I’ve been living in Chiang Mai for about five months now, and still don’t know much about Northern Thailand. Time to travel within Thailand. I’ve already been to Myanmar and Viet Nam, but still don’t know much about what’s down the road an hour.

A couple of days ago I drove my Honda PCX150 (the cadillac of motor scooters) down to Lamphun. It was a thrilling little jaunt, and what impressed me most was how quickly things change when you get just ten miles out of town.

Someone told me that Nan, the capitol of Nan province in North Eastern Thailand is a real gem. It’s up near the border with Laos and China. I checked the bus schedule and a bus leaves every couple of hours for the eight hour trip. My bags are packed! Even though I don’t know what I’ll do once I get there, I want to see something new. Maybe people look different so close to Laos. Maybe their Thai sounds different (though I speak so little Thai I probably would fail to notice.)

I figure someday I’m going to end up with some sort of committments and not be able to rush off on a whim, but since I’m completely carefree now, I think I might hit the bus station right after my weekly piano lesson on Wednesday afternoon.