Was contemplating the convenience of combining necessary trips to Chiang Mai and Bangkok by driving to CM and then taking a sleeper train to/from BKK. I would appreciate any suggestions on either of the following

1) A cheap hotel in, or within 20 minutes driving of, town providing a clean bright room and parking for my car. An attractive locale and/or internet would be bonuses.

2) A safe, long term (a week or so) parking facility at or near the CM railway station. (Or if there is an inexpensive hotel in town (as above) which will let me leave the car there.

'Cheap' means different things to different people.

To me, in a Chiang Mai context, cheap in combination with 'hotel' would mean about 500-1000 baht. So that's for example the Montri Hotel (crap for parking), the Top North Hotel (not Top North Guesthouse) which has 'some' parking..

If you're willin to go a tad higher around the 1000 baht mark, there's plenty to choose from on sites like Agoda.com.. Like Pang Suan Kaew has the biggest parking in this part of Asia. Also Empress Hotel comes to mind.

As for long term parking, the railway station itself has paid parking... though personally I think I'd just park at one of the hypermarkets like Carrefour, nice and covered and reasonably secure. The bus station has paid parking with perhaps a higher level of security.

Then there's the airport, bit more expensive though not crazy prices. But no cover from the sun/weather..