I lived in Chiang Mai from Aug 2014 to Aug 2021. It was a great time, I'm sure I'll remember it as the best of my life. Now back in the US, some things I appreciate, but life is not as simple nor charming.

 

Enjoy your time!

Yeah, it´s nice and easy here. What ever part you choose to reside in. Just a little bit curious of your post. You miss Thailand after living 7 years here. What is your plan? Are you home for good, or are you set on coming back at a later stage in life?

1 hour ago, Farang123 said:

I lived in Chiang Mai from Aug 2014 to Aug 2021. It was a great time, I'm sure I'll remember it as the best of my life. Now back in the US, some things I appreciate, but life is not as simple nor charming.

 

Enjoy your time!

A lot of inflation and crime in the U.S. these days!

I moved from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai in 2020. While I still visit Chiang Mai, I do prefer Chiang Rai.

Now here for the duration. When I traveled to Chiang Mai from Australia pre-COVID, I could always feel myself relaxing as the plane touched down in Chiang Mai.

I miss 'pre-Covid' Chiang Mai, watching tourists explore the various wonders of this city. It reminded me daily of why I chose to live most of my adult life here.  Seeing a backpacker couple standing on the corner of Moon Muang Rd and Ratchadamnoen Rd, map spread out in front of them, as they planned out their walking routes actually made me envious of them, knowing they would see these sights for the first time and be as impressed as I was in my first weeks here.

 

Sure, I don't miss the crowds at the Night Bazaar or Sunday Walking Street, but I do miss the energy they would create in those places. I wonder if it will ever return to its former condition?

Have the public blue buses (R1, R3) resumed their routes in CM?

Always good to be in Chiang Mai whatever time of year.

The USA that I grew up in no longer exists.

A resentful and violent demographic has changed it out of recognition.

32 minutes ago, SiamAndy said:

Have the public blue buses (R1, R3) resumed their routes in CM?

I don’t think so…and THOSE I miss. 

How anyone could miss it is a mystery to me its an enormous shed apart from the blueberry cheesecake in Rimping ????

I miss the young people as well. In 2005 I lived inside the old city, in the evenings there were always groups of late teens, early 20s explorers wandering in a quest for something different. One night I was in a bar and a group of them were talking about a new pork restaurant, decided to go, and invited a few of us older folks along. Enthusiasm, generosity of spirit, not in the least concerned with a bottom line. A great time to be in Chiang Mai for young and old.

Gottfrid, Yes it is nice and easy over there which is a large portion of what I miss. I'm 38, and just settling back into life in the USA is tough. I'm about to buy a new car and acquire a small amount of debt with that. I'm in the process of bringing my fiance to the US on a fiance visa (she is not Thai), but the whole immigration system is backed up supposedly due to covid. It's taking forever and is very complicated.

 

I don't know if it would be possible to return to Chiang Mai in the future. I will definitely visit for a vacation, it depends on how bogged down we get with mundane life here in the US once my fiance gets settled here.

CM mostly great, just not March-April....that pollution madness.

It's just as it has always been in America. Work, pay bills, go into debt... I like how efficient everything is when I want to get a drivers license or go to the doctor, everything is much easier. But its a bit monotone without the culture or the sense of magic in daily life. It's all very routine.

Are the Songthaews still 30 Baht in CM?

23 hours ago, Farang123 said:

life is not as simple nor charming.

I was first here as a backpacker in 1974...

 

How nice to have spent much of my life here and all of my elder years... I still feel that magical charm. 

18 hours ago, FolkGuitar said:

I miss 'pre-Covid' Chiang Mai, watching tourists explore the various wonders of this city. It reminded me daily of why I chose to live most of my adult life here.  Seeing a backpacker couple standing on the corner of Moon Muang Rd and Ratchadamnoen Rd, map spread out in front of them, as they planned out their walking routes actually made me envious of them, knowing they would see these sights for the first time and be as impressed as I was in my first weeks here.

 

Sure, I don't miss the crowds at the Night Bazaar or Sunday Walking Street, but I do miss the energy they would create in those places. I wonder if it will ever return to its former condition?

