Chiang Mai

Just a quick update for anyone actually trying to follow my travels with this blog. The black hole I recently disappeared into has a name, Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the "northern capital" of Thailand and a popular stop for visitors to Thailand, and for good reason: it's really nice.

I arrived in Chiang Mai Sunday, April 20th intending to stay for 3 nights and then traveling on to Chiang Rai, Laos (which is north of Thailand and pronounced without the "s"), and perhaps even Vietnam if I had the energy before meeting my friend John from LA in Singapore on the 29th (yesterday). Well, 9 days later ... I was still in Chiang Mai.

There's plenty to do and see in Chiang Mai, but the reason why it many travelers get caught in its web (I met many foreigners there who had moved to Chiang Mai after visiting) is that the city is just so comfortable. And it's cheap. The guesthouses and restaurants are uniformly of very high quality and cleanliness and the old city (the main tourist and expat area) is small and accessible with the conveniences that travelers need but are often hard to find in other Southeast Asian cities like internet access and bars.

I'm mainly writing this to say that if you ever decide to come to this part of the world, make sure Chiang Mai is on your itinerary (and if you do go, let me know and I can give you lots of recommendations!). So far in my 2+ months of traveling, I've stayed in most cities for 2-3 days and general felt like it was enough or at least close to enough. After spending 9 days (the longest by far I've stayed in any city thus for on my trip) in Chiang Mai, I left with a heavy heart and wished I could have stayed many more days or weeks.