Abandoned buildings in Chiang Mai?

[salomerose]

Hi everyone! I'm traveling through Chiang Mai for a few weeks and I really like exploring abandoned buildings in different places. Turns out that's not as weird as I thought: there's a thread from 2010 or 11 where someone is asking about the same thing. But 6 or 7 years later most of those buildings will have been torn down or rebuilt.

 

Anyone know of some cool abandoned, unfinished, spooky spots in Chiang Mai to poke around and take pictures?

[Cory1848]

There's a huge multistory structure (abandoned hotel project?) on the corner of the Superhighway and Charoen Mueang Road (which goes past the train station), the southwest corner. It's unfinished and has been for years, so it's a concrete shell, with a big round room at the top that may have been planned as a restaurant. I can't recommend trying to get inside -- access is most likely prohibited, and/or there may be squatters or criminals (there's graffiti), I really have no idea. But you might be able to get close to it and get some decent pictures in the right lighting conditions.

 

[DeaconJohn]

29 minutes ago, Cory1848 said:

There's a huge multistory structure (abandoned hotel project?) on the corner of the Superhighway and Charoen Mueang Road (which goes past the train station), the southwest corner. It's unfinished and has been for years, so it's a concrete shell, with a big round room at the top that may have been planned as a restaurant. I can't recommend trying to get inside -- access is most likely prohibited, and/or there may be squatters or criminals (there's graffiti), I really have no idea. But you might be able to get close to it and get some decent pictures in the right lighting conditions.

 

That's the old Poy Luang Hotel.

It was the tallest building in Chiang Mai in the late '70s. It had a long run as a luxury hotel - along with the Chiang Inn - until the 5-stars were built on Huay Kaew in the early '80s.

That's probably the closest thing to what the OP is looking for.

But for really spooky abandoned buildings he's in the wrong city. He should try Bangkok and check out Sathorn Unique aka The Ghost Tower, a 49 story building that has been abandoned for 20 years. At night it's a veritable Kirk Alloway of devilish activity.

The ubiquitous graffiti [some of it quite good] make it seem like a house of horrors.

Very few farangs have the cojones to go in after dark, but a daytime visit can be arranged by paying 200 baht or so to the "security guards".

Watch your back whenever you go or you might end up like the young Swede who was found hanging in a room on the 43rd floor.

 

 

[Cory1848]

7 minutes ago, DeaconJohn said:

That's the old Poy Luang Hotel.

It was the tallest building in Chiang Mai in the late '70s. It had a long run as a luxury hotel - along with the Chiang Inn - until the 5-stars were built on Huay Kaew in the early '80s.

That's probably the closest thing to what the OP is looking for.

But for really spooky abandoned buildings he's in the wrong city. He should try Bangkok and check out Sathorn Unique aka The Ghost Tower, a 49 story building that has been abandoned for 20 years. At night it's a veritable Kirk Alloway of devilish activity.

The ubiquitous graffiti [some of it quite good] make it seem like a house of horrors.

Very few farangs have the cojones to go in after dark, but a daytime visit can be arranged by paying 200 baht or so to the "security guards".

Watch your back whenever you go or you might end up like the young Swede who was found hanging in a room on the 43rd floor.

 

 

Thanks -- I had it totally wrong, and I'm glad to know what that building is/was. And next time I'm in BKK I'll check out the Ghost Tower -- lots of pictures online, looks amazing! --

 

[Cory1848]

Here are pictures and a video of the Poy Luang:

 

http://www.chiangmai-then-and-now.com/poy-luang-hotel/

[DeaconJohn]

1 minute ago, Cory1848 said:

Thanks -- I had it totally wrong, and I'm glad to know what that building is/was. And next time I'm in BKK I'll check out the Ghost Tower -- lots of pictures online, looks amazing! --

 

The Ghost tower is also a popular destination for base-jumpers.

I don't know if any jumps have been successfully made, or whether they've all been caught before going over the edge.

Anyway, it seems like an ideal place for that with a lot of overhanging terraces on the upper stories.

