The Good
There are more than 300 temples in Chiang Mai; they outnumber 7/11 stores, which takes some doing in Thailand. Situated in the heart of the old city, Wat Phra Singh is the most venerated and visited although it’s probably not the ideal place for meditative contemplation. For that, stroll 10 minutes west of the moat and ancient city walls to Wat Suan Dok, where visitors pad around the pagodas in a state of shoeless serenity.
Six ways to escape the crowds and see the real Chiang Mai
Having attained inner equilibrium, sign up for an hour of Monk Chat. Despite sounding like a dating app for less-than-devout Buddhists, the initiative is an informal way for foreigners to interact with Chiang Mai’s saffron-robed residents. The monks are more than happy to enlighten visitors on topics such as their daily routine and plans for the future, and why they all have a mobile phone. In return, the monks get to practise their English.
Scratch further beneath the surface of Thailand’s second city by getting off the busy main roads and into the side streets. Hidden from the highway are working-class neighbourhoods in which women serve up pungent bowls of steaming noodles from food carts and men sit by the roadside bashing miscellaneous bits of metal into shape. Motorcycle repair stalls share forecourt space with clothing stores, which, on closer inspection, are actually family homes with a week’s worth of laundry drying in the sun.
If you’re lucky, you might stumble upon a boutique hotel down an alleyway you missed the first three times you walked past. Book a room, order a pot of iced tea and wave at the granny mending clothes on an old sewing machine below your balcony. For lunch, see what’s on offer at the cheap and cheerful street stalls in the vicinity then for dinner, push the boat out and reserve a table at one of the high-end restaurants that line the banks of the Ping River.
Plenty of activities entice visitors beyond Chiang Mai and into the surrounding mountains. At this time of year, Doi Inthanon draws thousands of curious (mainly Thai) tourists keen to experience wintry conditions. Thailand’s highest point (2,565 metres) is often dusted with frost and temperatures can fall below zero. Further afield, elephant sanctuary visits (no riding allowed) paired with hill-tribe treks are big business, as are white-water rafting trips and mountain-biking adventures.
Chiang Mai welcomed about 3 million international tourists in 2017 but there’s also a large permanent community of foreigners dominated by two distinct groups. Younger freelance workers are attracted by the city’s reputation as a leading digital nomad destination while, at the other end of the spectrum, Chiang Mai is home to a large number of expat retirees. Both sets rave about the warm climate and cheap apartments, excellent health care and zippy Wi-fi speeds, not forgetting the delicious food, low crime rate and ever-helpful locals. Best of all, Thailand’s northern capital is only a 2½-hour flight from Hong Kong.
The Bad
The digital nomads and retirees are an even-handed bunch. Many of their articles highlighting the advantages of Chiang Mai devote equal amounts of space to the drawbacks. Sure, the weather is great – but only in December, January and February, after which it gets hot, hotter still, then wet, and very wet. But it’s not just the stifling heat that causes expats to abandon the city for a month each year.
Late February sees the beginning of the burning season, when Thai farmers (and their Chinese and Lao neighbours) set fire to fields to prepare for new crops. “No burning” periods have been introduced, with a 5,000 baht (US$157) reward for reporting offenders, although the tight-knit agricultural communities don’t snitch on each other. As a result, a thick layer of choking smoke cloaks Chiang Mai. It got so bad in March last year that the city was ranked the sixth worst in the world for air quality, according to the Air Visual pollution measuring app.
There should be an app that helps pedestrians navigate Chiang Mai’s streets. Pavements are treated as parking places for scooters or display space for shopkeepers and sometimes there’s no pavement at all. Pedestrians rarely have the right of way and those on foot risk their lives every time they venture into the maelstrom of winding, weaving mopeds. You’d be better off sipping tea on your backstreet hotel balcony. That way, when you blow your nose, the tissue is less likely to be flecked with black gunk.
The air will be cleaner and definitely icier at the summit of Doi Inthanon. Savvy authorities have installed sprinklers to create fake frost in a bid to attract more sightseers.
Luring tourists has never been much of a problem for Thailand – being able to actually converse with them, though, is another thing entirely. The Land of Smiles languishes at the foot of Southeast Asia’s English skills league table. Staff in the hospitality industry speak enough for basic communication – just don’t go asking passers-by for directions, or the tourist police for that matter. In fact, your conversation partner at Monk Chat may well be the most proficient linguist you encounter, although when they’re not nattering with tourists, some of the monks have weightier issues to deal with.
At Monk Chat, I asked whether owning laptops and mobile phones was compatible with the Buddhist principle of non-attachment. “Our philosophy is to embrace technology,” one shaven-headed sage explained. Evidently Chiang Mai’s monks have decided they can have their cake and eat it, so to speak.
