Wim Hof Method Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai is the Thai city of temples and serenity. The tourist trail is relentlessly beating a path to Chiang Mai, an ancient city of temples in the mountains of northern Thailand. Now add in the mind blowing Chiang Mai Wim Hof Method experience and you have a cocktail for something amazing.
This charming city has a walled old quarter and moat with hundreds of Buddhist temples dating back centuries. The traffic is light and the air fresh.
Don’t miss the next Wim Hof Method Chiang Mai workshop by Stuart Wilson
Chiang Mai welcomes visitors and is a gateway to the forests, mountains, rivers and waterfalls that made reaching the city a struggle for centuries.
Must-visits besides the beautiful temples are the celebrated night bazaar, the vibrant Loi Kroh Road nightlife and the Sunday street markets.
The contrast with stuffy, busy, hot Bangkok could not be more striking.
So before you plan your visit to Chiang Mai, find out more about this amazing city below.
Where is Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai nestles in the Himalayan foothills around 360 miles north of Bangkok, Thailand, close to the border with Laos and Myanmar.
The city dates to 1296, when founded as the capital of the once independent kingdom of Lanna.
The city is home to nearly 130,000, while the wider metropolitan area numbers nearer to a million.
For visitors, the main attraction is the 30 Buddhist temples with ornate gilded carvings.
The best known is Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, which majestically overlooks the city from a perch on a nearby mountain.
Besides the temples, Chiang Mai’s festivals are popular with visitors.
These include Yi Peng in November, when locals make watercraft from banana leaves, fill them with flowers and float them on the city’s moat and other waterways to worship the water goddess. Paper lanterns decorate houses and buildings, while thousands are let fly.
In February, Chiang Mai celebrates a flower festival, while in April, a raucous night heralds the Thai new year.
Nearby, popular trips include visits to hill tribes, national parks and elephant treks.
Quirky visas
Thailand offers three tourist visas, depending on how long you intend to stay in Chang Mai.
The 30-day standard tourist visa is available from the airport on arrival or at border posts with neighbouring Cambodia, Laos or Malaysia for land travellers. The visa is renewable every 30 days at the Chiang Mai Immigration Office.
Similar rules apply to the 60-day tourist visa, but it’s a good idea to arrange the visa from home.
The multiple entry visa is a little quirkier. Although the visa lasts six months, you must leave and re-enter Thailand every 60 days. This generally means 12 hour each way road trip to Vientiane, Laos.
Watch the weather
Chiang Mai is a mountain city, so the weather is cooler and wetter than many places in the tropics.
The wet season is July to October. If you don’t mind day time temperatures pushing 35 Centigrade or more, then go between March and June.
November to February is the popular cooler season, with temperatures rising to 30 Centigrade.
Getting to Chiang Mai
It’s not easy to get a direct flight to Chiang Mai from outside Thailand.
The common route is a flight to Bangkok and then an internal flight to Chiang Mai with Thai Air for around £50.
Once in the city, getting around is quick and easy as the centre is quite small. However, a lot of the sights are in the nearby mountains. Thankfully, traffic in the city is light compared to Bangkok, so you won’t suffer from the choking exhaust fumes.
You can either take a tuk-tuk to travel locally or hire a scooter. For 20 baht you can take a red songthaews, which is the sole form of public transport. Taxis ply their trade from the airport and do not venture into the city that often.
How far will your money go?
Chiang Mai is ridiculously cheap by British or European standards.
The cost of living is reckoned as half that of London, with a single person comfortably getting by on £410 a month plus rent. A single bed apartment in the city would add around £300 a month, while living farther out in the suburbs would cost around £215 a month.
Eating out is inexpensive with a three-course meal at a mid-priced restaurant coming to less than £10.
Among the most expensive purchases are clothes and footwear, with jeans like Levi 501s costing £55 and Nike trainers priced at £60.
A bottle of local beer is £1.26 and a pack of cigarettes £3.43.
Where to stay
Chiang Mai is a magnet for backpackers and digital nomads because of the beauty of the city, cheap cost of living and abundance of places to stay.
Most start their visit in a hotel or guest house while searching for a decent apartment to move to.
For short stays of a month or less, then a decent hotel or guest house is probably the best bet, but for longer stays, a self-contained apartment is the favourite option.
Serviced apartments are much like European shared houses — a single room with washing and basic facilities for around £120 a month. For a larger apartment with a separate kitchen and bedroom, expect to fork out £500 a month plus utilities.
What to see besides temples
You can’t be a culture vulture for all the time — you must have some rest and recreation and Chiang Mai offers plenty of other distractions.
Unfortunately, as tourism pervades the city, so do commercial attractions.
The Chiang Mai Night Safari is a tram ride or walk strangely featuring big beasts from the African savannah like lions, elephant, rhino mixed in with tigers and bears. If you are brave, you can accompany a warden into a compound at Tiger Kingdom and pet the big cats — the bigger the tiger, the higher the price.
Shopping is a unique experience in Chiang Mai. Forget designer brands and big malls, because hundreds of craft and artisan workshops are open to visitors. Besides the city markets, you can buy paper crafts at Bor Sang Craft Village.
Food lovers should head Kad Luang or Warorot Market where restaurant chefs and home cooks ply their ready-cooked wares, with lines of stalls selling street foods.
Elephant sanctuary
The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary is a retirement home for the majestic beasts who spent their life as working animals, mainly in the logging trade. Highlight of the trip is jumping into a mud bath with the elephants.
Doi Pui, a village located high up in the mountains, offers a chance once of Thailand’s fast disappearing ethnic hill tribes. The tribesmen used to grow opium poppies until the government stepped in to provide alternative crops.
Flight of the Gibbon is a zip wire trip through the forest where the gibbons live.
For those who want to banish aches and pains after the gibbon trip, the Thai Massage School Shivagakomarpaj offers treatments and training courses from just £35.
Thai cooking
Thai cooking courses abound if you love the fiery local foods. Most come with chef-guided trips to local markets with tips on how to pick the right ingredients and haggling with the sellers.
For the Indiana Jones in you, take a jungle trek through the mountains that include crossing rickety rope bridges across magnificent gorges hundreds of feet above fast flowing rivers.
How safe is Chiang Mai?
Chiang Mai is a provincial city with a population approaching a million people, so the odds are that a good few are crooks.
But like most places, serious crime is rare, although tourists should watch out for pickpockets and opportunist thieves after bags, cameras and other expensive gear.
Generally, the locals are friendly and not aggressive as they want to encourage tourists to visit the city and have a good time because it is in their financial interest.
Credit card fraud is an issue in Thailand, so pay in cash when you can.
Avoid drugs in any shape or form. Even possessing the smallest amount of cannabis is not tolerated by police and will result in at least a £1,000 fine and deportation.
The Big Smoke
It’s a good idea to avoid Chiang Mai in February and sometimes for March as well because of the big smoke.
During the month, hundreds of farmers burn the stubble in their fields around the city and the smoke can fog the centre. The problem extends hundreds of miles across the north of Thailand and into neighbouring Laos and Myanmar.
Some years, when the smoke is at its worst, between 50 and 100 people die of smoke-related illnesses.
At this time, much of the city is closed and the locals leave for less polluted areas.
Wim Hof Method Chiang Mai Tickets
Book your tickets as soon as possible, this event sells out quickly.
All tickets must be purchased direct from the Wim Hof Method official website.
Here is the link to the Wim Hof Method Chiang Mai workshop.
