Advertisement
Advertisement
Ron Emmons
Ron Emmons
SCMP Contributor
Ron Emmons is a British writer and photographer based in Thailand, and the author of Teak Lord, a novel set in and around Chiang Mai during the late 19th-century teak boom.

Every visitor to Thailand will have passed a spirit house, but they are a little understood aspect of the local culture – here’s why the san phra phum is so lovingly maintained

At Wiang Kum Kam in Chiang Mai is a cluster of less visited Buddhist temples, ancient statues and remains of a former royal capital city that long lay buried, in an otherwise modern Thai suburb.

Phrae, 200km outside Chiang Mai, in Thailand, used to be at the heart of the teak trade, and the exotic wood can be seen in the architecture of its tourist-free town, in its museums, mansions and temples.

A self-guided tour of temples in Chiang Mai, Thailand, offers not only beautiful carving and golden shrines, but the chance to sign up for meditation classes.

Advertisement

Teak barons built in a style that blended local and imported traditions, with a mortar-built downstairs and sheltered colonnades with gingerbread fretwork upstairs … now hotels are doing the same

Weather is central to Thai rice farmers’ lives, as they plough, plant and harvest based on the rainfall; and pray to the goddess of rice for a good harvest – the difference between feast and famine.

Lamphun, near Chiang Mai, is the epicentre of northern Thailand’s longan fever during summer, with a festival that includes fruit judging, an eating race and a fancy-dress competition.

In Chiang Mai, Thailand, cannabis is everywhere – in drinks, food, spa treatments, medicines for depression, anxiety and better sleep, and in hemp clothes.

The first luxury hotel to open in the tourist-dependent city in northern Thailand since the pandemic slashed visitor numbers, the Melia Chiang Mai hopes to spur a rebound in its fortunes.

Chiang Mai in Thailand has had only a handful of Covid-19 cases but the lack of international visitors has crippled tourist-related businesses. Some are finding new ways to cope.