Introduction to Chiang Mai

If you are reading this guide in my office then you are sitting some 300 metres above sea level. That mountain which you see with the sun setting over the golden temple is ‘Doi Suthep’….. Doi in the Northern Thai dialect is the word for mountain and Suthep – means ‘hermit or angel’. The mountain is some 1700 metres above Chiang Mai. You are roughly some 800 kilometres Northwest of Bangkok…and somewhat 300 kilometres from Myanmar.If you are somewhere else – then you really do not know what you are missing and the following is a very personal account of the city based on many of my own experiences. Do try to come and visit us. However you may travel to Bangkok – we are then just over an hours flying time away. If you prefer a bus or train then you can make an overnight journey.A lot of other better and more comprehensive guides than this one will give you further details, but for starters…Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second largest city. The Ping river runs thorough the town. Chiang Mai has some 300 Wats or Temples. The Population has roughly 250,000 folk including my Mum, Cassie Bon-Bon the family sheep dog and me.