Malati and I have visited Thailand a few times over the past years and our trips have been mostly centred around Bangkok. This time we decided to give Bangkok city a miss and headed to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. We got into Chiang Mai after an overnight flight from Hyderabad which including a very short layover in Bangkok. Do checkout our experience at Transit – International to Domestic- Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport .

Chiang Mai was founded in the 13th century as the capital of the Lana dynasty and is the gateway to the Northern Highlands. It is located on the banks of the Ping River which is the main tributary of the Chao Praya river ( which also flows through Bangkok. More about it later). The core city referred to as the “Old Town” comprises of a square 1.6×1.6 km enclosed by a wall and a moat. While the moat remains, much of the wall has been destroyed and one can only see some remnants of this wall. The city extends beyond this in all directions and is in many ways a modern city .

We spent a week in Chiang Mai and stayed at a quaint little boutique hotel in the Old Town -The Inside House. We chose this hotel due its location, which was within walking distance of many of the tourist spots of our interest. Getting around the city was quite easy and the local transportation was very convenient and efficient and reasonably priced. While tuktuks are a plenty, the most common mode of the locals is the Songthaew ( song theyi )meaning two benches. The Songthaew is a kind of an extended van with seating for about ten people in the back. This is the cheapest mode of transport and to me it looked like a hearse but red in colour ! GRAB and BOLT taxis are easily available and highly affordable. During our stay thanks to GRAB we sampled many of the luxury sedan models available in these parts of the world.

Chang Mai Old Town has a temple almost on every street and it is said that there are three hundred of them. Each one more beautiful and tourist worthy than the other. We limited our itinerary to include only four of them, carefully selected after a lot of study and local inquiries. The Sunday night market on Rachadamnoen road, is a prominent must see in Chiang Mai. The market starts at Wat Phra Sing temple and extends all the way to the Thae Phae gate. One can spend a happy evening browsing through food, trinkets, souvenirs, clothes and other interesting Thai handicrafts and artefacts. Chiang Mai is at the base of the Northern Highlands and a good start point for excursions into the hills. Doi Suthep is a temple on the hills and combined with a visit to the Mong village makes for an interesting day’s excursion. The Don Inthanon national park, the home to the highest peak in Thailand at 8500 ft above sea level is a few hours drive away as is Chiang Rai the former capital of the Lanna dynasty. Add a palace, a boat ride on the river, The Chiang Mai National museum and another local market like the Wororot market and you would have seen pretty much of what the Old Town and around have to offer. We skipped the Elephant Park and a few local markets and China town.

Beyond Old town the city is is pretty much like any modern city. The two shopping malls of interest are the Central Mall and the Maya Mall – Nothing much to speak except for rows and rows of mostly international brands. Chiang Mai is known for its silk industry and a visit to a silk factory is an interesting diversion from the temples and the hills. The Thai Silk Village located outside the city showcases the entire silk manufacturing process and the adjoining showroom has some exquisite pieces of silk garments – a tad expensive I thought! Chiang Mai is also know for the Thai version of celadon pottery which is made from the clay found around Chiang Mai. Celadon pottery is green glazed pottery and entirely hand made. The process has survived many centuries and still is relevant in the modern day. We spent a few hours at the Ban Celedon understanding the manufacturing process and marvelled at the hand made designs and the glazing techniques. See the photos below are some examples of Green glazed Celadon pottery,

We spent seven days in Chiang Mai which was adequate time to leisurely explore the city, visit the tourist spots, temples and absorb the culture and flavour .And of course the Thai food – both the street food and fine dining at some of the luxury restaurants . Do follow us on our journey through Chiang Mai and Thailand in my following posts Continued in my next post – The “Wats” of Chiang Mai