Living in Chiangmai
Some people wondered why I decided to live in Chiang Mai for a short while (3 weeks) and might like some recommendations from me.
I was staying in Singapore at the time, and Chiang Mai was rated very high on Nomadlist combined with my friend’s recommendation when I said all I want is a place with accessible to coffee shops and yoga. I was there from beginning of February to last week of February.
Where I lived:
Nimman (I was informed it’s the hipster’s area)
What I loved:
Food is delicious and very reasonably priced
People are very sweet and lovely
Massages – I haven’t gotten so many massages in such a short increment of time
It’s pretty safe for a woman to walk around at night
It is a tourist driven city, so a lot of facilities are easily accessible for tourists (i.e. very lenient on reservations and no need for memberships)
What I loved-less:
Road safety – be careful when you cross the road and walking near construction sites. Just practice cautionary behaviour as safety attitude of the country is not the best.
Lack of pedestrian walk-way – I think the city is planned for development and less so for pedestrians. Most people use scooters, but I prefer to walk everywhere (because it is walkable to everywhere but just be careful where you walk as a car or a scooter can easily scrape by)
At least the part of the city I was staying in was too touristic therefore I did not meet a lot of locals
I find it slightly difficult to relate to most of the expats who are living in Chiangmai, as many have built an unique community around themselves and it is slightly harder to break into that community. I had an easier time relating to tourists as for me, maybe I am still in the mentality of this is a long vacation and I am also here temporarily and not looking to settle down and building a home here.
Others:
Unless you are very comfortable with a scooter, if you’re staying in the city, there is no real need to rent a scooter since you can walk everywhere
Most food comes in a default spice level, I would recommend you let the waiter know your spice tolerance (because I have experience spicy cry a few times)
Pollution is pretty bad from mid-February to April, before the Thai New Year. They mainly burn the forest around the area for agricultural and cultural reasons. I would not recommend you to go at that point.
There is not a lot of public transit, but you can take the little red bus/cars where it takes you to a location for flat fee of 20 baht
If you don’t have an international drivers licenses, and the police catches operating a scooter during their routing road stop you will be fined 500 baht. Keep the fine slip, because it is good for 3 days (if you get caught again in the next 3 days). They set-up stops everyday at certain areas and weekends are also very prevalent.
If you’re looking for what to do or what to eat in Chiang Mai, there will be a post about it coming out really soon! :)
