Chiang Mai People & Culture

Chiang Mai offers a lot for the everday traveller. There are plenty of good and cheap places to eat. If you feel brave, ignore what the guides say and try the street vendors for food. You can see it being cooked from fresh, right in front of you. There is a wide selection of hotels to cover all budgets. asiarooms.com is a good web-site to use when visiting Asia. The best time to visit is the Buddhist New Year 13-16th April, which is know throughout Thailand as Songkran. The city population (of approx 3 million) and loads of tourists, stop whatever they are doing for three or four days and have a massive waterfight. It is all done in very good humour. Hire a tuk tuk for a few hours, buy some water guns and go and enjoy yourself. There are loads of activities on the outskirts of the city, which include (but are not limited to) hot air ballooning, bunjy jumping, elephant trekking, go-cart racing, silk factory, lacquerware factory, lots of Wats (Buddhist Temples), butterfly farm and micro-light flying. If you go for Songkran, expect to get wet. When you go out in the daytime, wear stuff you don't mind getting wet. If you get dressed up to go out in the evening, wait until it's dark, otherwise the people still throw watre over you. The nightlife is whatever you want to make of it. You could go and watch a traditional Thai dance, go to a bar, enjoy a meal out in the open air night market or barter with the street vendors who are going to try and flog you cheap clothes and gifts to bring home.

Beautiful warm friendly people. Visit the night market. Enjoy bartering. If your store keeper stops smiling you have pushed him too far. Keep it fun.

I think a lot of people who visit Thailand start in Bangkok (of course) and then go south to the islands. What everyone who does this is missing is the amazing northern thai regions including Chiang Mai. There are so many amazing things to do in Chiang Mai that it should not be missed! Almost every hostel can set you up on an overnight trek through the forest where you will get to ride elephants, raft rivers and dine with locals who inhabit the area. And if it is something that intrigues you, while not advertised for obvious reasons, there is usually an opium den type of situation while in the hills, but this is obviously very optional. You can also take Thai cooking classes while in Chiang Mai. The classese last all day long and include a trip to the marketplace where you learn about crazy vegetables and spices. Even just biking around the city and visiting the various pagodas is pretty incredible. Go to Chiang Mai if you are in the area! And like the rest of Thailand, it is all super cheap :)

Going on treks on elephant-back is one of the highlights of traveling to northern Thailand. While most people take good care of their elephants, there are some who do not. Make sure to only hire elephants that look healthy and taken care of.

I've been there for hiking. I really recommend it for adventurous people who wants to see also a beautiful nature. There are many providers with different prices for day trips, but as usual in thailand you can deal with them. Well the trip was like that: I joined a group of 8 people (mixed nationalities, really good for conversations about other cultures) which has been leaded by a native who guided us to his secret village in the deep thai wood. They have easy-built houses n sleep on the ground and they can cook delicious meals such as spicy snake, soups and other stuff. After one night we hiked back. On the way we could do an elephant ride and bamboo rafting. All in all a really nice trip but they've already been convinced by the government to do some touristic stuff (selling goods n commercial things) and pay them kind of taxes. About Chiang Mai I can't tell a lot because I just did this trip there.

I've been there for hiking. I really recommend it for adventurous people who wants to see also a beautiful nature. There are many providers with different prices for day trips, but as usual in thailand you can deal with them. Well the trip was like that: I joined a group of 8 people (mixed nationalities, really good for conversations about other cultures) which has been leaded by a native who guided us to his secret village in the deep thai wood. They have easy-built houses n sleep on the ground and they can cook delicious meals such as spicy snake, soups and other stuff. After one night we hiked back. On the way we could do an elephant ride and bamboo rafting. All in all a really nice trip but they've already been convinced by the government to do some touristic stuff (selling goods n commercial things) and pay them kind of taxes. About Chiang Mai I can't tell a lot because I just did this trip there.

One of my favorite cities throughout all my travels. I was here for just about a month total. Made friends that I still keep in contact with and plan to get back someday to possibly live.

Chill out in the old city behind the walls or eat at one of the many restaurants along the river. Maybe rent a bike for the day and head out to the lake.

Never pay money to 'Trekking' agencies based in Chiang Mai, or anywhere in Northern Thailand, to take you to have a hill-tribe experience. You are being grossly overcharged by unscrupulous Thai middlemen, who are exploiting these unique ethnic minorities for their own means (they get very little if anything from these trekking 'guides'). Its really not that hard to find them yourself, with a good map, bike and some courage sensitivity.
Do your research beforehand. Trust me you'll have a much better reception when (if) you find them, plus your overall experience will be much more genuine. Take gifts of course (food and pens are welcome), if you are invited to stay overnight offer cash only to the head of the village on leaving and its fair to give the same amount that you would have paid to a hotel/gh/restaurant for the same.
Forgive me for being blunt but I have spent a lot of time first hand seeing the effects of this type of tourism and all I can say is that if all this seems too much effort then leave them well alone.

chiang mai is really good to go hiking with various friends from all over the world. U can enjoy yourself and get close with each other while travelling and scrambling the mountain.

Bring a jacket during the winter months.  It's cold in the mountains.  Especially on a motor bike.

stay in the mountains and chill out for several days.by the way,biking is a good way to see the chiangmai city.

If it's your first time here, plan on staying longer than you originally thought you would. It's that kind of place.

watch out for theft here.

if you got the time, the two weeks thai massages training in the Old Hospital are quite interesting, also Chiang Mai is popular with thai cooking training

One of my favorite cities throughout all my travels. I was here for just about a month total. Made friends that I still keep in contact with and plan to get back someday to possibly live.

Chill out in the old city behind the walls or eat at one of the many restaurants along the river. Maybe rent a bike for the day and head out to the lake.

Go trekking in the jungle live with the locals !!

I've been there for hiking. I really recommend it for adventurous people who wants to see also a beautiful nature. There are many providers with different prices for day trips, but as usual in thailand you can deal with them. Well the trip was like that: I joined a group of 8 people (mixed nationalities, really good for conversations about other cultures) which has been leaded by a native who guided us to his secret village in the deep thai wood. They have easy-built houses n sleep on the ground and they can cook delicious meals such as spicy snake, soups and other stuff. After one night we hiked back. On the way we could do an elephant ride and bamboo rafting. All in all a really nice trip but they've already been convinced by the government to do some touristic stuff (selling goods n commercial things) and pay them kind of taxes. About Chiang Mai I can't tell a lot because I just did this trip there.