WHAT TO DO IN CHIANGMAI

Chiang Mai is a city in mountainous northern Thailand. Founded in 1296, it was the capital of the independent Lanna Kingdom until 1558. Its Old City area still retains vestiges of walls and moats from its history as a cultural and religious center. It’s also home to hundreds of elaborate Buddhist temples, including 14th-century Wat Phra Singh and 15th-century Wat Chedi Luang, adorned with carved

Chiang Mai city has 117 Buddhist temples ("wat" in Thai) in the Muang (city) district.[27] These include:

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, the city's most famous temple, stands on Doi Suthep, a mountain to the northwest of the city, at an elevation of 1,073 meters.[28] The temple dates from 1383.

Wat Chiang Man, the oldest temple in Chiang Mai, dating from the 13th century.: 209  King Mengrai lived here during the construction of the city. This temple houses two important and venerated Buddha figures, the marble Phra Sila and the crystal Phra Satang Man.

Wat Phra Singh is within the city walls, dates from 1345, and offers an example of classic Northern Thai-style architecture. It houses the Phra Singh Buddha, a highly venerated figure brought here many years ago from Chiang Rai.

Wat Chedi Luang was founded in 1401 and is dominated by a large Lanna-style chedi, which took many years to finish. An earthquake damaged the chedi in the 16th century and only two-thirds of it remains.

Wat Ku Tao in the city's Chang Phuak District dates from (at least) the 13th century and is distinguished by an unusual alms-bowl-shaped stupa thought to contain the ashes of King Nawrahta Minsaw, Chiang Mai's first Bamar ruler

Wat Chet Yot is on the outskirts of the city. Built in 1455, the temple hosted the Eighth World Buddhist Council in 1477.

Wiang Kum Kam is at the site of an old city in the Tha Wang Tan sub-district of the Saraphi district south of Chiang Mai. King Mangrai lived there for ten years before the founding of Chiang Mai. The site includes many ruined temples.

Wat Umong is a forest and cave wat in the foothills west of the city, near Chiang Mai University. Wat U-Mong is known for its "fasting Buddha," representing the Buddha at the end of his long and fruitless fast before gaining enlightenment.

Wat RamPoeng (Tapotaram), near Wat U-Mong, is known for its meditation center (Northern Insight Meditation Center). The temple teaches the traditional vipassanā technique and students stay from 10 days to more than a month as they try to meditate at least 10 hours a day. Wat RamPoeng houses the largest collection of Tipitaka, the complete Theravada canon, in several Northern dialects.

Wat Suan Dok is a 14th-century temple just west of the old city wall. It was built by the king for a revered monk visiting from Sukhothai for a rainy season retreat. The temple is also the site of Mahachulalongkorn Rajavidyalaya Buddhist University, where monks pursue their studies.

ChiangmaiTemperature 

Maximum temperature: 34 °C Minimum temperature: 27 °C Average temperature 30 °C from April to November and 5-20 °C from November to April

When is the best time to visit?

Winter: Late November through to mid-February are the cooler months to be in Chiang Mai. You will find you may need a jacket and jeans at this time of year. Some of the pools in Chiang Mai can be quite cold if they don’t get the sun. The days are still warm and pleasant. From mid-February onward, it starts to warm up and it’s unlikely you’ll need warmer clothes unless you are going into the mountains.

Chiang Mai also, unfortunately, suffers from air pollution in certain months due to crop burning. Please check out our forums to keep up to date on the situation.

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Where to Stay in Chiang Mai: Neighborhood Guide + Best Hotels

This page may contain affiliate links. More info in our Privacy Policy. One of our favorite cities in Thailand, Chiang Mai makes a great place to visit or base yourself as a digital nomad. If you’re planning a trip and wondering where to stay in Chiang Mai, this guide will go over the different neighborhoods and what you can expect in each, plus recommended stays for every budget.

Chiang Mai is one of our favorite cities in the world, and cumulatively over the years, we’ve spent more than a year living there. Not only is Chiang Mai a fun city to visit on a trip to Thailand, but it is also one of the best cities for digital nomads. With a strong sense of culture, an incredible food scene, vivid history and all the modern comforts you could ask for, Chiang Mai is a beautiful blend of old and new. And with mountains and jungle to explore, as well as cute, air-conditioned cafes to work from, Chiang Mai speaks to all different travelers and nomads. Whether you’re staying for a few days or a few months, we think you’ll love this city. In this guide to where to stay in Chiang Mai, we’re going to go over the different neighborhoods and what you can expect in each. We’ll share what each area is known for. From the bougie neighborhoods that are central to all the top attractions to neighborhoods that have an eclectic “hippy vibe” to those that have many co-working spaces and are popular with digital nomads, you’ll get a sense of which Chiang Mai neighborhood you’ll like best. Let’s dive in and explore the many areas of Chiang Mai!

