Prubangboy

NextG: "Why do people think stuff about me I already said about myself?" "Why do people hold commonly held opinions that most people hold -what about in the rare instances where that might not be true?" 'Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me, beyond the fact that I never say anything, just endlessly bat back what someone else said?".

They pay to be there, so they want more money from you. I mean, duh. Possibly even super-duh. Note to Bob: please never open the mini-bar fridge. They want money for that Toberone bar. Like, a lot.

"Thank you, Sir. We'll get right on it".

Archie had two good albums and then got drafted. Here's his other one you'll be humming all day

Quite the iconoclast for not picking Glen Gould. I like Keith Jarret. Relatedly, The New York Dolls covered Archie Bell's There's Gonna Be A Showdown and Bruce Willis said Tighten Up was his all time fave Soul record.

That's more of a Chiang Mai vacation than a research trip, but very solid for Grab cabs arriving in under 2 minutes. Pop into Chiang Mai hummus 2 minutes away. I eat there monthly. 2 other must-do's nearby are Stephano's Italian and Swan Burmese,

Agreed. If I were unmarried, I'd be in Pattaya or Bangkok; possibly Phuket. CM is too small when your principal means of entertainment is just yourself. A free floating atomic particle will want to gravitate to where the other at-loose particles are. That aint Chiang Mai.

It's also maddeningly unpredictable as to how bad and when it's going to be. I'm booking March/April away, but this year most of May was bad too. Cha Am is my likely late spring smoke dodge of choice. Chiang Mai requires that you: 1) have a life where you can/don't mind having that kind of open-ended gypsy lifestyle. 2) really love Chiang Mai at the level of likewise impossible places like Venice or Amsterdam to put up with it. -It also helps if you enjoy living in a place with a lot of tourists, seeing people right off the plane breathing deep of their first-hour in town bliss. No one is walking around in Nimman with a long face. Most people on the street next to you are having one of the best days of their lives.

CHUM really shows how capricious restaurant reputation is. It kills Ginger Kitchen, it has a superb location in a pretty space -but Ginger Kitchen gets the YouTubes. Ging Grai a few blocks up is the best Thai food I ever ate -and they do all Thai regions with a very light on the oil touch. At dinner hour, they might fill a third up. I think a lot of the CM Youtube foodie v-blogs are 1) very lazy and going to the same 6 places 2) out of date. Vegan dining is a super-specialty here. You only see GoodSouls represented on Youtube. I love that place and its many pricey offshoots, but there are at least half a dozen vegan places in CM that would also be Time Out 5*'s anywhere else in the world.

I love CM to death and am the kind of guy who wiki-reads about a bunch of temples, sees them all, and might book a cooking class (I mean, in days gone by). But if I'm a tourist here, I'd be hard-pressed to fill 5 full days, even with some heavy padding from elephants and white water rafting. As local, I found my rah-rah plans to eat at all the riverside restaurants were undone by how samey they all were. We get a lot of mental health from looking at Doi Suthep; we have yet to set foot on Doi Suthep. CM is a great place to eat Khao Soi noodles. Only a tourist will get in a cab to eat legendary ones over the ones on hand 10 feet away. On my block, there are 3 B+ purveyors of KSN, and then Instagram legend-Nimman Khao Soi 2 blocks further. I'd rather watch KSN noodles being eaten across town by Mark Weins than get in a cab to eat them myself. And that cab ride would cost more than the noodles. Living here, your world is your nabe. That's why a low traffic nabe really improves your quality of life.

Agreed. Every 7/11 and whitie breakfast outlet has its own unique vibe. You couldn't pull me off of my corner now. I booked into soi 11 and eventually migrated all the way to soi 17. Hotel changing is down to temperment. I had a great solo week in BKK pinging and ponging to a diff nabe and hotel daily. Whereas my wife demands a 4 night stay MINIMUM anywhere we go.

"if I want any more Sh from you, I'll squeeze your head" -suposedly said by Barbra Streisand.

How long is enough, tho? Call it 2 nights each in OC/Nimman/Fill in the blank actively looking around with a driver and you would have seen a lot of CM and a lot of it twice. When I was sussing areas in Bangkok, 2-3 nights would do it, at least to veto it from further research.

I read here that Fang aint what it used to be. So what is it now, a single shack? Back in the day, Fang took over from Mae Hong Son as edge of the ledge of the world-status in Thailand among the Lonely Planet crowd. I see the saintly King above me has recco'd The Smith Residence. I concur. Truly an island of lost, wayward boys. My stay there was my fun-est in CM to date. Caveat: Angry American Boomers are CM-local's absolute least favorite whities. So maybe go somewhere else so as not to kill the vibe.

