North of Bangkok, the city of Chiang Mai makes a perfect hub for exploring the hill country of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.

If you wish, it’s possible to fly on the discount airline Tiger Airways direct from Singapore to Chiang Mai, bypassing Bangkok altogether, and thence fly north to Kunming in Yunnan, China.

Arriving in Bangkok is not quite the cultural smack-in-the-mouth that it used to be.

The easiest way out of Bangkok is to head north by train.

The ancient city of Ayutthaya, which was the capital of Thailand for over 400 years up to the 18^th Century, is just 90 minutes by rail from Bangkok’s Hualamphong Station.  

In the south-west of Thailand, Khao Sok National Park has it all: stunning landscapes of karst (giant limestone outcrops, often in the form of tall pinnacles), rivers, waterfalls and wildlife-rich forests.

You can go rafting or kayaking, or take one of the many walking trails.