In Reply to: We've decided to give it a go next year, posted by Sal on Friday, 2. July 2010 at 09:29 Bali Time:
On our first trip to Thailand we stayed in Sop Ruak for one week. We caught a public bus, very short ride, to Mai Sai and crossed over into Tachileik, Myanmar for a day. You could do this trip from Chiang Mai if it interests you.
Didn't have our passports but after a fair amount of wais we were allowed into Myanmar. (Very naive, don't forget your passport if you go)
In Tachileik we went to a Buddhist temple and a village. Was very interesting.
From Sop Ruak we went to Hua Hin for a week. Loved it!
A day trip from Hua Hin is to catch the train to Petchaburi to see King Rama IV's summer palace. We caught a bus back to Hua Hin.