Since this forum has given me so much info, and made me want to get back out on the road again with a vengeance, I thought I would drop a data sheet as my thanks to you all.
Nightlife:
Nightlife in CM is actually very good. There must be a half dozen, hell maybe a dozen, universities in and around CM so the city is jam packed with hot young girls. The city itself is about 150K, but the total surrounding area is a million I believe.
Popular Thai clubs/bars:
Monkey Club: Really cool club located by Chiang Mai University on Nimmenhamen road. I believe it was off of Soi 6ish?? Not many farang (foreigners) here, but there are some since many study in CM. Has a killer outdoor lounge/patio type area with chairs/couches, a couple of bars, and a large cement pond. Make sure not to fall in this bad boy, I almost did lol. I stayed at Spicy Thai hostel off of Nimmen for 2-3 weeks and this was probably my favorite place to party there.
Warm Up: Also on Nimmen, Soi 12, this is the most popular spot for Thais as I was told by the Thai hostel owner. It is almost all Thai university students as well, with some farang spinkled in. Actually saw a table of Bandidos here, which are one of the big outlaw motorcycle clubs, and huge rival to the Hells Angels. I don't think this is probably a common thing, but I'm not sure. Warm Up has a pretty big parking lot in front, and expect to see lots of high end cars here as this is where the rich Uni students go. Has decent food, a medium sized indoor club area, and a pretty large outdoor area as well. This and Monkey Club seem to attract about the same crowd.
Fabriq: Or Fabric, not sure exactly. I have been here 3-4 times, but can't remember were it is. Any Tuk Tuk driver should know tho. 300 baht cover fee for falangs. I believe it gets you a free beer tho, or you can put your drink tickets together with 2 other people and get a bottle of Johnny Walker. Walk in and there are two main areas, one to the left and one to the right. Both fairly large and will have live music or a DJ. There is a bar straight ahead so be sure to go there and turn in your drink tickets before heading to the music areas. Similar feel here to Warm Up and Monkey Club, a bit more of a nightclub feel.
Discovery: Another Thai club, right off of Huay Kaew road and basically across the street from the mall, Central Plaza. Don't confuse this mall with Airport Plaza, which is the newer mall by the Airport, obviously lol. A bit of a smaller/medium sized club with live music or a DJ. Place always seemed to be pretty buy and popular with Thais. Only weird thing, when you go to the bathroom there are attendants who will come over to you while you are pissing and put a hot wash cloth on the back of your neck and give you a back massage. I always declined lol. I can't for the life of me figure out why you would want a hot ass wash cloth on your neck/shoulders after you just came out of a club from dancing, in a tropical climate. The massage thing is very odd to me as well, but they seem to do this at quite a few places in BKK and CM.
Riverside: Riverside is a restaurant located right on the Ping River, not too far from the Night Bazaar. This is a very popular Thai restaurant and bar. The back seating area overlooks the Ping River and is a very cool spot to either go out to dinner, or go out and get drunk with friends. Get there early though as they have live music on the weekends and it fills up very fast.
Goodview Restaurant: Very similar to Riverside, and located right next door. Quite a bit larger, decent priced sushi, and another popular spot for middle-upper class Thais. I believe they have a boat that will take you out on the river to eat your meal as well.
Backpacker type spots
Cafe Del Sol: This was my favorite bar in CM. Small place located at the very top of Loi Kroh Road, right by the little metal bridge going across the Ping River. Loi Kroh is the main redlight area of CM, but not at the top of it where Cafe Del Sol is. This bar doesn't have any pros or anything like that. The clientele here seems to be mostly young falangs living in CM, as well as backpackers. They have a live band most nights who plays a mix of old rock, reggae and Sublime/311 type must. The owner's name is Mana, a Thai guy with long dreadlocks. Very cool guy and super nice. Bartenders name is Mai. My condo was only a few blocks from here so this was my regular spot to start the night out, or bring a girl for drinks. Worked out super well because I knew everyone who worked there so would instantly come in with people shaking my hand or giving me hugs.
Zoe In Yellow
Another one of my favorite spots. This is located right off of the moat/city center. The owners name is Yanni, a Greek guy who I trained Jiu Jitsu with at Golden Triangle IMA in CM. Yanni is a super nice guy. The bartenders name is Alex, he happens to be a very very good international Judo competitor. He also doubles as the bouncer, so don't get throw on your head lol. This place is in the same are as Reggae Bar and quite a few other backpacker bars. They are all lumped together in a kind of outdoor/indoor party area. Lots of backpackers, pros/semi-pros, and some slutty normal Thai girls mixed in. You can bounce from bar to bar here and have a pretty good time hitting on backpacker chicks and Thais.
THC Rooftop Bar: Another backpacker spot on the moat by Tha Pae Gate. Right by McDonalds. Has a big sign in green with THC written on it and the time I went were playing some god awful type of blaring techno downstairs, but then Reggae, as you would expect upstairs? No one is every downstairs as the bar is on the roof, so maybe they think this is a good way to attract customers? You will walk up to the second floor, take your shoes off, then climb up some horribly made metal ladder/stairs combo that is a death trap when wasted. At the top there is a small bar, then you walk up a few steps to the rooftop which is covered and you sit down on the floor around a table to drink/smoke/whatever. Almost totally a backpacker spot. I didn't care for it much, but it's very popular with the Bohemian crowd and also regular backpacker crowd. Don't get too wasted here, because the stairs I wrote about would seriously be a night ender if you were.
