Comparison Of Living In Chiang Mai To Pattaya For A Foreigner

[thaijasmine]

I would appreciate anyone’s feedback regarding lifestyle in Chiang Mai and particularly cycling.

I wondered also if there is anyone else like me who has thought or even made the move from Pattaya to live in CM. I enjoy living near the sea and shopping for food in Pattaya is obviously very convenient but Pattaya has become so polluted ( the air quality last week was atrocious ) and I have had enough of playing Russian roulette every time I just want cross the road. The place has become too big for me and as I am not into bars anyway, I can well live without that element.

I have always enjoyed cycling but I have never felt safe to do so here in Pattaya even though I have happily done so with no problem in Phnom Penh which is a bigger city but better planned,

I wondered if many people cycle around Chiang Mai and if its safe to do so ?

[Artamus]

Air quality in northern Thailand is notoriously bad, primarilly in the burning season Feb-May (whenever the rains start). You might want to reconsider if northern Thailand offers anything better than the south in air quality - I doubt it very much.

[thaijasmine]

Air quality in northern Thailand is notoriously bad, primarilly in the burning season Feb-May (whenever the rains start). You might want to reconsider if northern Thailand offers anything better than the south in air quality - I doubt it very much.

Wow interesting comment Artamus. Thanks for that !

maybe i will consider Hua Hin

[alant]

the air quality problem tends to be due to the burning of old vegetation i believe. i live about 6km from the old city towards sankampeng and i have not had a real problem with the air.

i go for small cycle rides about 3 times a week and i love it, i get off the main roads and into the smaller country lanes and have a great time with lots of fantastic things to see.

very different from pattaya which i do for long weekend breaks for a change but from where i live th air quality may not be perfect but i have seen worse

cheers

al

[ThaiPauly]

The difference between cycling round Chaing Mai and Pattaya is that it is customary and pretty usual to do it with some kind of shirt on your back in Chiang Mai, it seems the opposite is true in Pattaya.

It is against the law to drive a car without a shirt on so I really don't see why it should be any different for a push bike...but that would appear to be the case

[Priceless]

Air quality in northern Thailand is notoriously bad, primarilly in the burning season Feb-May (whenever the rains start). You might want to reconsider if northern Thailand offers anything better than the south in air quality - I doubt it very much.

If you look at yearly averages, Chiang Mai at 46.2 µg/m³ is less polluted than Chon Buri at 55.1 µg/m³ (averages over the period 2000 - 2009). The seasonal variations in Chiang Mai are however much greater, meaning that during March the levels in CM are much higher than in CB, during February and April they are comparable and during the rest of the year levels are much lower in CM. See the graph and make up your own mind:

The graph is based on about 3,000 observations for each site. The data comes from daily observations posted by the Pollution Control Department on their website http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/Q...fm?task=default

/ Priceless

[pjclark1]

I hated Pattaya and Bk, far too frantic and expensive.

CM has a much slower pace to life, many more places to eat than Pattaya at about 1/4 the price.

Same for accommodation, a lot cheaper up here.

There is still a bar scene if you want that but much less 'in your face'

No beaches, but a couple of lakes which are very popular, I enjoy Huay Tung Tao on a hot afternoon.

Plenty of daft old buggers wobbling along on bicycles all over the place.

Plenty of second-hand bookshops selling English books and English widely spoken.

Edited December 20, 2009 by pjclark1

[PhilHarries]

Interesting your comments on the safety aspect of cycling around Pattaya. I'd certainly agree that it is not a pleasant experience between Sukhumvit and the sea but over "The Dark Side" (east of Suk) it is completely different. That is where I did most of my cycling, preferring the fresh air of the country to the diesel fumes and aggro of the songtaews. Out on those lanes it is quite surprising but even trucks respect you and keep their distance.

However this was prior to 2004 and that area has been developed beyond all belief since so I may be a bit out of date.

Don't know about cycling around CM but would expect it to be similar to the lanes I was used to.

Always wore a shirt when out on my bike, except maybe Songkhran, and all the other cyclists I saw were similarly attired. Some of the resident ThaiVisa Pattaya experts would benefit greatly if they ever actually went to the place.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

South, definitely South!

(Not Hua Hin though, I'm not going there again while I'm still breathing. It'd be a good place if you're dead, though. )

[Asmerom]

"The air quality last week was atrocious"

I'm very surprised at that comment. It's highly unlikely that the small locality of Pattaya shares anything like the same figures given for Chonburi as a whole due to its openness to the sea with consequent refreshing sea breezes and not being hemmed in by mountains. I lived for a year in Pattaya,near the sea, and enjoyed lots of walking,by the sea, and never once did it cross my mind that the air was polluted, quite the contrary, unless you were walking along the inside of Beach Road, whereas after a week in Chiang Mai its soon clear that the traffic fumes make walking aound the city a hazardous sport.