Chiang Mai, Transportation

A number of bus stations link the city to central, southeast, and northern Thailand. The central Chang Puak Terminal (north of Chiang Puak Gate) provides local services within Chiang Mai Province. The Chiang Mai Arcade bus terminal northeast of the city centre (which can be reached with a songthaew or tuk-tuk ride) provides services to over 20 other destinations in Thailand including Bangkok, Pattaya, Hua Hin, and Phuket. There are several services a day from Chiang Mai Arcade terminal to Mo Chit Station in Bangkok (a 10- to 12-hour journey).

The state railway operates 10 trains a day to Chiang Mai railway station from Bangkok. Most journeys run overnight and take approximately 12–15 hours. Most trains offer first-class (private cabins) and second-class (seats fold out to make sleeping berths) service. Chiang Mai is the northern terminus of the Thai railway system.

Chiang Mai International Airport receives an average of 50 flights a day from Bangkok (25 from Suvarnabhumi and also 25 from Don Mueang,[69] flight time about 1 hour 10 minutes) and also serves as a local hub for services to other northern cities such as Chiang Rai, Phrae, and Mae Hong Son. International services also connect Chiang Mai with other regional centers, including cities in other Asian countries.

The locally preferred form of transport is personal motorbike and, increasingly, private car. Local public transport is via tuk-tuk, songthaew, bus or rickshaw. New electric tuks-tuks were introduced into the city in June 2017

As population density continues to grow, greater pressure is placed upon the city's transportation system. During peak hours, the road traffic is often badly congested. The city officials as well as researchers and experts have been trying to find feasible solutions to tackle the city's traffic problems. Most of them agree that factors such as lack of public transport, increasing number of motor vehicles, inefficient land use plan and urban sprawl, have led to these problems

The latest development is that Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) has approved a draft decree on the light railway transit system project in Chiang Mai. If the draft is approved by the Thai cabinet, the construction could begin in 2020 and be completed by 2027. It is believed that such a system would mitigate Chiang Mai's traffic problems to a large degree.

Thailand’s Transport and Traffic Policy Plan Office recently finalized the official details of the Chiang Mai Mass Transit System project by using the light rail transit system. There are 2 possible options for the Chiang Mai mass transit system project currently considered including, Plan A - the underground line for main lines with partly street level lines, and Plan B – street level for whole main lines. The project is currently in final preparation processes, scheduled to be approved by Ministry of Transportation by this September.

People and Culture of Chiang Mai

Seventy percent of the land in the north is mountainous and in the past was densely forested, making overland communication difficult. As a result, each valley developed slight variations in customs and language.

People practiced wet-rice subsistence agriculture and were self-sustaining, making what they needed. Customs and beliefs associated with the agricultural cycle were passed down from their ancestors.

The People

The people of the valleys refer to themselves as the khon muang and are of mixed origin. The first inhabitants were known as the Lawa. These people were joined by other groups moving along the trading routes of the river valleys.

Notable amongst these were the Mon, who originated from the region around Thaton in Myanmar. The Mon founded Haripunchai, a northern offshoot of the Dvaravati civilization that predominated in the Chao Phraya basin from the 6th - 10th centuries. By the 13th century, however, the dominant group was ethnic Tai, who had been migrating south into the valleys from at least the 10th century (some theories plausibly suggest the Tai may have been in the area long before this date). This group came to be known as the Tai Yuan.

Hilltribes taking water at spring, Chiang Mai, Thailand until the European colonialism of the 19th century, the politics of the north was dominated by the struggles with the Burmese, and between the kingdoms of Ayutthaya, Lanna and Lan Xang. Each military incursion involved the forced relocation of populations to increase manpower. Thus the wars of the region served mainly to mix ethnic Tai groups. Such resettlements tended to be geographically based, resulting in subtle differences within the population of the valley to this day.

The second half of the 19th century saw a large influx of overseas Chinese coming up from the South, as well as Haw Chinese coming overland from Yunnan. Many of the latter were Muslims who had fled to the hills after the brutal Chinese suppression of the Panthay rebellion in Yunnan in 1873. At the same time, the hill tribes were also moving south through the uplands.

In the mid 19th century Westerners started arriving with Christian missionaries and increased in numbers with the growth of the teak industry. The teak industry also attracted large numbers of Shan who worked all over the north for the logging companies.

