CHAIYAPHUM

This is approximately the centre of Thailand, a hilly province that is famous for its silk villages. Ban Khwao is renowned for its production of raw silk, with travellers heading for the silk farms to watch the whole production process from feeding the silk worms with mulberry leaves right through to the dyeing and weaving of thread.

Chaiyaphum also has some good elephant training schools, with most graduates now used for trekking journeys into the mountains. And it has revived its elephant round-up (rivalling Surin) every January. Phrang Ku, an ancient Khmer shrine housing a revered Buddha, is popular with residents as a ''healing station''

Tat Ton National Park centres around scenic waterfalls and has very unusual forests. While Pa Hin Ngam National Park is renowned as much for its huge fascinating rock formations as it is for its pink krachiew flowers that bloom in May to July.