Like most backpackers who come to the Indochina region of South East Asia, I started my trip in Thailand. I traveled around the northern part of the country for 30 days, which was the maximum length of stay that my free visa on arrival allowed.

I didn’t plan on staying four weeks in just one country, considering my whole trip was only supposed to last 10 weeks and there were four more countries on my itinerary.

My first stop, Chiang Mai, was the culprit! The city fascinated me so much that I didn’t realize I had already spent almost three weeks there and only had a little more than a week to explore the rest of Thailand before my visa expired.

I continued my trip southwards to see the Thee Lor Su Waterfall in Umphang Wildlife Reserve, Tak Province, and then made my way to Kamphaeng Phen and Sukhothai to see ancient temple ruins.

Then, I backtracked northwards to Phrae and then spent a few days in Chiang Rai to see the amazing White Temple and Black Houses. Finally, I got on a bus to Chiang Khong, where I crossed the border to Laos for the next leg of my Indo-china adventure.