Thailand -- sightseeing outside the norm

Local touring from Chiang Mai

Something I have always found fascinating is the tourists come here and
are shuttled in busses and the back of trucks 4 to 6 high speed hours
into remote areas to go on treks. The area between the Samoeng, more or
less due north to the MHS road, Mae Taeng, and Mae Rim has, at a rough
estimate, 100 unmarked villages and is a spiderweb of local roads. In
just that little area a half hour from Chiang Mai one could trek, tour
and wander for a solid month and still not see everything. Yet the
tourists pay fabulous prices to go way out in the sticks when they
could rent a car and wander that area for a week for the same price...

Excerpted with permission from:
http://thailandescape.abacus-es.net/...gvillages.html