The crazy nights of Loy Kratong is a distant memory but already clear when, on a sunny afternoon as usual, the road takes us up north to the Laotian border. It is not a simple customs, a barrier between one nation and another, it is the Mekong, a river and legendary life, a trade route and a huge obstacle. For us it is a bit 'as the star was for the Kings: shows us the way, it illuminates the path to suggest a sharp turn to the east and then south ... followed him, chasing up the river mouth, delta, which was at that safe haven and saving for the Vietcong and intricate maze and deadly to Americans.

The festive atmosphere and the city of Chiang Mai has to take a few days and now we're ready to start again, fresh and eager to discover new horizons and new landscapes. The prolonged static makes us nervous, anxious, as if we were now workaholic pedal, accustomed to the slow pace, the seat of our bikes there is now a friend, molded and mastered in a few weeks of rebellion to the constant weight to bear. We travel north again, traveling uphill again. E 'docile, this time, in a valley from the house on the prairie: the leaping stream flows through the rocks while the sun shines on the golden fields of wheat, higher on the mountain slopes that limit the view of the forest grows. The forest here is different from that found in our latitudes, is more dense, layered, complicated. To announce the end of our effort today, the sun is hidden behind the western peaks and we pitched tent in Khun Chae National Park, waiting for his reappearance hot the next morning. Gurgling nature trail, this is the statement placed on the map at the entrance to a narrow path that goes east. We take it and we find ourselves in the noisy silence of the tropical forest: climb, descend and ascend, fording a small stream before reaching the foot of a giant fig tree. L amattinata ends with some shots of birds in the past not far from our tent. The Call of the road makes us jump back in the saddle and the slope leads us to favor the highest geysers of Thailand, chained inside concrete swimming pool in the center of the village square ... certainly not the most edifying spectacle to which we will see . Let the high altitude to descend in the province of Chiang Rai where a pergola cultivation and stop us curious to find out that it is passion fruit, a stealing someone among the many fallen to the ground. A flash of blue spark on a branch reaching out to the canal that runs along the lane, braking suddenly hiss of the pressure suffered sudden and fast camera slips out of its case. Silently we get closer but the sight and hearing are more acute and the fisherman's view of what we expected: a moment, a fluttering of wings and the stain color disappeared behind the bend of the channel. Our heart is filled with mixed feelings, we are disappointed not to have captured the subject but happy to have had the good fortune to see a kingfisher on the roadside. Chiang Rai is a crossing point that we leave behind us soon headed north in search of wild places and less crowded. Chiang Saen Lake is the perfect destination to get some 'peace and crowds of wild birds makes it a paradise for birdwatchers. Pitch a tent on its shores and in the evening songs of the fishermen off from the darkness take us into the arms of Orpheus, but not before admiring the sky become covered with myriads of stars. A morning of hunting does not lead to a booty to be satisfactory despite numerous sightings, so we put cameras in the holster and jumped back on our iron horses: Laos is a two-km, 10 km in Myanmar and we will cycle towards both. The Golden Triangle was once a land of smugglers and traffickers who passed by here to stock up for sale of opium in the world to stratospheric prices after the peasants of the dozens of tribes in the area had produced growing poppies to earn four francs . Today, tourism has taken over and the point where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet, the Mekong is crossed by dozens of long-tail boat whizzing in its current passenger loads of cameras and camcorders. The last act of our Thailand is consumed for the most part along the bank of the river to the south, to reach a point where we can load our bikes and our luggage up a narrow and long spear that will lead us in the mountainous areas northern Lao People's Democratic Republic.