2 hours ago, CorpusChristie said:

I have never understood the enjoyment of sitting on sand and looking at water 

Except for the sun, sea, surf, sand and salt water I love the beach.

2 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

I think CM was recently voted as the top, or one of the top places for Thais to visit.  Not sure why, visit a few temples and waterfalls nothing new for Thais the place seems a total bore.

Chiang Mai city itself is not really beautiful. Not many old houses in Old Town, no good nightlife and so on. The good thing is that there are many many beautiful places around, like Doi Inthanon, Mon Chaem, the rice terraces in Mae Wang, the amazing temple Wat Ban Den in Mae Taeng and a lot of beautiful places in the mountains. 

1 minute ago, CNXexpat said:

Chiang Mai city itself is not really beautiful. Not many old houses in Old Town, no good nightlife and so on. The good thing is that there are many many beautiful places around, like Doi Inthanon, Mon Chaem, the rice terraces in Mae Wang, the amazing temple Wat Ban Den in Mae Taeng and a lot of beautiful places in the mountains. 

Yes, but you cannot look a females in their swimming costumes for free , you need to go to specialsed bars at night to see that 

2 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

I think CM was recently voted as the top, or one of the top places for Thais to visit.  Not sure why, visit a few temples and waterfalls nothing new for Thais the place seems a total bore.

Chiang Mai has always been top place for Thais to visit.  Many like the cooler climate than in the south.  It is particularly popular in the winter when people flood to Doi Inthanon when the temperature drops and you get a frost.  Over recent years there have been less visiting because of the appalling pollution but it still counts as number one.   

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Lack of foreign tourists has destroyed the tourism economy and Thais just don't cut the mustard. 

But did'nt 90% of Thai's state in a recent survey that they did'nt want foreigners to return? Ma, I'm confused!

Chiang Mai fifty, forty or even thirty years ago was very special, with a Northern culture of its own still intact, and a laid back charm that beguiled me when I first arrived.

In common with many places worldwide, time and over-tourism has not been kind to the place, and coupled with the now regular mass burning season making the air quality appalling for a large part of the year, I'm afraid those days are long gone.

Chiang Mai is a great place to take pics of Buddhist temples...not much else.

1 hour ago, Antonymous said:

 

Air pollution is a serious problem in SE Asia not just in Thailand and it affects 30 provinces in Thailand severely every year. Chiang Mai is just one of them.

 

Taking the average PM2.5 for the whole of 2019, Korat was the most polluted city in Thailand and ranked number 200 in the world. Chiang Rai #278. Khon Kaen #286. Chiang Mai #372.

Link: https://www.iqair.com/world-most-polluted-cities

 

Nobody likes air pollution. But there's no point demonising Chiang Mai, which remains the most popular destination for Thai tourists and hugely popular for expats. Tackling air pollution will take a concerted regional effort across several countries, something which alas doesn't seem on the cards.

six months and six months

3 hours ago, CorpusChristie said:

I have never understood the enjoyment of sitting on sand and looking at water 

Yes indeed, and sitting drinking in seaside bars, chatting up prostitutes!!

1 hour ago, yellowboat said:

Maybe the junta will allow longer visas in the future?   90 days are the norm in Vietnam and Malaysia.  

90 days upon entry, and single page application for renewal. No stupid photo required, no proof of where you stay, and no reporting every 90 days either. In the Philippines they even have a separate section within Immigration to assist with filling out the single page application. No worries that if you get some document wrong, in the stack that you must submit within Thailand, that the Immigration will throw the paper work and your passport back at you. I have seen this happen several times in various location throughout Thailand, or even worse is when the Immigration asks you to leave the office to have a private chat in another building. I have been lucky to not have that situation happen to me personally, but witnessed it on multiple occasions, again at various offices. The boarders can not open fast enough for me to depart this insanely backwards country, which has shown all it's glory in my past 21 years here, and I conclude I'm bored to see much more of it, nor worse still, to hear others try to justify the officials actions. My guess is they have not seen as much interactions as I, so they are still left with some sort of positivity. As the saying goes, "Thailand is great, until it's not, then you best have your plane ticket, and bag ready for a quick departure, or the officials will look for every way to get into your pockets and take all you have". I even had the tourist police take me to the atm machine in Phuket to take out money. Did I do something illegal? No, I wanted to buy a car, I was here for just a month at the time, and I had to put the car into a ladies name. So when I finally figured out how to get a non b visa, and got my work permit sorted out, I thought it was time after my forth month here, to get my car in my own name. The Thai lady was fine to transfer the auto back into my name, but the transport office stated we needed to go to the tourist police at that time "2000" to get the residency document. Once the tourist police found out what I was needing and why? They decided to take my thai lady friend outside for a chat. Upon her return the tourist police explained to me that I needed to pay the lady 80,000 bht to have the book taken from her name into mine, since it was technically illegal to have an auto put into some else's name who was not the actual owner of the auto, as stated to the transport office at the time of registration; is how they explained it to me. 

1 minute ago, Burma Bill said:

Yes indeed, and sitting drinking in bars, chatting up prostitutes!!

Well, you are paying them to provide a service 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

 

Lack of foreign tourists has destroyed the tourism economy and Thais just don't cut the mustard. 

Som nam na... all the rip-off venues can go bust... AND YES I MEAN IT.

I stayed in CM last year for 10 days... talk about walking around with a target on your back.. from taxis to restaurants and bars, souvenir/gift shops, silverware etc etc etc, you name it they tried to rip me off.

