Where are all the young people?!

I am sitting in an internet place in a tiny one-street town called Chiang Khong. Let me explain how I got here...
On the bus journey from Chiang Mai we met a Dutch guy called Ruud - the only other westerner on our bus. It turned out he had the same idea of going to a place Thaton and then getting a boat up to Chiang Mai. We were only supposed to be passing through Thaton but we soon realised that we'd missed the only boat that day and so Thaton would be our home for the night and Ruud my new roommate. Excellent luck as he's a dead nice guy and it meant halving a super cheap room so we only paid 2 quid each for the night in a little riverside guesthouse. The girls were nice enough to let us have the twin room while they shared the double.

Thaton was our oyster - a very small oyster - for the afternoon and we went for a walk up to the big white buddha that sits on the hill and overlooks the town.

This picture is not that buddha, but it is my favourite that we saw on the way and definitely the happiest that I've seen in Thailand.

The view from the buddha was stunning and we sat and enjoyed the scenery and the fact that we were the only people there. It felt a long long way from Bangkok.

We thought Chiang Mai was quiet cos eveything closed at 12. The hotel closed at 9 in Thaton and we found ourselves playing cards for a bit, going for a drink in a bar called Gerhard's (traditional Thai?) and having an early night.

The boat the next day was ace! A four hour trip skimming the river Kok (insert joke here) stopping off only at one place where a guy tried to get me to put a python round my neck and sell us some tat. I bought a coconut type mini milk. It was delicious! The motor drowned out any conversation so Lizi and I had a drawing competition (she won) and Annie got very into the final few chapters of The Beach.

The scenery was stunning. We got splashed a few times when we went over some mini rapids, but it was ace fun and we arrived safely in Chiang Rai and went hostel hunting.

Having found a place, me and Ruud went for a wander round and quickly realised that Chiang Rai didn't seem to be the 'mini Chiang Mai' that I'd heard about. We got a lot of hellos from girls outside massage places. In Chiang Mai this hadn't seemed seedy at all - in fact they normally didn't say anything - and it wasn't a seedy place.

Later on in the evening we realised that, judging from all the middle aged western men with Thai girls hanging round them, this was not the kind of place we wanted to stay. It was really disappointing, but I suppose not everywhere is going to be amazing. It's important to know what you're NOT missing as well.

Some quick escape route planning this morning and Ruud and I decided to head East to Chiang Khong. Annie and Lizi to Mae Sai up North. Not much to be said for here. It's got one road and is mainly used as a crossing into Laos. It is my first view of the Mekong though and Laos lies on the other side of the river, so a great place to see.

Where are all the young people though??!! It is apparently high season but the only people that seem to be around are middle aged and not the younger crowd I was expecting. Anyway, it has been brilliant fun so far and I'm sure I'll hit on some livelier places soon.

This has turned into a proper essay! If you're still reading, you're either my mum (hi mum!), a very good friend, or you've got too much time on your hands.