Chiang Mai is a hugely popular tourist spot in Thailand, although I'm not a big fan of the place today. Thais like to go there because it's cold (for Thailand anyway) in the winter, and foreigners like to go there because it's vaguely hippy and laid back compared to the urban sprawl of Bangkok. But Chiang Mai today is pretty sprawl-y, lots of tourist kitsch, very bad traffic etc. But it also has a much better hotel and restaurant selection than when we first visited on this trip. We stayed at the Westin Hotel, which is hopefully out of business by now. It's an ugly tower block, with no views and really nothing to recommend it. Best bets today are clearly the Mandarin Oriental or the Four Seasons, but there are loads of cheaper options that are far superior to the Westin as well. In this photo, Somchai is standing in front of the moat that surrounds the old city of Chiang Mai and separates it from the ugliness of the new city.