I haven’t uploaded many pics from my travels. This was taken in 2005 on my second backpacking trip. I travelled light (50ltr backpack) so I only carried a small SLR and one lens and after that was stolen a digital compact. I went through a few cameras as a dropped them or managed to smash them up in some way or another or they just got stolen or were dropped out of the back of tuk-tuks. I bought this Sony DSC-N1 after my Canon EOS was stolen in Vietnam and my first ever digital camera, a DSC-T7 was stolen in Thailand, although not before I broke it by sweating on it too much on a trek.

Phu Chi Fa is a mountain in the Thai Highlands in the Phi Pan Nam Range in the eastern part of Chiang Rai Province. It’s a bit of a bugger to get to – I rode a motorbike there – I think it took about 2 hrs from Chiang Rai city centre.

I ended up going there twice but on this trip I went from Phu Chi Fa to Chiang Khong and from there to Chiang Saen and from there to Mai Sai where I thought I may as well go across to Myanmar to get my visa stamped again and from there back to Chiang Rai.

The young lady in the second picture is my dear friend, Lin. I met Lin in Chiang Rai but she’s from a very small village way up in the hills near Ban Therd Thai, the enclave used as a hideout by the infamous drug lord, Khun Sa. Lin is from the Loimi Akha tribe. On another trip we visited her village and I met her family.