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Thomas Bird

“We do all sorts of things: visit the lady-boy cabaret show at Ram Bar or watch Thai boxing at Loi Kroh Boxing Stadium,” says Faii Suporn, an ethnic Akha who leads residents of the Family Home 2 hostel to sample the best nightlife Chiang Mai, Thailand, has to offer.
For visitors keen to have a go at Muay Thai, she recommends The Bear Fight Club, a gym in the old city that has “good coaches who work you hard”.
“I go there to train when I have time,” says Faii, who sells locally made silverware by day.
And “everyone wants to visit The North Gate Jazz Co-op at least once”, she says of a venue so popular that crowds trying to get a glimpse of local musos jamming often spill out onto the road. “Roots Rock Reggae is also good for live music. The house band regularly tours Thailand, although I usually end up in Zoe in Yellow,” a hedonist spot opposite the reggae bar where everyone seems to know everyone else.

“Chiang Mai is really just a big village,” she says.
It might be Thailand’s second city, with around 1.8 million residents, but Chiang Mai is dwarfed by Bangkok, home to more than six times its population.
With many of the northern city’s best bars and cafes packed into the 1.7 sq km walled city, a small town vibe – in which it is all too easy to idle away an afternoon in a kitschy coffee shop – prevails.
Faii favours Jai Bed & Cafe, midway between Tha Phae Gate and the Ping River, on the east side of town. The ground-floor cafe is decorated with retro fittings and upstairs, patrons sip Thai bubble tea on a rooftop terrace while watching the sun set over the city.
But for many, Chiang Mai is all about the food.
“You have to try khao soi,” says Faii, of the northern-style curry noodle soup. “If you want somewhere fancy, you should go to Kao Soy Nimman [Nimman being the name of a cosmopolitan neighbourhood to the west of the walled city] but I usually go to Khao Soi Lung Prakit Kad Kom, which is cheap and local,” she says, of a noodle shop that is on the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand list.

American chef Andy Ricker agrees when it comes to khao soi.
“You find it all over northern Thailand but it originated in Chiang Mai,” says Ricker, who arrived in the country in 1987 and served as Anthony Bourdain’s guide when an episode of Parts Unknown was shot in the city. “There are many restaurants that serve it in the city and there are just as many variations – nobody makes it exactly the same way.”
Ricker recommends two restaurants that both serve halal versions of the noodle soup: Khao Soi Islam, which is next to the Ban Ho Mosque and where the menu may be in Chinese and Thai but the food is all Chiang Mai; and Khao Soi Prince Maejo Halal Food, a rustic eatery a 30-minute drive north of the old city that has been in business since 1965 and serves bowls of noodles for around 60 baht (HK$14) that are as delicious as they are affordable.
Ricker, who now lives in Chiang Mai full time and has written three books on Thai cuisine, notes the fundamental difference in northern fare, compared with that from the south, is the use of sticky rice and minimal to no coconut. Bitter, he says, is also added to the traditional salty, sour, spicy and sweet.

However, it is the province’s “terroir” – its hilly topography, distance from the sea and proximity to Myanmar’s Shan State and China’s southern Yunnan province – that has made northern cuisine so distinctive, according to Ricker.
This melting pot is best experienced every Friday morning at the Chin Haw Market, opposite the Chinese-founded Ban Ho Mosque. Here, Muslim, Chinese, Burmese and hill-tribe vendors sell every animal part, edible plant and snack imaginable.
“It’s an amazing market and popular with Asian tourists but it’s not really on the map for Westerners,” says Ricker, who notes that some of the ingredients sold at the market end up in the kitchens of pioneering restaurateurs.
“Blackitch Artisan Kitchen is very sophisticated,” he says, of a restaurant in the Nimman area that promotes “holistic, localised, artisanal cuisine”, served in the “chef’s table style”. Its reservation-only, multi-course meals are produced with organic, locally sourced ingredients and sustainably caught fish.
For guidebook writer Oliver Hargreave, who has called the city home since 1990, it is the surrounding forested hills that make Chiang Mai a special destination.
“I try to go hiking at least twice a week,” says the author of Exploring Chiang Mai: City, Valley & Mountains (1997). “The forest is good for the soul.”

Trekkable Doi Suthep-Pui National Park is visible from the city. The summit that gives the park its name stands at 1,685 metres above sea level and is believed to be home to Chiang Mai’s guardian spirits.
“The Thais will always say you have to go to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep,” says Hargreave, referring to the golden pagoda at the top.
“But I think you should hike up rather than drive there. It takes three to four hours up and down.” He recommends taking the Monks Trail, a 7km hike that begins near Chiang Mai University and leads all the way to the golden pagoda, past Wat Pha Lat, a monastery standing in the jungle like a location from an Indiana Jones film.
“Wat Pha Lat is a lovely little place,” says Hargreave. “A lot of people just do the first bit, because the second bit is more severe.
“You can go anytime, but every temple in Chiang Mai is best at dawn because they’re all east facing.”

Chiang Mai served as the capital of the Lanna kingdom from the 13th century and would experience two centuries of Burmese rule before being absorbed into the Siamese state. As a result, many of Chiang Mai’s customs remain distinct from those elsewhere in Thailand, something Phatharapan Saitham, a teacher at the Lanna Language School, is keen to point out.
“I often take visiting friends to the Chiang Mai National Museum,” she says. “There you can learn the story of my hometown; they have old costumes and traditional weapons on display.”
She also urges visitors to explore the historic sites that pepper the city. There are more than 30 temples in the old city alone, chief among them Wat Chiang Mai, with 15 life-size elephant statues at the base of its chedi, and Wat Chedi Luang.
And where should her students unwind after a hard week’s study?
“I like cocktails so I recommend Nophaburi Bar, which is in the old city,” says the 23-year-old. “They make cocktails with Thai spirits and local spices and herbs. The atmosphere is very Thai.”


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Insiders’ guide to Chiang Mai: try local delicacy khao soi and enjoy the lively markets and nightlife of Thailand’s second city. Photo: Getty Images

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Thai language teacher Phatharapan Saitham recommends the Chiang Mai National Museum and the Thai-style cocktails at Nophaburi Bar. Photo: Thomas Bird

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Sample local delicacy khao soi – recommended by Anthony Bourdain’s Thai food guru, hike to the temples of Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, or catch some Muay Thai or live music


Sample local delicacy khao soi – recommended by Anthony Bourdain’s Thai food guru, hike to the temples of Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, or catch some Muay Thai or live music.
