I loved the vibe of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand as soon as the taxi started driving us to our hotel.

The flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai via Asia Airlines was one hour 15 minutes. By the way, this is a great airline to use when exploring interesting places close to Bangkok with flights from around $100 to $200 Canadian return.

Chiang Mai is a chill, creative and beautiful city, which doesn’t really feel like a city with its 200,000 population. There is a lightness and vibrancy to the city and its residents.

This might be in part because it is a city with five universities, several technical colleges, and Buddhist and Christian seminaries, which adds to its young, enthusiastic and learning nature. This, combined with a 700-year old history, adds to its charm. Some of the remains of the old walls and moats still remain in the old city.

Backpackers or “hippies” as the free-spirited budget travelers, mostly young, are still referred to by the young, come to Chiang Mai to drink up up the city’s energy, offerings and coffee. There are a lot of fun and quirky coffee shops especially in the Nimad area, most with lovely outdoor areas to work, study, converse and be.  One even had a pet goat in its courtyard.

There are also many digital nomads that call this city home for awhile, a career that I aspire to that includes working and living with global travel. I am starting to live this now… 🙂

It’s hard to choose what I loved most but here are my top picks:

• Exploring the creative and quirky Nimad area
• The night market, where we would have our dinners from the street vendors and get a Thai massage outdoors for 15o baht ($5.60 Canadian)
• The HUGE Saturday night market, covering a large area with streets closed off and every space filled with street carts and stalls, with the usual Thai fare for sale, lots of food everywhere, and some great local artisans. Even the incredibly beautiful silver temple in the hood participates with a traditional band and dancers, ancient-looking hibachi-style food stalls by the temple, and the place lit up in array of bright lights so that people can tour the area, worship and speak to the monks through what they call “monk chats”
• The incredibly beautiful and inspiring Woo cafe, art gallery and lifestyle store with lovely local pottery
• Walking across the bridges and along the river to the old city
• The northern-style food and bountiful produce (more on the food later as it deserves a separate post)
• The unique boutiques, especially in Nimad
• Our beautiful Ketawa boutique hotel, which happens to be a pet friendly hotel and cafe complete with a menu for dogs (not sure how the dogs order, perhaps one bark for item number 1 and so forth?), doggie day care, and even a beautiful dog pool!

The people in Chiang Mai are warm and kind, they seem happy and smile a lot. They are kind and gentle in Bangkok too, but it seems more forced in a city that can seem always congested with people, cars and scooters.

There are the dark and dirty spots in Chiang Mail like the river looks horribly polluted and there seems to be a great divide between the rich and the poor. It seems the middle class, if there is one, are the expats, students and transient visitors. But what city doesn’t have the contrasts and darkness whether right in our faces or hidden?

As Leonard Cohen said so poetically, “there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” I believe this goes for people and places.

When I asked about Chiang Mai before I came here, people often say it is so different from Bangkok. I can verify that this is true now that I am here.

Yes, it is the opposite of Bangkok in many ways. However I find this true of many big cities and the more relaxed towns and countryside near by. There is often the city vs. the country thing wherever you go. Which is better depends on what is right for you.

But does there have to be a choice?

For me, Chiang Mai is like the other daughter, who is artistic and free spirited. She is not as conservative and concerned about what others think as her sibling. Both of the same family with different personalities and aspirations, and hopefully equally loved.

There is beauty in Chiang Mai and northern Thailand. There is beauty in Bangkok.

Perhaps it takes more time to find the true beauty and personality of Bangkok, as in any big city, through the congestion, traffic and noise. It may take more time to find out who she really is after years on putting on the costume and personality to fit in with her neighbours.

I often am quick to make judgements about places and people, in particular about myself. It’s hard to break the habit.

It has taken me until now to truly love who I am and want to show this to the world, warts and all. Perhaps this is the same for cities.

Love, Caroline xo