To get a sense of how Chiang Mai, has changed in recent years, head to Nimmanhaemin Road, a street that runs south past the leafy campus of Chiang Mai University.
Five years ago, finding a decent cup of coffee in the biggest city in northern Thailand was a mission impossible.
Now on Nimmanhaemin, you find not one, but at least half-a-dozen cafes to please Java lovers. On one corner alone, there's a Starbucks and two local competitors with comfy seats and eclectic soundtracks that mix Ella Fitzgerald with Arcade Fire.
Foreign tourists to Chiang Mai, who flood the city during the peak October-March season, aren't the only ones getting their caffeine fix. Instead, on any given day, the tableau would probably include a clutch of bespectacled local architects hunched over their laptops and artfully dishevelled Japanese expats.
As well as slick coffee shops, Nimmanhaemin is bustling with other barometers of gentrification: boutique hotels, spas, upscale boutiques, art galleries, swish restaurants and newly built apartment buildings and townhouses.
The trend is also apparent in the old city centre, where tourists usually start their trips. Everywhere you turn, there seems to be a spa or boutique hotel - and at least four English-language guides telling you which ones to go to. Tourism gurus say Chiang Mai has shed the stigma of being a backpacker destination and is now in the grips of another makeover. Some reckon that this once sleepy backwater is becoming the hip alternative to Bangkok, a year-round playground for foreign and local artists, architects and creative types.