If you go for a visit, go with a few big farangs and some street-smart Thais.

Good luck.

[cmrichsw]

Makes you wonder what business the US Consulate Chiang Mai has getting involved with projects in Foreign countries. Are there US tax dollars involved? - WHY

 

 

The featured old picture shows American missionary Jacob Lott Hartzell in the garden of one of the houses in 1925. I found this picture on this website: www.dahlfred.com.
The US Consulate in Chiang Mai is now involved in a project with local architects to renovate this Phrae Missionary House I visited. 

 

http://www.chiangmai-then-and-now.com/phrae-missionary-house/

Edited October 31, 2017 by cmrichsw

[Dogbarker]

There are several old concrete projects  empty such as those that you describe .. an old skeleton lies on the maejo road towards meechok ( near the land office?) and a super white abandoned  multifloor  "hotel" in Sansai off the 118 that is reputedly haunted .. access is possible and commands a good view over the rice fields... just advise usual caution. sorry no GPS location

[Formaleins]

You can try Airport Plaza  - just pop into a few of the shops there, they seem to have been abandoned these days. The "Northern Thai Lanna Section " is particularly uninhabited, you might however find some zombie like Thai staff solidified in stone with their hands grasped around a smartphone, however, be not afraid, they do not move nor speak, they are made of stone!

[elektrified]

2 hours ago, Dogbarker said:

There are several old concrete projects  empty such as those that you describe .. an old skeleton lies on the maejo road towards meechok ( near the land office?) and a super white abandoned  multifloor  "hotel" in Sansai off the 118 that is reputedly haunted .. access is possible and commands a good view over the rice fields... just advise usual caution. sorry no GPS location

Don't know about these but there is an entire moobaan of abandoned luxury 5+ bedroom mansions on the MaeJo Road that was used as a location for a horror film. I was inside there in 2008 and it was incredible. The police have blocked it off completely since kids were using it to sell drugs. Vegetation has overgrown so much now that it is impossible to figure out where it was.

 

There is a website that details all these abandoned buildings. You will just have to do a google search, that's how I found it.

[chingmai331]

This is a total troll.  FYI, this is Halloween evening and spooky, haunted houses are highly sought for ghoulish deeds. No photos probably as all evil deeds happen in the dark.

 

Don't feed the troll.

[salomerose]

Ha! @chingmai331I didn't even realize it was Halloween until this afternoon. No, I'm cozied up in a hotel bed with Stranger Things instead. A bit too old and lazy for ghoulish deeds

I find that abandoned buildings are all very different in different places. Different structures, energy, histories. I find it fascinating.. and funspooky, too, I guess.

 

@elektrified I'll have to find that website. I did a few google searches first but found nothing interesting so I made the thread. Too bad about the mansions being blocked off, that sounds like spooky and beautiful adventuring.

 

I've seen the building off the superhighway and wondered if there were any more like it. @DeaconJohn that Ghost Tower sounds wild!!

 

Hoping a few more spots turn up in the thread :)

[salomerose]

No longer halloween, still in search

[elektrified]

3 hours ago, salomerose said:

No longer halloween, still in search

Maybe some ideas...

[thaibeachlovers]

There's a place on the nth west corner of the moat road, inside the old city. I haven't been in, but access is apparently possible.

[elektrified]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

There's a place on the nth west corner of the moat road, inside the old city. I haven't been in, but access is apparently possible.

I just read on one of the C.M. FB groups that a couple of 20-something's crossed the perimeter to take photos and a security guy emerged and came after them with a baseball bat or large piece of wood - swinging - and was not about to stop. They outran him and were able to get away.

 

Obviously not a good idea!

[KKr]

the backroad from SanSai villager to the Doi Saket road features a multi-story hotel, probably 200 keys or more, in the middle of nowhere, abandoned before putting windows.
Never stopped to check it out, so don't know whether accessible or not. 
Enjoy !

(Did someone mention the 5 story construction on the inside of Canal road?
near a party zone, opposite the new petrol station near CMU gate)