After nearly a month in Thailand, the time had come for us to say goodbye to our favorite (albeit first) SE Asian country and move onward into Laos. Our 30-day visas were running out, so we knew we needed to cross the border within a week. We decided the Chiang Khong / Huay Xai crossing on the Mekong River (which forms the border of the two countries) was the best option, and that we had some time to play between leaving Chiang Mai and getting our exit stamps. A little research and a few Singha Beers later, we committed to travel North through Chiang Dao and Mae Salong before heading East to use Chiang Rai as a gateway to the border crossing at Chiang Khong.

Chiang Dao really surprised us. We weren't expecting much - it's a small town with little to its name outside of a cave that is supposedly "touristy". But, we loved it. The bus ride from Chiang Mai was easy. We found a great guest house, nestled at the foot of the mountains (appropriate as it's named The Nest). The Thai food was among the best we've had. The cave was actually huge and awesome. We road bikes around town all day. We walked up 500 steps to one of the most beautiful and spiritual temples we've seen yet, appreciating the appropriately timed inspirational quotes along the way. We got pumpkin waffles at the Tuesday morning market. We liked it so much that we decided to stay a second night. The only down-side was that we broke down and decided to get a Western meal at a very well-reviewed "gourmet" restaurant. Date night! We spent a lot of money, ordered a lot of food and were served mediocre resort-fare and bad wine. It was a reminder that gourmet and Western are unnecessary notions in a country with such amazing, accessible local food. And that a lot of Westerners just don't like real Thai food as much as us (hence the stellar reviews). Lesson learned.

From there, by way of a bus and two songtauws, we spent a night in "the least Thai town in Thailand." Mae Salong is far North Thailand, almost on the Burmese border. It was settled by remnants of a Chinese Nationalist army fleeing the communist regime in the early 60s. They set up shop in Mae Salong with the expectation of building their strength for retaliation, funding their arms purchases through opium production and trade (it's very close to the Golden Triangle). They eventually fell in love with Thailand and took an offer of citizenship in exchange for help fighting Thailand's own communists and turning their opium fields into tea plantations. So now, you can sip a cup of locally grown Oolong overlooking beautiful valleys of tea plantations in a Chinese village in Thailand.

Two things stood out about Mae Salong. One, and most importantly, there is a shop that serves THE BEST NOODLES WE HAVE EVER TASTED. "Chinese Yunanist Noodle Shop" is family run, with grandma doing the cooking, mom doing the serving and grandpa doing the babysitting. Grandma has the preparation down to a science, putting the perfect amount of homemade noodles, dumplings, sauces, spices and broth into each bowl. The soup is served with a side of kim chi for crunch and an extra kick. We were in Mae Salong for less than 24 hours and went twice. We still dream about those noodles. We also had black-bone chicken (literally chicken with black skin and bones) for the first time which was weird but no where near as tasty.

The second observation is that Mae Salong has the tiniest horses on the planet. And, even after all of our noodles, they let us ride them. We went for a "horse trek" only to be led around on ponies the size of mountain goats. It was hilarious and we are pretty positive that even though it looked as if we'd crush the horses under our Western weight, they were actually sturdier than they looked.

Still laughing at the tiny horses and full from yet another bowl of noodles, we jumped in a songtauw for a quick trip to Chiang Rai. One problem... The songtauw only takes you to the edge of the valley where they drop you on the side of the highway. From there, with no instruction from the driver other than a series of "shooing" motions and lots of charades with locals on the street, we found our way to a bus stop and got on the next bus heading in the right direction.