Three hours in with the growling of our stomachs now accompanying the fourth rendition of the Beatles and Spandau Ballet compilation tape, I think the three of us were starting to wonder which country this jungle lodge was actually in. I still wonder if I should list Myanmar in my repertoire of places visited.

Sasha, a friend of a friend, had invited us to visit his new purchase and, when he rocked up in his four-by-four…

...we jumped right in!

It was a brilliant nugget-sized adventure which I’d highly recommend. The jungle in the very north of Thailand is pretty wild. The track to the lodge was really only a footpath and we were briefed en route how we’d have to lean left or right when told to keep the car upright. It was an exhilarating experience, although definitely not the safest!

Having successfully navigated the route we failed at the final river ford. It all got very muddy and technical. The day was saved when a local appeared from nowhere to help us out.

We spent the evening talking to the locals, playing stupid games and waiting for Sasha to declare our meal cooked. Apparently the flavour of this particular recipe is much improved after TWO hours of simmering.

As night fell we all cosied up on a sleeping platform under a mosquito net (somehow Sasha managed to position himself right in the middle) and dozed off. We woke up early the next morning bitten to shreds- turns out the mozzie net was rather holey.

Dawn in the jungle is a very atmospheric. We had a quick tour of the lodge- very basic but well built. At least, that’s what we thought until one of the stilted parapets collapsed under us. Fortunately, there weren’t any snakes hiding out down there, just a few man-sized spiders.