We spent 5 months living in Thailand in the winter of 2016/17. I had just retired from teaching and wanted to see what it would be like to live somewhere else, especially during the cold of our winter at home. We decided to become an expat in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Why Chiang Mai?

I have a friend who had spent some time teaching and living in Asia. She suggested Chiang Mai as an easy place to learn about some Asian culture and recommended a serviced apartment for us to live in. Since we didn’t have any other advice, we booked the room and the flight. If we hated it, we decided we could always come home.

We loved our time in Chiang Mai. I was sad to leave when spring arrived. We wondered if we liked this city because of all it had to offer to expats, or because it was new and was the first place we had visited.

What is there for an expat in Chiang Mai, Thailand? The answer came from all the other expats we met from around the world, from Australia, England, USA, and Canada. We also met several local Thais.

The Chiang Mai expat club  meet a few times a month and are a great resource to find out about all the things that are available to do in the city. We found a choir to join and met several people that we continue to stay in contact with. We found a group of people playing pickle ball 3 days a week, a Zumba class twice a week and I found a photography club to join that met once a month. Often we just sat and watched the world go by. It was hard to leave all those people and activities when we came home 2 years ago.

Back to Chiang Mai

We planned a trip to Viet Nam for this winter since we had not been to this Asian country on previous trips. The first leg of this journey was to Chiang Mai. We hoped to satisfy ourselves that there was more to the city than just newly-retired excitement. We had a week to visit and booked a hotel in our old neighborhood. One morning we spent watching some workers weed whack the gutters and clean up the plants for flood control. It took 4 of them altogether! I can’t say enough about watching the world go by in a new place.

It was easy to fit back into our life there. We walked through the old city and stopped for food and drink at some of our favorite restaurants. Things had not changed as much as I was afraid they might have. We visited the apartment where we had stayed and found many people from our first visit back there escaping the cold of their homeland.

The people we still know

The crew at pickle ball were happy to see us. We had continued to follow this group on Facebook so were able to pick up where left off. Our paddles even found their way into one of our bags.

After some rousing games and much talk and laughter, we went for lunch with a Thai couple we know. They took us to a local restaurant and helped us place the order for their specialty dish. It was a glass noodle soup with meat, vegetables and a little bit of heat called sou-ki. Sawit’s recommendation was just to point to the biggest picture on the menu and order. It will probably be the item they do the best.

I did some shopping in the markets and attended a Zumba class with my former teacher. On my walk there I saw a group of people in front of a store line dancing for their activity. I went to a nearby restaurant after class, and ran into a woman from Canada that I knew from the photography club 2 years ago!

Lannacapella

We joined Lannacapella, an expat choir, on our previous visit and sang at some Christmas events in Chiang Mai. We were also invited to sing at the 100 day of Remembrance for the King of Thailand in January, after his death in October. I chose a song that the King had written and arranged it for 4 part a capella choir. Singing in front of thousands of Thai’s to honor their former King was something we will never forget.

The current choir invited us to join them for an afternoon of music as they rehearsed for an upcoming Christmas performance. It felt like we had never left. We also had the opportunity to sit in the old Chiang Mai Christian Church. Enormous posts support the roof and has very dark wood floors and walls. The singing sounded wonderful inside.

More tours and shopping

We found a driver with an electric tuk tuk. He offered to take us to a village on the outskirts on Chiang Mai where they make painted handmade umbrellas and weave silk. Even though we lived there for a winter, this was an area we had not visited before.

The silk makers had an interesting demonstration on how they feed the silkworms until they make a cocoon. Before they open, they boil the whole thing and pull the silk threads off and unwrap the pupae. The threads are dyed and woven into cloth. The boiled pupae are surprisingly tasty. I even ate 2 of them!

The umbrella makers use split bamboo for the frames and make rice paper with and without added silk or cotton for the tops. They also made wood and paper fans. Many had elaborate scenes painted on them. One of the painters did a design on the back on my phone cover for about $2. It has not scratched or peeled off after 3 weeks of use.

We visited a shop that sold pashmina scarves and rugs from Kashmir. I’m not sure why they are working in Chiang Mai. He was very convincing, but you only need 1 Indian Rug, which we purchased in India last spring. A tour of a jewelry factory and salesroom was the last stop.

More local food

After the success of our local lunch earlier in the week, we asked our driver to take us to a place where he might eat. We pulled up to a couple of tents set up along the main road. There were several scooters parked in front and our driver waved to several of the other drivers he knew.

He recommended some bbq pork that came off the grill and was chopped into bite size pieces. It was served with a dipping sauce with Thai basil and cabbage on the side. He also suggested a kind of catfish that was rubbed in spices, wrapped in banana leaves and roasted on a grill. It was a whole fish and being from the prairies, where we don’t eat much fish, I didn’t look at its face and focused on the flavor. Delicious! Our driver ordered a beef salad that had cucumber and lots of herbs and lemongrass with a tart, spicy vinaigrette. Along with 3 large local beer the bill came to $16 for everything.

More expats

We made friends with a couple of expats at one of the Expat Club breakfasts when we first arrived in Chiang Mai. They had invited us for drinks a couple of times and talked about how they found themselves moving from the United States to Thailand permanently. When I emailed them that we were coming back to the city, they invited us again for a visit.

It felt very festive with several decorated Christmas trees. Even though we had only known them for a short time we felt so welcomed. Jim commented, “You are someone we didn’t think we’d see again.” For those expats who welcome the strangers who visit, then leave, it must be difficult to remain open to meeting new people. They did say, however, that it took them 8 or 9 visits of varying lengths before they decided just to stay.

Should we become expats in Chiang Mai, Thailand?

This Asian city is a very easy place to live. There are many other expats from around the world who are open and welcoming and many opportunities to get involved in a variety of activities. There is lots to see and experience in a foreign culture but also lots to do that feels like home.

We looked at some local condos and apartments on-line. Chiang Mai is still a reasonably priced country in which to live. The infrastructure is improving, and we noticed more cars than scooters this time, which would suggest the middle class is continuing to grow. The local people are kind and respectful to “farangs” and don’t seem to hold it against you for coming into their lives for awhile and then leaving.

Thailand is a country ruled by the military, even though the new King is in place. It floods in the rain, swelters in the heat and has a couple of months when the farmers burn that air quality is like living next to a British Columbia forest fire. The rules for visas for retirement change often and in order to stay long term, you may need to deposit several thousand dollars in a Thai bank.

And the final answer…

I don’t think we are ready to decide yet. We know that there is more to Chiang Mai than just the excitement of our first place. Six months in Phnom Penh last year was long enough to know that it is not the place for us. We don’t know if there are other places we have yet to discover that might meet our needs even more. Stay tuned.