My My Chiang Mai

Air was not our first choice in travel. We originally thought we would take a train from Phuket (in the South) to Chiang Mai (in the North) but a travel agent convinced us otherwise. The distance turned out to be 970 miles, but it looked so close on the map!
Air travel turned out to be similar to flying in the US. The airport was clean and modern, the flight was fast and easy and the price was reasonable for the distance covered. It was certainly a good bargain saving us two days of travel.

Chiang Mai’s rich history stretches back 700 years to the time of King Mengrai - the founder of the royal capital of the Lanna Kingdom (millions of rice fields). Chiang Mai means the “new city” and is located in Northern Thailand, about 720 km from Bangkok. Although "new" it has a small old city that is surrounded entirely by a moat. It also used to have a massive wall that surrounded it but most of the wall is now gone. The old city is a landmark packed full of shopping, temples and restaurants. Chiang Mai is blessed with magnificent mountains and a pristine landscape, covering an area of approximately 20,000 square km and is home to over 1.5 million people.
Although there is a large population here, it feels completely different than Bangkok. Describing Bangkok in terms of cooking it is like a pressure cooker. Chiang Mai is more like a campfire.

We arrived at the Chiang Mai airport and easily found a taxi to take us to our accommodations for the next two weeks. We had confirmed reservations to take classes at a local Thai Massage school, and it was refreshing knowing that we were not going to be moving again for the next two weeks.