Tell Me About Chiang Mai

I am sure by now that you are dying for me to tell you more about Chiang Mai, Thailand. Perhaps not dying, but incredibly interested. Well, maybe not interested, but if you keep reading you will be subjected to a little background on the second largest city inThailand in case you are ever a contestant on Jeopardy.

Chiang Mai is located about 400 miles north of Bangkok and because of its higher altitude and surrounding mountains (big hills), its temperatures tend to be slightly cooler than Bangkok. We are staying in a small B & B that reminds me of the Hawaiiana Hotel where we used to stay in Waikiki. We are walking distance to the centre of the city of about 160,000 and have easy access to tons of shops and street vendors, markets, and hotels. 

It seems that every block in Chiang Mai is designed like every other block. There is a fairly rigid pattern of shops on each street. A thai restaurant promoting pad thai noodles, sits next to a tour agent peddling treks and elephant camp visits, and next door to that is a message parlour. Restaurant, tour company, message parlour, restaurant, tour company, message parlour. Repeat, repeat, repeat! 

A second street pattern consists of a bar or a smoothy juice bar beside a guest house (small hotel) and next door to a souvenir shop. You can be assured that you will never be hungry or thirsty, need to suffer from sore feet or have trouble finding a place to sleep. You can also easily buy your elephant key ring souvenir while drinking a mango smoothy and booking your zip line tour over the treetops. You can achieve all of this within any given block.

The many holiday visitors to Chiang Mai include reams of Chinese, and numerous Germans and French from Europe. Lots of young gap year types, twenty somethings and a large number of lecherous looking seniors (my biased and unsubstantiated observation), as well as older looking non-heterosexual male couples. It is so important these days to at least appear to be using politically correct descriptors.

Chiang Mai is definitely a walking town. Especially in the evenings, the downtown streets are crammed with thousands of pedestrians and shoppers. For the less fitness conscious there are also hoards of bicycles, mopeds, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, pedi-cabs, taxi cabs and taxi trucks. Getting around is easy, with a lot of options at very reasonable prices. That is, of course, with all the street congestion, if any vehicle can actually move!

Chiang Mia is to Bangkok, as Krakow is to Warsaw, as Fethiye is to Istanbul - a smaller facsimile of its bigger and more famous relative. Our visit has been most satisfying and Chiang Mai would be on our recommended places to visit should you venture to Thailand.