Chiang Mai

A smaller city, still shaped by the roads

Chiang Mai is smaller and easier to cross than Bangkok, but it has no skytrain, and the ring roads still slow down at rush hour. Most daily trips are by car, motorbike, songthaew or, in the centre, on foot or by bicycle. Where you live is less about a station and more about how often you want to drive into the middle of town.

The Old City is the square inside the moat and the remaining walls. Nimmanhaemin, usually shortened to Nimman, lies just west of it, next to Chiang Mai University. Hang Dong is south of the city. Mae Rim is to the north. Those four names cover a large share of the searches people make when they first arrive.

The tourist crowd is real in the Old City and along parts of Nimman, especially in the cooler months. It thins out as you move into ordinary residential streets a short ride away. If you are coming from Bangkok, the quieter nights are often the first thing people mention. The second is that you will spend more time on a motorbike or in a car than you did on the BTS.

• Nimman and the Old City
• Hang Dong and Mae Rim
• Students and universities