Por qué nunca viviría en Chiang Mai (como nómada digital)
I recently spent some time in Chiang Mai and below is a report of my findings and insights as of January 2019.
Chiang Mai is great for a holiday
Chiang Mai is a great place for a holiday, and I will for sure be going again.
I enjoyed that it didn’t have so many people compared to Bangkok, traffic wasn’t so bad and everything was pretty cheap in terms of hotels and transport.
The food in the north differs from central Thailand and it was nice to try new dishes I’ve not seen before.
There are many tourist things to do in the city, and when you get outside the city the landscape and mountains are mind blowing.
It’s when you get out the city that Chiang Mai shows you how beautiful it really is.
I stayed in tree-house hotel for part of my trip. It was made from wood and had some crazy view of a mountain for 750b per night per person including breakfast and dinner.
I went on some hill walks though rivers and up the mountain with no gear, nobody in sight:
I would go back in a heartbeat, they even had thermal pools that you could rent for 150b per hour:
As I sat down on the opposite side was a village with wild pigs running about
If you’re the type of person who enjoys exploring nature, Chiang Mai is freaking great for a holiday and I advise to visit.
Vivir en Tailandia por $1000
Por qué a las occidentales les cuesta tener citas en Tailandia
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Chiang Mai is tough because it is designed to appeal to the tourists mob who are looking for a certain experience. People that actually want to live there are looking for something else entirely. The first days I was there I was pretty disappointed. There was nothing to do and there were tourists everywhere.
However as I better understood where to go and where not to go, suddenly the city became one of my favorites. The reason everyone likes Nim road is because **once you know your way around** you realize everything and **more importantly** everyone is within a 10 minute walk. Bangkok is much more spread out. If you live in the most expensive areas of Bangkok you might not go on the skytrain for food, gym, store, ect., but you definitely will need to get on there to see someone. The ability to go anywhere or meet anyone with a 10 minute walk simply doesn’t exist anywhere else.
Thanks for the comment. I didn’t like the feeling of everyone being so close, I like being alone sometimes and the space, but can see why others would enjoy that.
So what’s the name of the treehouse you slept in?
I think it was called Tree House Hideaway.
You forgot to mention the lack of good night life and crappy monger scene in Chiang Mai. There are a few GoGos and bars in Chiang Mai but most close by midnight.
I also heard they have a lot of karaoke bars on the outskirts of town with hot girls. But you need to go with someone who speaks Thai or you might get overcharged and ripped off.
Chiang Mai seems like a good place for a holiday weekend but it’s definately not a sexpat destination.
And that is the reason people who live in Chiang Mai tend to live in Chiang Mai. Because it is NOT a sexpat destination
Every city asides from Pattaya can be classed as a non-sex pat destination.
I guess I’m just into it for the hot Thai poon. Call me a sex addict. Lol ;-P
I made it a thing to go to such outskirt places and with good success, do NOT go with a local person, the success recipe is to go alone. Great girls for 300 are real but barfines can be at gogobar levels. Often if such videoke girls like you they will request a barfine discount from the floor manager, can be very substantial discount, and exchange of phone number is a given, next time no barfine.
I can see the appeal of CM for a specific type of person. There’s more outdoor stuff to do, fishing, biking, hiking. Smaller place, can probably get a solid social circle easier, more young people as percentage of expats, likely better reputation of expats (even if you don’t think so).
I’m going back to BKK for the first time in 6 years next month. Hotel prices seem to have skyrocketed. Seems like AirBnB is a better bet. Any recommendation on what p4p options are the best in 2019? Any freelance spots that are not full of fist pumping roidheads and music way too loud (talking about Levels). Also, what’s the best massage spot. Someone mentioned 7heaven and Bitstyle?
Thanks bro.
Ps. I thought you were headed back to UK?
I’ll try and get a post on this later in the year. Wasn’t planning on heading back to the UK just Europe, but I’ve fallen back in love with Bangkok for now. I would avoid all night club venues and head to soi 24/1.
What is happenning in 24/1? I have no idea, but that is not new. Even though I have visited BKK 10+ times, but I am still just a tourist. Never more that 7-10 days and always Soi 11, or 4, or once Silom /Patpong really sucks/ and once Khaosan /worst of the worst/. Plus Pattaya plus Phuket /Patong is nowdays nonsense, but Pattaya really improving/. I have tried Route 66 once, but not for me at the time. Must admit I do not know BKK that good even now. So, any suggestions to widen my horizons is helpful. So, what is 24/1 or anything comparable?
I was wondering if you could do a post about the likely hood of getting arrested for hiring a bar/gogo girl in Thailand and The Philippines?
Gracias.
If you don’t cause trouble and have no taken drugs, the chances are almost zero.
I met a British “digital nomad” in Chiang Mai that only ate bananas and didn’t wear footwear.
That’s all I needed to know about the expat scene.
Like you said, good vacation spot if you like nature. But an absolutely terrible place for a serious western expat in his 30s to live.
You forgot to mention that it has the worst air pollution in the world for quarter of the year.
Are the Starbucks still full of McBloggers on laptops?
I don’t think I saw a Starbucks but the coffee shops were.
Chiang Mai is full of digital gonads and dirty backpackers with dreadlocks. The monger scene sucks too. Slim pickings. If you want to meet hot girls you have to go online or meet university girls. The Karaoke bars can also be good but you need to go with someone who speaks Thai or you’ll get overcharged and ripped off. If your looking for hot Thai snapper then Bangkok and Pattaya is a much better destination.
It’s weird that your blog is called A Farang Abroad, yet the Thais who see you would not call you a Farang.
Yes, it is.
I suffered 5 years living in Chiang Mai. Leaving was a huge relief. There are so many wankers and Valley Girls there (as well as the aforementioned Chinese who seemed to enjoy standing in the middle of the road with their nose in a phone) who talk absolute bollocks loudly and the nightlife is dire, unless, I guess, you’re one of the cokeheads who bore you with tall tales of how they ‘made it’. Add in the horrific pollution and you have a grade ‘A’ khazi.
It’s a big placement area for foreign students on study abroad programs, and it’s too close to the Golden Triangle for that to be a good idea. I read that there are over 40,000 American expats served by the U.S. Consulate Chiang Mai. The U.S. reliance on KMT presence there during the Vietnam War contributes to it. Americans sending their kids over will have to be the uninformed ideologues who have no problem with the permanently addictive drugs or the wars, but consider Bangkok dirty because of the sex that’s now worse almost everywhere else.
You might as well say, “If I were there, I’d inevitably also be using my income to help ruin it more.”