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Unlike the sleepy South, the North of Thailand is jungle, rivers,
mountains, tribal villages, and opium farms. I first travelled to Chiang Mai in early 1998, to find a lovely garden city with
a relaxing Old City and in contrast, a wild nightlife downtown. At that time, I did some trekking around the
tribal villages in the surrounding mountains travelling on foot, by bamboo raft and elephant. I also visited Pai, a quaint
town close to the Myanmar border.
Since then, I've been back North several times. Chiang Mai has become
one of my favourite cities in the World, and I especially like to get there for the Loy Krathong festival late in the
year. I've subsequently taken in some other historical cities in the North such as Sukkothai, Lopburri and visited Ayuthaya
a couple of times. At these latter places, it is possible to escape the crass mass tourism of Chiang Mai and interact
with Thais a bit more. There are still lots of places in the North East I would like to visit!
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