Sue Perkins: Lost in Thailand

Episode one opens in magnificent northern Thailand where Sue explores the breath-taking beauty of the Thai Highlands. She gets off to an exhilarating start by abseiling deep into a limestone cave, aptly named Crazy Horse Buttress. Terrifying. But Sue is here to push the boundaries beyond just being a tourist with a ridiculous hat.

Thai massages are famed the world over and Sue wants to try one. Her salon of choice is a women's prison! This is a rehab project giving offenders a career option post-jail and Sue is blown away, both by their stories and the massage.

Heading into the lush Thai Highlands, Sue visits the Elephant Sanctuary Chiang Mai run by its inspirational founder, Lek, who has dedicated her life to rehabilitating elephants. The gentle giants in her care come here suffering with mental and physical illnesses following abuse in the tourist trade or logging industry. Sue is astounded by the level of nurturing they receive, including astonishingly presented meals and lullabies at bedtime.

For a taste of the high life, Sue checks into a hotel that promises to deliver her - sliding bed and all - direct into the jungle for breakfast, before hitting the long and winding road deep into the mountainous Chiang Dao region. Here she joins the Palong Hill tribe, an ethnic community known for their vibrant dress and exceptional weaving skills.

At the imaginatively named "Poopoopaper Park" Sue enthusiastically stirs a ginormous cauldron of elephant dung destined to become sheets of craft paper, an inventive and sustainable use for the 100 kilos of waste each elephant produces daily!

Two hundred miles east towards the border with Laos, Sue is invited to participate in the country's much-anticipated festival of longboat racing. Deng, the Godmother of the Race, decides to swathe Sue in traditional dress, ensuring she's suitably attired for the ceremonial boat as they cheer on the rowers in this 600-year-old sport. They move in mesmerising harmony and with astounding speed, but will Sue's team be victorious?

The comedian heads south to Phuket, the country's largest island. Making her diving debut in the tropical waters of the Andaman Sea, she learns how destructive humans can be to the fragile coral reefs. Sue also visits Khoa Phra Theo Wildlife sanctuary, where she learns about the plight of gibbons.

In the final episode Sue visits the country's heady and exotic capital, Bangkok.

Her journey starts with a bang. At home, she enjoys an occasional bout at the boxing gym but that's no preparation for being thrown into the ring with a highly flexible Muay Thai champion fighter. Jade Sirisompan is as impressive in the ring as she is outside of it, explaining how she led the way for Thai women in a male-dominated sport.

In the lush Phetchaburi province Sue visits a charity refuge where she's shocked to hear of the scale of tiger exploitation in Thailand, with over 2000 tigers held in captivity, compared to less than 200 left in the wild. She prepares a meaty feast for one of the fortunate tigers who has been rescued from a zoo where her days were spent chained to a small concrete pad.

Back in Bangkok, Sue moves onto more positive matters at an electric tuktuk company addressing Bangkok's sky-high air pollution, which kills nearly 30,000 people every year – more than road accidents, drug use and murder combined. Amid a tropical storm, Sue is let loose at the wheel of one of these £9000 vehicles, and it doesn't take long for her to realise that the acceleration is very efficient!

In the seaside town of Bang Saen Sue cheerfully follows a sign that says ‘Welcome to Hell'. Hidden behind a Buddhist Temple is a ‘Hell Garden' which - with the visual aid of some very graphic statues - outlines the potential consequences of sin.

Next Sue meets an ethical coconut farmer who encourages her have a go at harvesting the aromatic coconuts with secateurs 20 feet above her head. Why ethical? Because most coconut farms use chained monkeys to harvest the crop, whereas here there is not a monkey in sight. Back in town, Sue helps prepare a little taco that packs a big punch with one of Thailand's most impressive – and youngest – Michelin-starred chefs.

Sue rounds off her journey in a suitably rambunctious style by jamming with a group of musicians who are taking traditional Molam music (northern folk, Thai style) to the next level with some truly banging disco tracks. It's the perfect way to end an utterly magical and revealing voyage through Thailand.