It was in fact a spoiler for a break I had planned and looked forward to for a along time.

I will never go back to CM even if it was free. 

49 minutes ago, Pottinger said:

Chiang Mai fifty, forty or even thirty years ago was very special, with a Northern culture of its own still intact, and a laid back charm that beguiled me when I first arrived.

In common with many places worldwide, time and over-tourism has not been kind to the place, and coupled with the now regular mass burning season making the air quality appalling for a large part of the year, I'm afraid those days are long gone.

Man, you must be really old now if you were here 50yrs ago.

12 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Som nam na... all the rip-off venues can go bust... AND YES I MEAN IT.

I stayed in CM last year for 10 days... talk about walking around with a target on your back.. from taxis to restaurants and bars, souvenir/gift shops, silverware etc etc etc, you name it they tried to rip me off.

It was in fact a spoiler for a break I had planned and looked forward to for a along time.

I will never go back to CM even if it was free. 

Yeah, they honed their rip off skills on the Chinese. Actually I don't get bugged at all so not sure why you did.

33 minutes ago, Burma Bill said:

Yes indeed, and sitting drinking in seaside bars, chatting up prostitutes!!

I love that!

4 hours ago, CorpusChristie said:

What are the tourist attractions that other towns  have, that CM doesnt have ?

Hookers under 40?

Talk about distorting data....if you remove Chinese and Indian cities (like 196 out of 200 cities, thailand is the most AP polluted country in the world with Chiang Mai leading the way....

don’t hide behind it’s a regional problem....
 

It’s a national problem far worse than the pandemic threat to thailand and still thailand refuses yes refuses to problem-solve this very serious public health issue to its own people and visitors....

 

Thailand gov lacks the guts, the intel and Will to deal with it....

4 minutes ago, madmen said:

Hookers under 40?

Oh be fair. Even hookers 40 and over need the big ding dong sometimes. 

13 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

I love that!

I love that too ...... don't need the seaside though.

(which is why I live in CM)

4 hours ago, CorpusChristie said:

What are the tourist attractions that other towns  have, that CM doesnt have ?

Before the days when every one lived in an air-conditioned house, drove in an air-conditioned car to work in their air-conditioned office, the great attraction of Chiang Mai was the climate.  Coupled with the mountains, country-side and hill-tribes.  When I lived there, there was only one set of traffic lights in the whole city.  Those were the good old days.,,,,,,,,,,,,

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

I love that too ...... don't need the seaside though.

Correct, but it makes for a different mood area change. 

4 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

I think CM was recently voted as the top, or one of the top places for Thais to visit.  Not sure why, visit a few temples and waterfalls nothing new for Thais the place seems a total bore.

I second that i been there a  few times never enjoyed it boring as hell lacks a beach. I never even noticed it was any cooler either.

“For the good times ....”

Looks real good for me I can get places without being in a traffic jam. I can also look at store fronts and actually see what the stores are selling. The places I do go are half full of Thai customers and a few foreign people. Yes the business is slower than it was but there are plenty of buildings going up, farming is good and if one wants to work one can in CM.  

The collapse of tourism is precipitous and previously successful businesses are seeing revenue of around 10 percent of January levels. No one can survive in these conditions.

 

So what prey are the Mayor of CM and the governor of the province doing to create campaigns to bring domestic tourists in the near term and overseas in the long term? The answer is "absolutely nothing". And there is an equivalent lack of activity from TAT. The cheapo discount scheme for locals has achieved almost zero domestic tourists and simply is a waste of time.

 

Chiang Mai is going to end up at a dead end before the year is out. And the few remaining tourism businesses will be unable to bring in any visitor numbers when the pandemic restrictions are eased. We are watching total incompetence cause a wilderness. 

I am sure the CCP is happy to compensate for the damage they caused. Just call their great leader.

Its very very bad.

22 minutes ago, NeoDinosaw said:

Before the days when every one lived in an air-conditioned house, drove in an air-conditioned car to work in their air-conditioned office, the great attraction of Chiang Mai was the climate.  Coupled with the mountains, country-side and hill-tribes.  When I lived there, there was only one set of traffic lights in the whole city.  Those were the good old days.,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

The only one set of traffic lights that I came across 30 years ago were at the Amari Rincome junction. Those were the days indeed. How the traffic has changed!

 

As for the climate, mountains, countryside and hill tribes, they haven't. All still here, all great attractions and some of the reasons for me having made it my home all these years. I don't gawk at the hill tribes, but appreciate the colour and character that they add.

 

I lived within the city when I had to work there and got out into the country when I could at weekends. Since retiring I have been able to move way out into the stunningly beautiful countryside to the north of the city in an area where the people, as well as the scenery, have pretty much remained unchanged. Everything that I fell in love with in Thailand 30 years ago is still right here on my doorstep.

 

If you come to Chiang Mai and stay in a downtown hotel, eat at the overpriced 'farang' restaurants and visit only the accessible hackneyed sights and sites, you'll never know what Chiang Mai is, or appreciate why so many long term expats have chosen it as their home.

 

 

16 minutes ago, brommers said:

 

 

Chiang Mai is going to end up at a dead end before the year is out. And the few remaining tourism businesses will be unable to bring in any visitor numbers when the pandemic restrictions are eased. We are watching total incompetence cause a wilderness. 

Same can be said of Pattaya , Ko Samui , Pukett and a few other places that depend on tourists

22 minutes ago, Tarteso said:

“For the good times ....”

Old photo