Are the "good old days" of Chiang Mai long gone?

[villagefarang]

 

Chiang Mai is lovely and there are so many lovely coffee shops. Even the coffee is lovely.

 

Where is that place? I want to find out who make that wooden coasters.

Look here http://www.ristr8to-coffee-chiangmai.com

[villagefarang]

Chiang Mai is lovely and there are so many lovely coffee shops. Even the coffee is lovely.

The next time your in town villagefarang, why don't you, ME Smith, MaeJoMTB and I go out for a night of Karaoke. Since you don't focus on price, I'm sure you wouldn't mind picking up the tab either.

Sorry the quotes got messed up earlier. I was on the iPhone at the time and didn’t notice.

Let me first thank you for the invitation but as I said karaoke is one of my least favorite things. A cup of coffee I would certainly be willing to pay for. I think we all have a point at which we become price sensitive but it takes something more than a cup of coffee to get me looking at the price before I order.

[fey]

Chiang Mai is lovely and there are so many lovely coffee shops. Even the coffee is lovely.

I prefer my coffee hot & in a cup with a handle

I prefer my hot latte to cost 30bht ....... and the large choc-au-pain 30bht too.

i'm hard pressed to find any coffee less then 50 baht these days. enjoy it while it lasts.

[NomadStrategy]

Once you get over your coughing fit from the cancer-causing pollution and take a breathe of fresh air, and avoid the traffic, and get passed the increasing difficulty of staying here, and everything closing by midnight, its as good as ever.

[ARISTIDE]

Exactly!

CM is way better than when I first came here 7 years ago.
More western food available, in shops and restaurants.
Newer and better shopping malls, schools, hospitals.
Cycle shops, coffee shops, faster and more reliable internet.
Wider choice of condos and houses to rent.

If you want bars and hookers .... go to Pattaya.

[jonwilly]

I first came to CM in 2001.

Back and married to a Thai girl, before that.CM was decent until the crackdown by the Interior minister Khun Purachai.

I liked a drink in those days, but the new timings on bar openings where in my humbug opinion the start of the rot.

I upst the regulars on one of the Bkk boards way back then when I said They where the problem.

Bloody tourist, not the long term expats, the military and exmilitary or the most legendary group, The Middle East Oil Trash.

Ah well I never was one for the popularity stakes.

The Chinee, have kept CM afloat but I doubt they have improved the quality of life in CM.

Tourists,Bloody Tourists !

John

[totally thaied up]

I first came to CM in 2001.

Back and married to a Thai girl, before that.CM was decent until the crackdown by the Interior minister Khun Purachai.

I liked a drink in those days, but the new timings on bar openings where in my humbug opinion the start of the rot.

I upst the regulars on one of the Bkk boards way back then when I said They where the problem.

Bloody tourist, not the long term expats, the military and exmilitary or the most legendary group, The Middle East Oil Trash.

Ah well I never was one for the popularity stakes.

The Chinee, have kept CM afloat but I doubt they have improved the quality of life in CM.

Tourists,Bloody Tourists !

John

Those same tourist keep it all afloat here. When the bar girls are now talking smatterings of Chinese, you know the demographics have changed but it is no use to complain about it. I went to the Empress Hotel for a Buffet lunch last week. Once it was okay food at a fair price but this time we had three buses of Chinese Tourist on Tour show up and it was just a melee for all!

Just about every dish I tasted was suited or designated for the Chinese and they all had a distinct over-abundance of Chinese 5 spice in most dishes; a wholly oriental, not Thai taste to them all. It was not for a Western palette apart from the small selection of cold cuts. It had, the buffet, changed to suit the demographics.

We all need to change to these demographics or really, our time based here would become old an cheesy. Either we also change wit the times or go by the wayside. Our 'old' but new Northern Neighbors are currently the next big thing but we have seen it all before.

[Trujillo]

Apropos of the "Good 'ol Days," it seems that we are the happiest only after we hit age 65 (if you are a Brit, for sure).

http://qz.com/609982/you-wont-be-happiest-until-you-turn-65-years-old/

[jobin]

Yeah FolkGuitar, all the old shabby places, once homes for indigenous people, now displaced by commercial ventures catering to the 'gentry tourist'. So you can have a coffee each morn at a different shop.