I need to start my conclusion by comparing the results of this tour with earlier ones. There are many things that could upset a tour plan such as accident illness or other misdemeanor. Thankfully the incidents are rare. However minor problems do occur from time to time. During this tour illness from day 12 to 14 had an effect but amazingly I did't even lose a full day. So what were the objectives of this tour how did I fare?
For many years I've stuck to the plan to add more and more content to my website with the ultimate goal of visiting all of Thailand's provinces. Last year I made remarkable progress completing all the remaining provinces except those of Thailand's south. This sets the stage for me to complete the remaining provinces on my current visit but after just a couple of weeks here I was in no hurry and decided to travel in a completely different direction. This was to allow for seasonal weather. I figured that traveling To Thailand's south and being near to the coast was a better option at the hottest time of year which had not yet arrived. Conversely up north, air quality reduces during the dry season when farmers burn stubble in preparation for the new planting season. So what could I achieve by heading north? Well, Despite there being no new provinces to visit there were still huge areas I've yet to explore. The most obvious is in Chiang Mai in the mountains to the north of the city. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest province and refering to the largest, Nakhon Ratchasima, it took me multiple trips before I was satisfied that I had adequately covered the province. I allowed one week for more work in Chiang Mai Province concentrating on the remote northern districts. In the end I spent seven nights in the province right on estimate. What I achieved was remarkable and it was a great pleasure to spend so much time close to nature.
If my primary objective was achieved what about the eight nights I spent elsewhere during this tour? Well, All along there were secondary objectives too. I just had to visit one football game at least and I managed to strike off another of the three remaining football grounds in the Thai Premier League that I hadn't visited. I had hoped for more but this couldn't happen without compromising the primary objective. Still I was happy to visit Leo Chaing Rai Stadium, one of the better stadiums in this league. Another secondary objective what's my intention to record as much activity on Thailand's railways is possible. Apart from the time I spent in Chiang Rai and the northern districts of Chiang Mai I was always near the railway and most happy to record activity for my youtube channel. While much time was spent covering attraction in provinces on the way to and from Chiang Mai, visiting Chaing Rai was the odd one out but was justified on account of the football game while also providing a lot of new material for my site including to the emotive Tham Luang Cave.
Other provinces visited on the way north were, Lopburi, Phitsanulok, Uttaradit, Phrae, Lamphun, Lampang, Nakhon Sawan and Ayutthaya with a lot more material collected for my database for these provinces.
There were many stand out moments during this tour but being in the mountains was magical. Mae Sai and surroundings were particularly memorable as was Fang District in Chiang Mai. Here you can lose youself and imaging that worldly troubles don't exist.
In terms of the cost of this tour I was rather surprised that it worked out at less than 1,500 baht per day. However, we treated this tour as a travelling experience rather than a holiday and there weren't always the opportunity or time to spend in exotic restaurants, using grab-it and go at local resuarants and 7-Eleven much of the time. This is where we saved some money with the choice of accommodation generelly good and there was not much more we could have done about the fuel we used but I did mention how cost effective this was compared to hiring transport to get to some of the awkward locations.
As I look back at this tour and realise what it means to the overall coverage for northern and central provinces of Thailand and it's hard to imagine where another tour will come from. The only area now that I can think of is into the mountains to the west in Tak Province but the truth is I'm running out of ideas and wasn't that just the whole point of this project that I should someday complete my mission?
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