Chiang mai to Tha Ton

We left a very busy Chiang Mai this morning and headed for the hills again, once again sunshine and fantastic roads and scenery. Some crazy moments with some mental locals but just like the whole world most people are good and pleasant but 5% are dickheads, no change from the UK. We did have a couple of bits stuck in the mountains behind slow traffic but apart from that great fun riding the bends. A couple of stops for tea and food at pretty authentic places, now we are only about a mile from the Burmese border, some of the people here have more of a Chinese and Burmese influence, many escaped to here years ago to avoid persecution. The nice lady who served us Chinese noodles for lunch was a Chinese Muslim, her grandfather left China years ago to come to a safer more tolerant country .

We are now deep in what would have been bandit country a few years ago, Opium was the main harvest around here, now though it feels safe. Once again the photos have to explain themselves. Tomorrow we head to a tea plantation not far from here.

Tea break time

Burmese border about 2 miles away, many security cameras on this bridge

Fi with her new pal who is also a crazy Elvis fan

Like all very rural communities some chaos is neccessary

Sun going down = mozzies coming out

Mosque, some of the border population are Chinese and Burmese Muslims, persecuted and forced to flee to Thailand

Big seller here!