3 hours ago, Expat68 said:

This is probably the worse time to go to Chiang Mai

The worst part of this is that the smoke means the world will never get to know how lovely Feb-March in Northern Thailand is. Flowers blooming on trees, cool/dry weather and longer days all destroyed...

21 hours ago, miancina said:

So the best way is to travel from bkk to cm?

take a train? Can it be fun? or is 9 hours of hell?

Is there a huge price difference between plane and train?

How are the nights now...do you need a jacket? I have only 1 jacket and 1 nike pants...that is it....i was not preparing for cold weather...

is the pollution now at its worse?

So the best way is to travel from bkk to cm?  Flight

 

take a train? Can it be fun? or is 9 hours of hell? Never on time, sometimes takes upto 11 hrs.

 

Is there a huge price difference between plane and train? Depends on the class of the train ticket

 

1st Class train ticket is approx 1450 THB which equals to a plane ticket. However, 2nd and 3rd class are significantly cheaper.

 

Check the schedule here -  https://www.dticket.railway.co.th/DTicketPublicWeb/home/Home

 

is the pollution now at its worse? Yup

I occasionally take the o'night train to Chiang Mai.

I Prefer the bottom bunk in non A/C.    The so called CNX EXPRESS takes 14 hrs and has 14 stops. Try and travel small and light with a suitable LOCK on your bag.

I sneak a bottle of Red onto the train and a small "tupperware" of pre prepared sliced up bread roll and cheese (cubes).  I have the occasional drink behind the curtain..  on some trips there have been parties in the Dining carriage which go into the wee small hours.

The views (more so) from the LHS of the carriage in the mornings are quite nice.

Well worth doing the train trip at least once...   then fly back to BKK.

The CNX nightlife is near normal again!

Travel to Chiang Mai, whilst every now and then I like the train it is very slow and as a norm most of the journey is at night, so you don't really get to see some of Thailand's wonderful land and city scape. I read the buffet car / food service has been reopened but how good it is post covid I don't know. Booze is still prohibited so it is not for sale.

Yes, we currently have quite a bit of pollution, not as bad as in previous years so I am not finding it prohibitive. Apart from that it is a wonderful time of year, still cool in the morning but not for long, mid 30's in the afternoon. quite a lot of life now, things to see and do.

If it was me, I would fly.

A rather vulgar and unnecessary troll post has been removed also a reply