As an observer and walker rather than a cyclist guru, I feel sure that CM offers far more oppurtunities for long pleasant rides along country lanes than Pattaya.Far better than the Dark Side which, as I remember it, was a vast unattractive expanse of largely built up or derelict land bordered by motorways. In CM there's lots of easily accessible countryside especially to the north of the City and marked on Nancy Chandlers maps. Cycling within the city must be a very unhealthy pursuit, though many do regularly struggle up the Doi Suthep mountain road in the slipstream of songthaws belching out clouds of toxic fumes.

So, you should come up here to CM for the cycling and the food (Thai Visans are crazy about that ) but stay in Pattaya for the sea and,I insist, the fresh air.Alternatively, live in CM for most of the year and take a seaside holiday for a month or so when the pollution begins.

[rohitsuk]

We moved up to CM just over two years ago from Jomtien and Bangkok and would not go back if we could live there free.

When I first went to Jomtien it was a quiet little beach spot some way out of Cesspit City with hardly a noodle stall to its name. By the time we left the sleaze had been allowed to slither all the way from north Pattaya Soi 6 and was every bit as awful. From late afternoon, when I left my apartment, it was impossible to walk on either side of the road no matter I had my two little grandsons with me, without being assaulted by the ubiquitous, "well-kaaaaarm".

I have always regarded the oldest and possibly the noblest profession as providing a very useful public service, a la enjoyment for some and employment for others. But like all Genies it needs to be kept in the bottle and here in CM that is exactly where it is. Freely available but reasonably discreet and quiet in its operation and in nobody's face, except those who choose to have it in their faces, as it were.

I cannot think of anything that I could buy in Bangkok or Jomtien that is not available here in CM with our wealth of department stores, supermarkets, fresh markets and the delightful Rimping for Marmite, Dilmah leaf tea and other rarer foodstuffs.

We have a moderate rush sort of forty minutes morning and evening and otherwise traffic problems are very rare. I saw an accident yesterday for the first time in months and I am usually out and about every day and evening. Four people a day are killed in motorbike accidents in Pattaya and scores injured so probably worse pro rata than Bangkok.

Whilst the air pollution thing is not good in CM, it has been exaggerated by the media and since the cause is systemic a quick fix is unlikely. However, I am slightly asthmatic and it has not bothered me during the last two years but if it became really bad I might have to consider a trip to the seaside.

Best of all about our lovely little city of Chiang Mai is it own and the local environs. The walls and moat put me in mind of York in the UK and the delightful drive round the mountain past Samoeng of the English Lake District, before mass tourists invaded. Like York, no matter how many times you wander around CM you will find something new that you have not seen before and in only two years, I have hardly begun to explore.

I only bicycle around our village for a bit of exercise but I see plenty of people cycling upon The King's Highway so presumably it is pleasant and safe.

Medical facilities are extensive and whilst the second rank hospitals like McCormik and Rajavej are fine for routine matters the Ram does have an MRI and other high tech equipment for more complex issues. Bangkok, in the unfortunate event of it being needed, is only just over an hour's flight away and our excellent little airport is right on the doorstep. Most often, thirty minutes after I have landed, I am back in my own sitting room. When going to Bangkok it can take me twice as long as the flight from CM to get from Suwan to our apartment in Hauy Kwang.

Chiang Mai people fancy that they are nicer than other Thai people and they may well be but I think that often what this amounts to is that they do actually have time and the inclination to talk to you. I have found that it is rather assumed that you will speak a little Thai, if you are not obviously a tourist and sporting a Kiss me Kwick hat. You can ramble through the street markets, pick things up and ask about them but if you decide not to buy just admire, smile nicely and say thank you and that will be no problem. Not the case in Phuket I have found.

Oh dear me, I seem to have done a hard sell on moving to CM which is really the last thing I wanted to do but serves me right for telling the truth. The last thing we want is for the common herd to stampede up here from Pattaya / Bangkok and turn our lovely home into the Cesspit City of the North. So let me join Winnie and urge, south or even go west young man.

If my picture of Chiang Mai appeals to you Thaijasmine then the chances are you are a thoroughly decent sort, in which case:

Welcome to Chiang Mai.

Now to get your feet truly under the table all you have to do is get past the, "No Riff-raff" sign at Basil Faulty's joint !

Edited December 20, 2009 by rohitsuk