Thailand
Chiang Mai
Monks in saffron robes walking barefoot past tattooed expats and ancient brick chedis at dawn.
Inside the moated old city, monks in saffron robes sweep temple courtyards at dawn while tattooed digital nomads queue for cold brew across the street. Chiang Mai is a city of contradictions held in balance — ancient and modern, sacred and hedonistic, deeply Thai and thoroughly international. The result is northern Thailand's cultural capital: dense with temples, loud with markets, and thick with the smell of charcoal-grilled sai oua sausage.
Chiang Mai was founded in 1296 as the capital of the Lanna Kingdom, and more than three hundred Buddhist temples still stand within and around the old city's brick walls and moat. The city's cultural identity is distinctly northern — Lanna architecture, Lanna cuisine, and a slower cadence than Bangkok's chaos. The Sunday walking market transforms the old town into a kilometres-long bazaar of handmade crafts, hill-tribe textiles, and street food. Doi Suthep, the mountain temple overlooking the city, is a thirty-minute drive up 309 naga-flanked steps. The surrounding province offers elephant sanctuaries, Karen weaving villages, and some of Thailand's best coffee grown on highland slopes.
Solo
Chiang Mai's walkability, temple density, and street food scene make it one of Asia's best solo travel destinations. The digital nomad infrastructure — coworking spaces, fast WiFi, cheap rent — means you can stay for weeks without trying.
Couple
Heritage boutique hotels inside the old city walls, candlelit Lanna restaurants, and cooking classes in teak kitchens make Chiang Mai a romantic base with depth rather than just sunsets.
Friends
The night bazaar, the Sunday market, and the surrounding adventure activities — ziplining, trekking, elephant sanctuaries — give groups enough variety to satisfy everyone without splitting up.
- Over three hundred Buddhist temples sit within the old city walls — monks in saffron robes are part of the street furniture.
- The Sunday walking market fills the entire old town with handmade crafts, street food, and live music for kilometres.
- Converted teak mansions and heritage boutique hotels sit inside the moated old city walls.
- Northern Thai cuisine is its own tradition — khao soi, sai oua, nam prik — distinct from the south and the central plains.
Khao soi curry soup hiding under a nest of crispy egg noodles.
Sai oua sausage packed with lemongrass and galangal, grilled at the market.
Rye
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Cobblestoned lanes so steep and crooked even the houses lean in to listen.
Shell Grotto, Margate
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Millions of shells arranged in unexplained mosaics beneath a mundane street — origin unknown.
Abydos
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Temple paint vivid after thirty-three centuries, concealing an underground granite chamber that still puzzles archaeologists.
Casabindo
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Argentina's only bull ceremony strips ribbons from horns at 3,400 metres each August.
Nong Khai
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A riverside sculpture park of concrete demons and Buddhas built by a single mystic visionary.
Khao Luang Cave
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Hundreds of golden Buddhas glowing in cathedral shafts of sunlight inside a mountain.
Dan Sai
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A quiet rice town that erupts yearly into a ghost festival of painted demon masks.
Doi Inthanon
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Thailand's rooftop, where twin pagodas pierce cloud forest and Karen villages farm the ridgelines.