Amazing Chiang Mai, Thailand - the travel industry's biggest secret

Hi there. Glad you dropped by. People often ask me 'what's the big secret about Chiang Mai?' Well, the big secret is that not many people know what an amazing place it is to visit and to live in. We (my wife and I) came to Chiang Mai for a special holiday. We found a vibrant, progressive city, full of charming and exuberant people, who all seemed to be excited and interested in our arrival. We liked it so much that we bought a house and decided to stay and retire here, all within a week.

Before long we'd discovered a different world. We found the cost of housing and living were a fraction of those in Britain. We were able to build our own house with swimming pool and pay cash for it, buy a car for cash and generally afford to live the good life.

My wife found that she didn't have to do the laundry or the ironing. We can afford to pay someone to do that for us. We employ a maid for one day a week to clean the house and if Helen (my wife) doesn't feel like cooking, we go out to one of the many restaurants here. We have a pool man to clean and maintain the pool and the weather is nearly always sunny.

Even in the rainy season, it seems to rain mostly at night. Those fed up with British summers will appreciate this the most!

Of course, the big secret about this city must be the people. They're the friendliest and most charming people you could wish to meet. Many of them speak English and many more of them try. We've made a lot of Thai friends in the six years we've been here and been made welcome in their homes and to their celebrations.

And another thing - Thais are the coolest, laid-back folk that you can imagine. Nothing much seems to worry them and any excuse will spawn a party.

In the following pages I'm going to show you why you should visit this charming city, for a holiday, an adventure or even as we did, for prospective retirement.

And I'd like to hear from you once you've visited. Tell me your stories or comments about this exciting city and maybe we can include them in this site.

Incidently, Chiang Mai has been rated among the top 10 most liveable cities in Asia in a recent survey by Asiaweek magazine. Chiang Mai was also 2nd in the World's Best Cities awards by Travel and Leisure Magazine.