Chiang Rai

I needn't have worried about catching local busses in Thailand. The whole country is swarming with tourists and all the busses have their destinations written in English as well as Thai. Bus conductors come and find you and lead you to your bus, just in case you are blind or completely stupid.

The crate I came in from the Laos border was a traditional old bone shaker that rattled along pretty terrible roads , taking the corners very slowly. You pay about a pound and then sit on the thing for three hours, through desolate burnt countryside (they still burn the rice stubble - and often all sorts of other things, like banana trees, by mistake).

Well the one good thing in Chiang Rai is the chemist, which has automatic closing doors, air-conditioning and girls in white coats who look as if they have studied pharmacy and who speak good English. At the moment I really can't think of anything else to recommend it, except maybe that it's relatively quiet and cheap enough.
Thai girls are out in their short shorts and skimpy tops, hunting. An assortment of sleazy men haunt the bars, where the girls crawl all over them. I knew there was a reason why I didn't want to go to Thailand. After the modestly dressed girls of Laos, who pay no attention to tourists at all, this is a bit of a shock.

My first night I was kept awake for what seemed like hours by a discothec playing top volume and tourists shouting at the tops of their voices. Now I have moved to a quieter place.

I still have the cough, despite the antibiotics and cough medicine, but my voice is beginning to come back.