Be picked up from your hotel in Mae Hong Son early in the morning to be driven to the market area. Apart from the usual household items and foodstuffs there, you will find an array of snacks popular with the Thai people - fried insects. For Thai people, a bag of fried insects is no different to how people in the West would think of bag of crisps, however, they do have an edge over crisps in terms of nutritious value. If you want to take this time for a fun photo op to show your friends back home, probably the most approachable insect in this 'mind-over-matter' scenario is a fried grasshopper, as they are the least gooey. The more daring might prefer Red Ants, Silk Worms, Bamboo Worms, Red Ant Eggs, Crickets, Mini Crickets or even Scorpions to try. On the other hand, you may be quite content to have your photo taken simply standing next to the Vendor and his cart of bugs.

Continue to the main road and wait to see locals offering food to the monks. You may have made a small purchase in the market to give to the monk yourself. Your guide will tell you how to give the monk an offering. Monks are not allowed to buy or request for food, being one of the 227 rules the monks live by, so the locals will offer food, such as glutinous rice, to the procession of monks each morning.

3 hours and 30 minutes

Mueang Chiang Rai, Thailand