How is Kad Suan Kaew these days?

6 minutes ago, SiamAndy said:

How is Kad Suan Kaew these days?

The top few floors closed for development , the cinemas  are still there and the swimming pool is still open 

Lived CM 2004-2014 (visits from 90s) by which point a bit too busy for me. Still a nice vibe and great to visit—covid notwithstanding—but the early noughties, before the expat rush in earnest, was especially great. 

14 hours ago, Farang123 said:

It's just as it has always been in America. Work, pay bills, go into debt... I like how efficient everything is when I want to get a drivers license or go to the doctor, everything is much easier. But its a bit monotone without the culture or the sense of magic in daily life. It's all very routine.

Perhaps it's time for you to change the "virtual reality" you have created/selected with "America" as a back-drop ?

 

~o:37;

On 3/30/2022 at 10:27 AM, DeaconJohn said:

Always good to be in Chiang Mai whatever time of year.

The USA that I grew up in no longer exists.

A resentful and violent demographic has changed it out of recognition.

So true, and apropos of recent events.

For me, Chiang Mai has always taken the cigar -  even back in the '70s when the States was #1 in the world by any metric you'd care to apply.

I’m glad that I don’t miss CM. I enjoy it daily.

On 3/29/2022 at 11:15 AM, Farang123 said:

It was a great time, I'm sure I'll remember it as the best of my life

I often think the same. But I also know the CM I lived in no longer exists

 

Beauty is pretty much everywhere if you look ????

I lived in Cm for about 5 years around the same time as you, roughly.
Had the same feelings about it, though I eventually started to travel because I wanted to experience other countries nearby.

 

I returned a couple years later to CM expecting it to be like when I left, but it never really fit like it did when I was there before. Not the city so much, it was me.

 

Sometimes when you leave and try to go back things just don't work out for some reason. The groove is lost. Kind of like losing momentum. It never felt comfortable like when I was there before, and I eventually moved on and have no plans on returning.

The thing about life in CM, is it can be a no man's land where you just drift around aimlessly. You don't even need to work to survive if you have a little money in the bank and you get so comfortable being on a permanent holiday it could be hard to ever come back to "reality". Anyway, I have no regrets about the seven years I spent there. At the end certain aspects of Thai society left me feeling so nauseous that I couldn't wait to get out of the country.

Some interesting comments in this thread already. Fascinating how people's view of a place changes and some then move on - hopefully to a more fulfilling alternative. Would be interested to hear where people successfully move on to after Chiang Mai (and which places worked or didn't work) and if there are any common trends. 

 

I'm most likely to move back to CNX when my current life chapter concludes, and it will be interesting to see how I find the place now. Where I currently live is the sort of place that many dream of moving to (think touristy tropical resort setting). Yet so many who move here become disillusioned and often separated/divorced. So many arrive thinking that they will stay here forever - that life will be different/better - but then only last a few years (for one or more fairly common reasons).

On 3/30/2022 at 4:15 AM, Farang123 said:

Now back in the US, some things I appreciate, but life is not as simple nor charming.

I'm sure there are less traffic jams where you live now..

Reported troll post removed and response to it.

Reported Troll comment removed.

On 3/30/2022 at 10:27 AM, DeaconJohn said:

Always good to be in Chiang Mai whatever time of year.

The USA that I grew up in no longer exists.

A resentful and violent demographic has changed it out of recognition.

sounds familiar. The same in the Netherlands. Was a great country to live in in the 70's/80's. From the late 90's it deteriorated to what it is today....... A drama. I only come here to see family and friends, but for the rest I wouldn't want to live there anymore. Thailand, with all its pros and cons, is a great country to live in and live a wonderfully simple life.
 

On 3/30/2022 at 6:06 AM, Lacessit said:

I moved from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai in 2020. While I still visit Chiang Mai, I do prefer Chiang Rai.

Now here for the duration. When I traveled to Chiang Mai from Australia pre-COVID, I could always feel myself relaxing as the plane touched down in Chiang Mai.

Much difference between the two when it comes to smoke season?  My guess is no, but worth an ask.