Dear Friends and Family,

For those of you who haven’t done an in-depth study of the geography of Thailand, Chang Mai is located in Northwestern Thailand, 700 kilometers from Bangkok (~435 miles), 8 hours by minibus (if you can find one), 10 hours by regular bus, 12 hours by train. Chang Mai is an important city to the Thais – my Lonely Planet refers to Chang Mai as a “keystone city” and when faced with a personal either/or scenario involving a visit to northern or southern Thailand, I decided to go north because it sounded as if there was more to do, more to absorb, and I could walk further and breathe better…

Legend has it that the location of the city of Chang Mai was decided by a Northern Thai King by the name of Phaya Mangrai, although apparently this King required a second and third opinion on the auspiciousness of the area, so he called in to two other reigning kings to consult. They traveled to the location, agreed that it seemed very nice, and Chang Mai was born. (I was thrilled to discover this bit of history because I had been visited the “Three Kings Monument” and had decided that 3 Kings of Chang Mai sounded as if there were too many cooks in the kitchen.) King Phaya Mangrai constructed a square moat + a big wall around the city to protect it from raiding Burmese and declared Chang Mai the capital of the Northern “Lanna people.” By the way, another word for Northern Thai people is Lanna, which also harkens back to the tribal nature of the people of the area. Anyway, for a few hundred years, the city enjoyed minor wars, tons of Buddhism, and major trade. However, in the late 1500s, Chang Mai was captured and added to Burma and according to the (likely slightly biased) Thai museum that I visited, this period apparently wasn’t a lot of fun for anyone but the plundering Burmese. Things got so bad that the central/southern Thais attacked and reclaimed the city in the late 18th Century; however, the last Burmese ruler had been so brutal that Chang Mai was almost completely depopulated at that point. Luckily, the central Thai king appointed a good quality chiefton, a population was gathered, the moats were updated, the walls rebuilt and Chang Mai was reborn as a Siam protectorate around 1800 - and it has been gathering strength ever since.

Because of its auspicious location, Chang Mai has always had it really good in an economic sense. Located in beautiful green fertile hills with red soil and streaming rivers, there is plenty of opportunity for agriculture and from that alone it is doubtful that the people of this area have gone seriously hungry. However more importantly for centuries, Chang Mai has been considered a significant cultural and commercial crossroads, due to its northern location where the peoples of China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) have traded for eons – apparently there were set caravan routes where silk, opium, tea, dried fruit, ceramics, gold, cotton, ivory, wood, crafts amongst other goods were exchanged. Trade got even better the railway ran itself north in the early 1920s, after a foreigner established a first commercial bank in 1927, and after Chang Mai joined its protectorate, the Kingdom of Siam, in the early 1930s. In the mid-1960s, tourism became Chang Mai’s leading industry – I believe I’ve already mentioned this salient fact.

Today, Chang Mai is a Chang Mai a mix of old and new, a mix of Thai and tourist. It is not a huge city, with its population of approximately 200,000. Positively provincial in comparison to roaring Bangkok… but by no means could one call Chang Mai poky. The city has a freeway or two, a plenty of cultural venues, and other modern conveniences including malls and car dealerships and ATMs. The sheer number of guesthouses, book stores, restaurants and tour-touting agencies is incredible. Happily, the city has regulations restricting high raise buildings too near the moats or near the Wats, which have mostly been adhered to. In fact, it seems like there is a Wat around every corner in Chang Mai. The city has an excess of 300 temples, which from a statistical standpoint this is almost equal to the number of Wats in Bangkok – but Bangkok’s population exceeds 7 million. It is lovely to be walking along the brick or stone paved sidewalks and to pass a stone fence belonging to a Wat… my hotel was located near a major Wat complex and until my last hours in the city, I didn’t realize that I had been pacing the exterior of the complex every day. Anyway, the Wats add color yet they also blend in, and I suppose they help save the city from taking on the exterior of an exclusive tourist haven (such as Siem Reap is on its way to becoming). Between the moat and the Wats, orientating oneself in Chang Mai is a fairly simply prospect – although finding a guesthouse with an acceptable restroom was another story (for me).

In very early preparation for tourists with a bad sense of direction, to this day, the city retains its initial square moat structure at its heart. As anticipated, I was able to walk around Chang Mai – a lot - although I never truly adjusted to the fact that cars and motorbikes drive on the left, and that I first need to look right before crossing the street. Generally, I cherished walking the city as every destination, even my habitual job-hunting Internet cafe, gave me the opportunity to observe something new. I found that one of the best things about Chang Mai is that the difference between the “haves” and the “have nots” is not as distinct as in Siem Reap or Bangkok. There were few beggars and there was plenty of normal daily life within the moat area, including schools and stores and residences. In fact, I was lulled into thinking that the moat was fairly reflective of the city until my accidental visit to the Chang Mai University area as well as a few other exploratory walks in which I realized that the real city is outside the moat, with the accompanying chaotic noise, traffic, haphazardly piled flats, and twisty streets. Yet I never revised my opinion that the living in Chang Mai seems easier than Bangkok…

To a person, I found the residents of Chang Mai love their city, are proud of their city, do and they do not seem to mind sharing their city with tourists. I was asked by a myriad of tuk tuk drivers, waiters, book store owners, UPS ladies, hotel staff what I thought of Chang Mai and it was always a pleasure to give them a toothiest smile and reply that Chang Mai “is very beautiful” or that “I really like Chang Mai.” It was true and always a pleasure to reinforce to the residents that they can and should be proud of their city – and that I, for one, greatly enjoyed my time there.

More Later,

Laura