Mae Salong with 5,000,000 ants

I'll just say it - Mae Salong is absolutely beautiful.

It's a small town built on top of a ridge, with extensive views over the hills and tea plantations. It's popular with tourists (although they appear to be mostly Thai or other Asian tourists, rather than Westerners) so there are plenty of guesthouses and resorts, cafés and restaurants.

I went for extensive walks among the tea plantations, drank some lovely green tea, and watched the sunset from my hotel balcony. Then I had to change rooms because as soon as it got dark, I discovered about a thousand ants sharing my bed with me (I think they had built a nest in the mattress). 

Ah, the joys of rainy season travel.

Despite the ants, the scenery is spectacular.

Getting to Mae Salong on public transport:

Yellow sorngtaews from Thaton take about 45-50 minutes to reach the Mae Chan Truck Stop, where you'll likely need to change. At the change point I waited 30-40 minutes (there is a snack shop and a seating area), then took another sorngtaew for 20-30 minutes up into the hills, to Mae Salong. 

The sorngtaew will stop either in the market square at Mae Salong, or (if the market is on) it will instead stop on the street outside Happy House (just west of Shinshan and the market area). I found a posted timetable, but I think it's out of date (I found they often left either 10 minutes early or 10 minutes late, and although the information I found said they also continued east of the market along the top of the ridge, I never saw one going along that route). 

The whole journey from Thaton to Mae Salong, including waiting time, took almost 2 hours, and each leg cost 30B. 

On the return journey, the sorngtaew stopped at the truck stop for 10 minutes, and then the same vehicle continued to Thaton. And, like just about everywhere in Thailand, the drivers are very helpful - I told the driver I was going to take the boat to Chiang Rai, and she dropped me at the closest point to the docks, rather than the bus stop.