If you are in Thailand, after the capital Bangkok, you can also visit Chiang Mai. If you are really interested to find out more about Chiang Mai, you couldn’t be better.

Chiang Mai is the most significant and largest city in northern Thailand. It lies 700 km north from Bangkok, in the highest mountains of the country, on the Ping River.

Supposing you are an expat wishing to live in Thailand, tell me sincerely what could be your choice between Bangkok(20 millions inhabitants, polution, high prices) and Chiang Mai(170000 inhabitants, mountains, clean air, low prices) ? You find many expats in Chiang Mai, and you can find also many former inhabitants of Bangkok.

Chiang Mai is first of all a shopping paradise. You can find here decorations, orchids gardens with purchase possibilities, very nice and very cheap silver jews(maybe the best investition to do here), paper umbrellas, hand tissues, , little statues, ceramics etc. The sellers are prepared to bargain! You must be prepared for that, acting in the limits of common sense and smiling. Remember to ask for shopping:

-Night Bazaar

-Sunday Market, opened from 14 to 22 a.m.

Also remarcable in Chiang Mai: the staying prices are very low, you can find cheap luxury. Also, you can eat very much, tasty and cheap. You can even learn to cook thai, as I did, and my family is very enthusiastic about it. But during my one week classes I should eat daily only what I cooked myself, and I was fast to starve.

Chiang Mai is also very well known for the intense cultural life. You can find here 300 budhist temples, the oldest of them from the XIIIth century. There are here plenty of festivals, e.g. the flower festival in February.

If you want to go out and dinner in a restaurant, you must be aware of the local habits and etiquette: you must smile, but also you must be decent, clean and tidy dressed up. Otherwise you will get only a bad place in that restaurant.

So, dear friends, go to Chiang Mai, I think it worths !