Anantara Resort and Spa by John Borthwick

Few hotels in the world can offer a room with a view that takes in three countries. From a balcony at the Anantara Resort and Spa in northern Thailand you may not be able to immediately tell where Thailand ends and Laos begins, but Burma (aka Myanmar) is unmistakable. In the middle of a Mekong riddle of channels and river flats, Burma is marked by a large and ugly casino.

Closer to home, and far prettier, the Anantara's grounds are a cascade of blooms and bamboo bursts that slide towards a broad blue pool. Beyond it, the dining and spa pavilions echo the region's historic Lanna kingdom architecture. This means tonnes of teak and the resort is proud that in its recent makeover (from the former Le Meridien Baan Boran) all the timber used was recycled, with no new teak cut.

The five-star Anantara Resort and Spa is 60 km north of Chiang Rai. On its Sala Mae Nam restaurant deck I am served a massaman curry to beat all comers; the moon and jungle crickets are out in full; and I lean back to relish up-country Thai tranquility of a kind that is so often drowned in the hectic south. My suite has classic Lanna touches in its fabrics and art works, and a cannily rotating television set. I switch it off because, lounging in a bathtub half as wide as the Mekong, and with my balcony doors open, I can almost see Laos live.

If a three-country view isn't sufficiently novel, try the resorts' mahout (elephant driver) training school, conducted at an elephant camp that is part of the 65 hectare resort. The three-day course costs 10,000 Thai baht and includes four hours of tuition each day. Shorter one or two-day courses cost 4000 baht a day. The full course (which includes a final driving test) also covers the daily care of an elephant, feeding it and "the mahout lifestyle" — indispensible stuff for the modern city dweller.