I first came to Chiang Mai 15 years ago this week, seeking adventure and escaping the Y2K bug madness in the US. I was enamored and decided to stay. Best decision I ever made.

Aside from the obvious population growth there are just a few things that have surprised me over the years.

1. Thaksin Shinawatr was relatively unknown but rumored to be an aspiring young CM politician-businessman who could shake things up. Who would have guessed the staggering political ramifications from his ambitions?

2. Elephants still roamed the streets then . . . everywhere it seemed. They are pretty much all gone, and for a good reason.

3. The dramatic rise in the Baht valuation and it's multi-year stability at around 30-32 per USD.

4. The Chinese tourist invasion. I don't recall anyone ever predicting that!

5. Internet shops (painfully slow shared dial-up 28.8 kbps) were popping up everywhere then - Now all replaced by coffee shops (that open after 9:00 in the morning!)

Lots of infrastructure improvements (how many times were the moat footpaths upgraded?) and more foreign goods available (esp. since Rimping opened)

I'm sure there are dozens more. What has surprised you?

One grateful Chiang Mai resident,

NG

I am amazed at the number of condominiums which have been constructed in the past few years in the city, and many more going up right now.

The areas around the city also have many condos under way. What's the reasoning? low interest rates, many more farangs arriving?

Elephants roaming the streets? Must have been comatose when that was happening.....

One big surprise - foreigners turning up to live here with western wives

The foreign restaurants are light years ahead of when I first got here and some are not too far off from decent places back home.

The foreign restaurants are light years ahead of when I first got here and some are not too far off from decent places back home.

Prices too

True about the prices, but a lot less need to fly back home or to Singapore for a foreign food fix. That has to be worth something.

Elephants roaming the streets? Must have been comatose when that was happening.....

And the tigers,there were a lot of them too.

regards Worgeordie

Immigration forms in English and interns to help complete the forms.

I can also remember having a hard time getting back to my luxury accomodations at Wat Umong because there were not that many street signs in English.

Making phone calls in public phones: 1 type for international calls (and there were not that many); 1 type for outside Chiang Mai; another type inside Chiang Mai.

He's right about elephants roaming the streets, not wild elephants but nonetheless elephants wanting food at the bars in Chiang Mai. I have been here a little longer and well remember them.

He's right about elephants roaming the streets, not wild elephants but nonetheless elephants wanting food at the bars in Chiang Mai. I have been here a little longer and well remember them.

" Elephants still roamed the streets then . . . everywhere"

A tad overstating it. Truth - a few elephants with mahouts begging......

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He's right about elephants roaming the streets, not wild elephants but nonetheless elephants wanting food at the bars in Chiang Mai. I have been here a little longer and well remember them.

" Elephants still roamed the streets then . . . everywhere"

A tad overstating it. Truth - a few elephants with mahouts begging......

Yes, I should have said remaining elephants were not just entertaining tourists at the Night Bazaar. They were making the rounds around town. Even Nimmanhemin which was a quieter place then.

I remember when wearing your mobile phone on your belt was a status symbol.

Still makes you a young man! Did beepers ever make it here?

I remember when wearing your mobile phone on your belt was a status symbol.

I remember when wearing a belt was a status symbol.

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He's right about elephants roaming the streets, not wild elephants but nonetheless elephants wanting food at the bars in Chiang Mai. I have been here a little longer and well remember them.

" Elephants still roamed the streets then . . . everywhere"

A tad overstating it. Truth - a few elephants with mahouts begging......

Yes, I should have said remaining elephants were not just entertaining tourists at the Night Bazaar. They were making the rounds around town. Even Nimmanhemin which was a quieter place then.

The ones with the "Do Not Pass" signs on their rumps were memorable in a sad way.

I sometimes wonder about those elephants, usually quite young, as I recall. I hope that they have ended up in good pasture.

I moved into the Nimmen area in 2009. My first week in my new place a guy with an elephant passed on the street, hoping we would buy food for the creature. That was the first and last elephant I ever saw around Nimmen. I have a picture of it somewhere.

Still makes you a young man! Did beepers ever make it here?

Yes. I had one. You could send messages by phoning an operator, who would then type in the message and send it. Results weren't always reliable, and sometimes entertaining.

Looked like this:

The foreign restaurants are light years ahead of when I first got here and some are not too far off from decent places back home.

This.

And even now I'm quite conscious of that. To have good espresso, pastries, cakes etc even in very remote or unlikely locations really shows me how far this place has come. The only stuff resembling coffee back in the day was the sweet stuff brewed through a sock at local markets. And cakes were always of the type that S&P persists in peddling to this day. (Or worse)

Also, much better nightlife options now.

The amount of traffic is certainly increased. You used to be able to drive in opposite directions on both sides of the moat as there weren't that many vehicles and you could rent and drive your own tuk-tuk from the Overlander Bar where Mad Dogs is now.

I've noticed more and more travel articles being published about Chiang Mai and how it's the secret gem of the north. Definitely noticed an influx of tourists in the past couple of years.

I can only add that the baht was returning to a level closer to its pre-financial crisis multi-year rate of 25 per USD.

I remember when wearing your mobile phone on your belt was a status symbol.

I remember when wearing a belt was a status symbol.

Belt? I wore a sarong for the first thirty years I was here.

The only stuff resembling coffee back in the day was the sweet stuff brewed through a sock at local markets.

Without the sugar and condensed milk, that was usually quite good coffee. Today's coffee shops often serve marginal coffee, weak by comparison. Bring back the guys with the socks - their prices was right and they usually had some of those greasy Chinese doughnuts to boot.

The severe decline of decent knock shops over the last 30 years

Loi Krok was just as dead as it is now. Even then older farang men were 'buying' those bars in partnership with their teerak, having the rest of their savings sucked as 'operating costs' and once cleaned out, dispatched back to their homeland or Maddog.

A fine ham sandwich was a rarity in those days. Now there's a wider range of international food than many western country capital cities. 15 years ago even New Jersey Mike was only planning to open the first non-franchised burger bar in Chiang Mai.

Backpackers weren't fat.

Superhighways and ring-roads were quiet at all times of the day.

John of John's Place had a nice go-go bar adjacent to his watering hole.

I was first in CM in 1974… maybe what surprises me is how much has not changed over that many years… in comparison to other places I have been and lived in - if you compare it to Bkk and the canals on Sathorn and the feelings of almost being a quaint small city, or Pattaya which was a dusty main street with a couple of bungalows along the beach, - - well, the natural development does not seem surprising or unusual.

I remember when wearing your mobile phone on your belt was a status symbol.

good one, Tywais!

Most of the mobile phones had the same ring tone. When eating dinner and the ringer went off, everyone reached for their phones.

Backpackers weren't fat.

Few people here were fat.

Backpackers weren't fat.

Few people here were fat.

I was told by my Thai friends that fat(ter) Thais were affluent.

JJ Bakery was one of the main Western Food restaurants for me. It wasn't that Western!

Living in Wat Umong and walking almost anywhere I went, I lost 50 pounds in less than 3 months. Of course this was during the hot season. By the way, I was living on far less than $500 per month at an exchange rate of 25:1.

Having only arrived a couple of weeks ago and Chiang Mai instantly becoming my favourite place in Thailand so far I would love to have seen what it was like 15 years ago. I am in the Nimman area at the moment, construction going on all around me.. would have loved to see it in a quieter time.