As well as bungee jumping on the tourist beaches, there’s white water rafting in the interior and plenty of scope for motor and mountain bike expeditions.

Bali is also a great base for travels further afield to Lembongan, (surfing, diving), Lombok (surfing, snorkelling, trekking — a hike up and into the smoking crater of Mt Rinjani is a must — and Java (more surfing and volcano climbs). For value and beauty, Bali is almost unbeatable.

How to get there: Tickets from London to Bali start at under £500 return.

3. Mae Hong Son, Thailand.

Deep in the mountainous jungles close to the Myanmar border in Thailand’s far north-east, Mae Hong Son has developed far more slowly than Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai as a travel destination, yet its adventure options are among the best in the region.

It’s a beautiful area of few paved roads, misty valleys and jungle-clad peaks. A word of warning: do not travel alone outside Mae Hong Son. Bandits and cross-border insurgents make this area dangerous for lone travellers.

Even couples should stay in populated areas. In February, an Australian was murdered and his partner lucky to escape with her life when they were attacked by bandits near a campsite close to the border.

Trekking: Within a couple of hours stroll of the village are Karen and Shan tribal villages, and the further into the mountains are the animist, opium-growing, colourfully dressed Lisu, Musoe and Lahu tribes.

Also close to Mae Hong Son are several camps of “long-neck” Padaung refugees from Myanmar.

Most treks last three to five days and cost about 500 baht a day — cheaper than Chiang Mai treks.

Caving: An area around Pangmapha has one of the world’s highest concentrations of limestone caves, about 30 of which contain huge ancient coffins carved from single tree trunks and supported on timber scaffolds.

The locals call these “spirit caves”. Anthropologists are still trying to work out the age and origin of the coffins.

Many of the caves can be easily visited, some require a guide and some demand rock climbing of varying degrees of difficulty.

Rafting: Trekking agencies also organise day-long raft trips on the Pai River, either up or downstream for 400 baht a day to all-inclusive two-day trips visiting waterfalls and hot springs for 1600 baht.

Rafting tends to finish in December when water levels fall.

Mountain biking: Rugged back roads, mountain passes, rainforest valleys and little traffic make the province mountain bike heaven, providing kilometre after kilometre of fat-tyre fun, especially at this time of the year when the hills erupt in a yellow blanket of flowers.

And, if all that action makes you ache, you can always ease your muscles in the hot spring at Pha Pawng, 11kms south of Mae Hong Son.