Lanna Moon Condo down by the Night Market is my fave cheapie: a thou a week. Brutal mattresses, tho, spring for a mattress topper. And it has a pool. And a shared kitchen (10 baht per propane use). You can't book it; just show up and they'll call the landlord.

True. I find downtown CR a fair bit less attractive than CM, but a mile out, it's the dead-same for a third off. Just like CM gets the more educated and adventurous tourists than Phuket, CR is a yet further filter still. You have to really love the North as a repeat visitor or have a lot of travel time to put CR on your list. To live there, you're probably a CM transplant. Moving directly to CR is prob less likely than hopping off of the plane and heading straight to Ubon.

That little Nimman grid of streets that you keep referencing is indeed a uniquely walkable, low-traffic area in CM. I live within hopping distance of Charin Pie on your map (where they will put your pic onto your latte foam). But once you leave it, you're abutted by high traffic streets. I was on the Maya Mall side of Nimman Road, it was much less attractive for a pedestrian. I paid off a lease to move to the good side. Medium traffic is what makes the Old City so great (and so hard to rent in). The area between Tapie Road And Loy Koh Road is another uniquely walkable area of Chiang Mai where you have that mix of quietude and access to good restaurants. 'Can't think of a third of any size that's centrally located (Night Market?). This is the typical layout of a developing nation's historic towns: they have a traffic-calmed downtown, an expat area adjacent to it, and then the mall out on the main road leading in. I had this problem living in Mexico City; it was leafy and quaint for 6 blocks and then I had to cross eight lanes of traffic.

Chiang Mai is like New York -a place where you take a cab to take a walk.

Not that nice a walk along a heavy traffic road. Not that compelling an area to live in. Def do that walk before 10 AM before the heat cancels it. Cab is 80 baht to the old city (tho often, 150 baht coming back, 120 baht if you're on border by the moat).

The least useful mall in CM, not even a Robertson's Department Store. Excuse me, it's the Maya Lifestyle Mall, which is only good if your lifestyle involves browsing dozens and dozens of opportunities to buy a new plastic iPhone case. Or if you need a lot of aroma therapy options. Some nice condos behind it tho. A lot of Chinese people rent there. Mae Sai Khao Soi is there too, and is usually the food highlight for our visiting guests. Across the road is a slightly baffling Japanese theme park entertainment development. Lot's of food trucks etc. Not bad, but I went twice, love Japanese food, and left without eating. You can't throw a rock in Nimman without hitting a good value Japanese or Korean restaurant. A lot of Bangkok Thai people pack into Nimman on the weekends and they love that little Epcot-like Japanese experience. People should def visit Nimman on a Saturday night in tourist season to see if they like it. It's like Bourbon Street, New Orleans (we love it).

True. I love it here and am willing to suffer the inconvenience and expense of relocating for March and April, or just go traveling. But it def is a case of paying for 12 months and getting 10 bearable months on the ground. Plus, to start another zillion page thread, a lot of years you can get by with staying put with an air purifier and not be too put out.

Another angry drunk who can't take even the mildest joke. I am truly sorry I was helpful to this miscreant dimwit.

Can we hear more about your ga-ga man crush on the guy who owns a bookstore? This is like your 3rd love letter to him. Prob just someone who was superficially polite to him, instead of just waving him off as usual. Odds of the OP attending a book club meeting: Considerably less than zero. What dog-eared paperback did you buy for 150 baht to support your dream date?

The soi dog problem has been much improved for decades. An esteemed poster here, StickyRiceBalls, has posted a lot about biking around CM (Me? No way).

66 Realty is a good site to look at. The Old City is great, but there's not a ton of rental inventory there. For a mellow and cheap stay, I like the Dozy Guest House in the north end of the Old City. A first timer will welcome a place on a quiet street. I love the area between Thapie Gate and the night market for a newcomer even more than the Old City. Cheap hotels are plentiful. You could pop in on New Year's Eve and still have your pick of 1,000 baht rooms. Sort of over by The Shangri-la are a lot of condo's where white people rent in the 10K range. Nimman, Santiam, and the Uni are good too (pricier). The area around Central Festival Mall is a bargain, but not beautiful. Wat Umong is coming up a bit and has more of a country feel. Hire a grab cab for a couple of days (like 1500 baht for 6 hours) and you could easily visit everywhere I just listed. Blow up the google map where you might want to be and then look for the word, serviced apartments or residences. CM is not that big. Yesterday, I took a cab from the north end of Nimman to the far side of The Ping River (also worth a look) to eat oysters. It took 12 minutes. As a point of reference, The Central Festival Mall, The Night Market, Chinatown, and good whack of the area south of Tapie Gate would be about 5-7 minutes away from those oysters. From Nimman to the dead center of the Old City is about 8 minutes.