music and musicians give the street a beat. There are no hard sells and no litter anywhere - and best of all it's full of Thai people rather than just pandering to the armies of tourists. You can find trays and mats sold at the market in cafes across Chiang Mai, which is strangely nice.

Maybe buy a sueng. Maybe have a fish spa.

Really, though, it's all about the food. Unsurpringly there is an abundance of snacks like mango and sticky rice or banana spring rolls. We tried fried quails eggs, Takoyaki (Japanese style octopus in a batter ball), blocks of fried seaweed (also better than it sounds), Luk Chup (little fruit shaped sweets made from mung bean flour), tiny sweet pastries, and some Thai spicy egg salad.

To wash this down there are refreshing beverages such as Matcha green tea, Bael fruit tea and fresh coffee - all of which can be tried hot or iced and with condensed milk.

Needless to say after all that food Monday was a bit more like waddle street.


2. Funky Monkey Cafe

Awesome family run cafe with low key decor and low key prices. You can get fantastic "farang" food like French toast or muesli with fruit salad (includes dragon fruit!) and the Thai food is of the finest quality too.

We found ourselves here quite regularly drinking their specialist coffee and banana "Funky Monkey Shake" (possibly but unlikely to be trademarked). Smoothies are the best in Thailand (no hyperbole) and homemade banana loaf is available at a steal.

3. Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders

Found through TripAdvisor we visited here because of combinations of words such as "surreal" and "informative". It is both of those things. The museum mainly documents Dr Rampa Rattanrithikul's decades of research on mosquitoes and the diseases they carry, but also features cabinets full of painstakingly preserved other creatures, rocks in the shape of dogs and bizarre paintings.

We were lucky enough to meet the doctor, who is still wonderfully enthusiastic about her strange collections - and told us how she had identified several new species of mosquitoes, gave us some details about "biological control" of disease carrying mosquitoes using friendly giant mosquitoes(!) and how she'd helped narrow down the malaria-vector species of mosquitoes to just 3 out of over 400.

It only takes a couple of hours to look around, but it's funny and interesting and surreal and informative.


4. Brown Rice Restaurant

More food! A vegetarian restaurant which blew our minds a little bit with some amazingly tasty meals full of fresh herbs and vegetables, to the extent you didn't notice the lack of meat (and we're carnivores). We also had some bright and refreshing herbal beverages including a 'Tom Yum' drink - lemongrass, lime and chilli. And brown rice too of course.

We bought homemade cereal bars here intending to take them on our cycle round the Samoeng Loop, but only one made it that far...


5. North Gate Jazz Co-op

We went to this small bar for its Tuesday jam night, which we found to be so popular that the crowd spread out into the street. As well as some sweet jazz we also got a free balloon magic show (why not?) and some spicy peanuts. Not bad!

- Us

Looping The Samoeng Loop

It'd been an easy first month in Thailand so by the time we arrived in Chiang Mai we needed a bit of a challenge. Preferably a physical one as the constant intake of cheap, delicious food was beginning to take its toll...

We hit on the Samoeng Loop, a 100km ring around the Doi Suthep mountain which conveniently begins and ends in Chiang Mai, with the tiny town of Samoeng a little off the halfway point. Our sources told us it was quiet, hilly and very scenic - ideal!

Map was thus bought and we hired some Trek 3900 bikes from well-regarded Cacti Bikes, a little pricy (by Thai standards) at £8 each per day but well maintained and including helmets and a pump. Mr Sak, the lovely owner of the shop, clearly takes great care of his stock.

"Please remember you must only ride on road."

We assured him we would - no sneaky singletrack.

"Please don't put the bikes on the roof of a bus."

We assured him that we did intend to ride the bikes the whole way... but even so he seemed a little anxious as we rode away.

This actually almost didn't happen as (and most people who don't like horror might like to skip this paragraph) a laxative taken the night before, without reading the instructions, worked as designed "suddenly and fairly quickly" while in Mr Sak's shop so I made a good 15 minutes use of his well maintained toilet then worried about relapses for the rest of the morning. This detail is only provided to give an honest and full picture of the travel experience, but still I apologise as it's horrible.

Anyway, we rode South with a flat warmup of around 20k which turned from busy triple carriageway into a forest road. It got a little hilly so after a whole hour of riding we stopped for snacks. This is actually a very Thai thing to do. Thai people like snacks. We had cokes but didn't feel it necessary to take more than 2 bottles of water with us due to the incredible abundance of rustic coffee shops lining the road.

No one had told us about the No Beverage Zone. It started just after snacks and continued. Unfortunately the gradient also continued - upwards. For a long time we climbed through humid jungle, sweat refusing to evaporate. When we got to the top we felt like heroes. As a reward we got a fantastic descent - a section known as "the seven switchbacks" which ingenious Thai engineers have created on a near vertical slope. As we rounded the final corner - having overtaken a moped, and with the wind in our hair - we felt amazing. That is until we gazed at the next hill looming above us...

After another 10k of mostly incline we had consumed all of our water and moved onto a curious energy drink, bought for its neon yellow colour and sporty if incomprehensible Thai graphics. Soon after we came to a junction with a police box at approximately the half way point of the loop. One road continued the loop upwards, and the other dropped down to Samoeng. We didn't want to go down as then we'd have to ride back up again!

I went to the police box and asked where the nearest water was. The policeman pointed towards Samoeng and said "One kilometer". I gestured towards the other road with a hopeful look - perhaps a cafe just around the corner? But he frowned and pointed down towards Samoeng. Oh well.

A grab bag of crisps, some tinned ice coffee and a whole lot of water later we left the petrol station we were using as a cafe, and went back up the hill. This was all very scenic and fun, but quite gruelling especially as, because we weren't sure exactly how steep 1500m of elevation change would actually feel, we had a heavy backpack with stuff to stop overnight if necessary. This however meant that whoever had the bag felt completely out of energy, which almost meant that the bag was the cause of the situation we had prepared for by taking the bag...

Our salvation came around 5k on. Luckily for us the road became 30k of sweeping downhill, past gorgeous farmland and coffee plantations! Couldn't believe it. We stopped for lunch mid-descent and as the sun set we went in single file with our one torch flashing red to alert our presence to faster traffic (everyone else). The forest road turned back into busy triple carriageway and 16k later we were back at the guesthouse! It took, including stops, around 9 and a half hours and we felt awesome (and totally dead).

We celebrated with the traditional Thai dish of Pizza, and returned the unscratched bikes to a relieved Mr Sak the next day.

As we loved the route so much we decided to go again 2 days later but on motors. We hired a couple of semi-automatic 110cc Honda Dreams, which both frequently backfired in the manner of a popping crisp bag, and a couple of Daft Punk/Star Wars chic helmets. The ride was amazing - and completely different - so we just took in the scenery and enjoyed the endless corners.

The last section of the loop is littered with Elephant Camps, Snake Farms, a Monkey Center and loads of other attractions so we popped in to see Mae Sa Waterfall on the way past. It was nice to see all that water falling down the cliff, but we were keen to get back on the bikes.

At first we were disappointed when we we hit the triple carriageway at rush hour, but it quickly became one of the most visceral cultural experiences yet. Motorbikes are encouraged, nay expected, to filter through traffic whenever possible to keep things moving. This led to an almost race-like feel at traffic lights and as road and pavement merged, there were wandering dogs and street stalls in the mix as well.

Those were our two very different, and very fun trips around the Samoeng Loop from Chiang Mai. Highly recommended!

- Jon