Chiang Mai (first leg)

Background

Located 700 km (435 miles) north of Bangkok in a verdant valley on the banks of the Ping River, Chiang Mai was founded in 1296 as the capital of the ancient Lanna Kingdom.

Chiang Mai is most famous for its beautiful ancient temples, and the striking mountainous landscape around the city provides a lot of wonderful natural attractions and is home to two tribal villages. In the city itself, there are unique museums, fantastic spas and beautiful gardens and parks to enjoy.

For the first night, I ventured pretty far out from the hotel and checked out the popular restaurants and pubs littering the nearby Nimman road. Read all about its attractions here.

The Scenic route

On the first day, the rest of the family embarked on the epic trip to visit the epic mountain Doi Ithanon – said to be the tallest mountain in all of Thailand. It was a good time to go as it was a season when some flowers grew, making the mountain look bedecked bright, rippling colors. There were accounts from the aunties and uncle of long treks along scenic and breathtaking trails.

The Booze route

We found that Chiang Mai nightlife offered a broad scope of drinking and dancing options. For the most part, live music venues have the monopoly, but that was definitely not our scene. So we hunted for something more sedate with more booze, great ambience and was open early (because old men needed to retire early).

Nightlife attractions in Chiang Mai included riverside drinking by the Ping River with live bands entertaining with classic blues, jazz and rock tunes. We also discovered that the Nimman Road area was a popular haunt with the younger locals, with places like the Monkey Club, complete with live music and great food, or reggae bars where cheap beer, cushion-laden floors and chilled-out beats make for a laid-back evening.

While there were more seedier bars, massage parlours with some “extreme” ones (read Ago-go bars etc) littered all over the Chiang Mai, the only place we found worth concentrating on with our short time available was along their famed Red Light District – Loi Kroh Road.

The people (girls) there were more boisterous and everyone were generally more “professional” in their approach towards foreigners (both Farang – Caucasians or otherwise). Some spoke better English with some Chinese dialects.

Naturally, we felt totally comfortable and at ease throughout our subsequent 2 nights there. Although the bars along this road appeared “rough around the edges” to one not used to such night life (It IS a red light district after all) , most foreigners walking up and down the street looked and felt safe.

We understood that the real “action” started only after 9pm, but we could only stay till 10pm-ish as father needed to meet our family back at the hotel for some needed bonding. So, as it went, we missed out on quite a bit. But we saw enough to love the place immediately.

As the rest of the street was quiet from mid-afternoon till evening, we found that the only decent bars open in the day time were near the Chiang Mai Boxing Ring.

We loved the lights, and friendly people and the cheap beer, and I personally would not mind coming back one day.