Super-luck meant that I stumbled upon the Akha celebrating the ‘New Rice Festival’. Ladies especially dressed up in the full ceremonial costume were an amazing sight.
Fabulous, spiritual, generous and great fun, they invited Chewchip and I to join them for a delicious lunch. I saw several of them over the next days and they all said hi and gave a cheery wave.
A few other local characters and a hidden Buddhist temple in the hills.
Great coffee in the highlands and rice almost everywhere.
My last motorbike excursion before heading for Vietnam
Up to the Laos border and the golden triangle overlooking Myanmar and Laos. A great mountain top hike here and a few photo stops along the way. More markets, corn, more rice and the Hmong.
Goodnight and a sad goodbye to Thailand mountains and it’ll be a hello to Vietnam’s mountains tomorrow. I’m flying to Hanoi and then rushing up to Ha Giang with my friend Sparrows, whose come out to join me for aa ‘white-knuckle’ tour.
new horizons 
Some fantastic shots amongst this lot, a trip of a lifetime
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