The 20th century saw large migrations of hill tribes as well as  Kuomintang Chinese, who fled China after the communist victory of 1949. Finally, the recent economic growth has attracted people from all over Thailand. The incorporation of Lanna into the global marketplace brought to an end the relative cultural isolation of the once-remote northern valleys.

Language

The main ethnic language of the north is Kham Muang. With differences in both vocabulary and tones, Northern Thai may be considered a different language from Central Thai. Though the differences are diminishing as kham muang borrows from the state language, a person from central Thailand cannot immediately understand the northern language.

Words of Indian origin trace their roots to Pali through the Mon civilization, as opposed to those of central Thai which came from Sanskrit via the Khmer civilization of Angkor. Kham Muang has its script used in religious texts, but most local people are unable to read it.

Religion

Buddha Image in protected Position, Chiang Mai, ThailandAlthough Mahayana Buddhism may have come to the region first via the Khmer Empire and the Silk Road from China, Theravada Buddhism had become the dominant form of Buddhism by the end of the 14th century.

Theravada Buddhism in its essence is about the dhamma, the truth according to the Buddhist view. As the state religion of Lanna, however, it became connected with Brahmanic court traditions. These came from the Indianised empires of the Khmer at Angkor and the Myanmarns at Pagan, which were at the height of their power in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Before the dominance of these beliefs, the Tai were animists with a fertility cult centered on the wet-rice cultivation cycle. The blend of the Tai spirit world with Buddhism has resulted in a variety of customs and religious practices today. See Spirits and Mediums

Central to the traditional Thai view of the cosmos is the cycle of rebirth. To sin is to be reborn into a hell world, and to make merit is to progress into a better afterlife. A forest monk may explain this to a Westerner as an allegory for the laws of cause and effect known as karma. To a Thai villager, near Mae Chaem the holy images in the temples are the home of powerful spirits, and the vivid depictions of heaven and hell are maps that help him find his way in the cycle of seasons and years.

Naga, Chiang Mai, ThailandThe temple has long been the social center of rural Thai communities, and Buddhism is woven into the fabric of rural life. The monkhood originally provided the only education available and served to occupy males without work, especially during the rainy season. To this day folk festivals involve making merit by supporting the monk-hood with food and labor.

Until quite recently the temple was the main outlet for artistic creativity, the greatest works coming as a result of sponsorship by the ruling nobility. By so doing the rulers not only gained merit but also gained political legitimacy, as pious works were seen as a crucial part of a leader's majesty.

Buddhist values pervade the character of the Thai, who value maintaining harmony in relationships very highly. To avoid offending, Thais pay much attention to outward appearance. However, they also prize having a "cool heart" - being jai yen. This means that you should not allow yourself to become "hot" with desire and be at the mercy of worldly passions which can lead to harmful actions.

Buddhism also teaches tolerance, and so people have been free to practice other religions. Islam first arrived with Muslim Yunnanese who have been trading in the northern valleys since the time of the Mongols (11th - 13th centuries). The first permanent Christian mission was established in 1867. McCormick Hospital is one of several major institutions that came about with the growth of Christianity in the valley.

Chiang Mai hosts many Thai festivals, including:

Loi Krathong (along with Yi Peng), held on the full moon of the 12th month of the traditional Thai lunar calendar, being the full moon of the second month of the old Lanna calendar. In the Western calendar, this usually falls in November. Every year thousands of people assemble floating banana-leaf containers (krathong) decorated with flowers and candles and deposit them on the waterways of the city in worship of the Goddess of Water. Lanna-style sky lanterns (khom fai or kom loi), which are hot-air balloons made of paper, are launched into the air. These sky lanterns are believed to help rid the locals of troubles and are also used to decorate houses and streets.

Songkran is held in mid-April to celebrate the traditional Thai New Year. Chiang Mai has become one of the most popular locations to visit during this festival. A variety of religious and fun-related activities (notably the indiscriminate citywide water fight) take place each year, along with parades and Miss Songkran beauty competition.

Chiang Mai Flower Festival is a three-day festival held during the first weekend in February each year; this event occurs when Chiang Mai's temperate and tropical flowers are in full bloom.

Tam Bun Khan Dok, the Inthakhin (City Pillar) Festival, starts on the day of the waning moon of the sixth lunar month and lasts 6–8 days.

Notable local Buddhist celebrations are Visakha Bucha Day at Doi Suthep (mountain) where thousands of Buddhists make the journey on foot after sunset, from the bottom of the mountain to the temple at the top Wat Doi Suthep.[40] Makha Bucha Day is celebrated at large temples (Wat Phra Singh, Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, and Wat Sri Soda) with thousands of attendees.