Spicys: If you absolutely can not get any pussy before 2am, this is one of your last stops. Granted you will have to compete with 3 dozen very unattractive 50-75 year olds in the process. Place is mostly backpackers, old men trying to dance (which is fucking hilarious since they play all MTV/Hip Hop type music) and pros/semi pros. Some non working Thais here, but not many. Place smells like shit and half the time went there I either had a blast, or wanted to punch someone in the face. My friend who lived in CM for 3 years told me this is one of the few places you will see a fight break out. I got into a heater argument with a French guy who had a pool stick here one night, so I can see it happening. Upside to Spicys? The lady out front with the food stand has some pretty decent Pizza slices. Or, at 6am and you've been drinking for 10 hours they were decent.
Nightlife:
Nightlife in CM is actually very good. There must be a half dozen, hell maybe a dozen, universities in and around CM so the city is jam packed with hot young girls. The city itself is about 150K, but the total surrounding area is a million I believe.
Popular Thai clubs/bars:
Monkey Club: Really cool club located by Chiang Mai University on Nimmenhamen road. I believe it was off of Soi 6ish?? Not many farang (foreigners) here, but there are some since many study in CM. Has a killer outdoor lounge/patio type area with chairs/couches, a couple of bars, and a large cement pond. Make sure not to fall in this bad boy, I almost did lol. I stayed at Spicy Thai hostel off of Nimmen for 2-3 weeks and this was probably my favorite place to party there.
Warm Up: Also on Nimmen, Soi 12, this is the most popular spot for Thais as I was told by the Thai hostel owner. It is almost all Thai university students as well, with some farang spinkled in. Actually saw a table of Bandidos here, which are one of the big outlaw motorcycle clubs, and huge rival to the Hells Angels. I don't think this is probably a common thing, but I'm not sure. Warm Up has a pretty big parking lot in front, and expect to see lots of high end cars here as this is where the rich Uni students go. Has decent food, a medium sized indoor club area, and a pretty large outdoor area as well. This and Monkey Club seem to attract about the same crowd.
Fabriq: Or Fabric, not sure exactly. I have been here 3-4 times, but can't remember were it is. Any Tuk Tuk driver should know tho. 300 baht cover fee for falangs. I believe it gets you a free beer tho, or you can put your drink tickets together with 2 other people and get a bottle of Johnny Walker. Walk in and there are two main areas, one to the left and one to the right. Both fairly large and will have live music or a DJ. There is a bar straight ahead so be sure to go there and turn in your drink tickets before heading to the music areas. Similar feel here to Warm Up and Monkey Club, a bit more of a nightclub feel.
Discovery: Another Thai club, right off of Huay Kaew road and basically across the street from the mall, Central Plaza. Don't confuse this mall with Airport Plaza, which is the newer mall by the Airport, obviously lol. A bit of a smaller/medium sized club with live music or a DJ. Place always seemed to be pretty buy and popular with Thais. Only weird thing, when you go to the bathroom there are attendants who will come over to you while you are pissing and put a hot wash cloth on the back of your neck and give you a back massage. I always declined lol. I can't for the life of me figure out why you would want a hot ass wash cloth on your neck/shoulders after you just came out of a club from dancing, in a tropical climate. The massage thing is very odd to me as well, but they seem to do this at quite a few places in BKK and CM.
Riverside: Riverside is a restaurant located right on the Ping River, not too far from the Night Bazaar. This is a very popular Thai restaurant and bar. The back seating area overlooks the Ping River and is a very cool spot to either go out to dinner, or go out and get drunk with friends. Get there early though as they have live music on the weekends and it fills up very fast.
Goodview Restaurant: Very similar to Riverside, and located right next door. Quite a bit larger, decent priced sushi, and another popular spot for middle-upper class Thais. I believe they have a boat that will take you out on the river to eat your meal as well.
Backpacker type spots
Cafe Del Sol: This was my favorite bar in CM. Small place located at the very top of Loi Kroh Road, right by the little metal bridge going across the Ping River. Loi Kroh is the main redlight area of CM, but not at the top of it where Cafe Del Sol is. This bar doesn't have any pros or anything like that. The clientele here seems to be mostly young falangs living in CM, as well as backpackers. They have a live band most nights who plays a mix of old rock, reggae and Sublime/311 type must. The owner's name is Mana, a Thai guy with long dreadlocks. Very cool guy and super nice. Bartenders name is Mai. My condo was only a few blocks from here so this was my regular spot to start the night out, or bring a girl for drinks. Worked out super well because I knew everyone who worked there so would instantly come in with people shaking my hand or giving me hugs.
Zoe In Yellow
Another one of my favorite spots. This is located right off of the moat/city center. The owners name is Yanni, a Greek guy who I trained Jiu Jitsu with at Golden Triangle IMA in CM. Yanni is a super nice guy. The bartenders name is Alex, he happens to be a very very good international Judo competitor. He also doubles as the bouncer, so don't get throw on your head lol. This place is in the same are as Reggae Bar and quite a few other backpacker bars. They are all lumped together in a kind of outdoor/indoor party area. Lots of backpackers, pros/semi-pros, and some slutty normal Thai girls mixed in. You can bounce from bar to bar here and have a pretty good time hitting on backpacker chicks and Thais.
THC Rooftop Bar: Another backpacker spot on the moat by Tha Pae Gate. Right by McDonalds. Has a big sign in green with THC written on it and the time I went were playing some god awful type of blaring techno downstairs, but then Reggae, as you would expect upstairs? No one is every downstairs as the bar is on the roof, so maybe they think this is a good way to attract customers? You will walk up to the second floor, take your shoes off, then climb up some horribly made metal ladder/stairs combo that is a death trap when wasted. At the top there is a small bar, then you walk up a few steps to the rooftop which is covered and you sit down on the floor around a table to drink/smoke/whatever. Almost totally a backpacker spot. I didn't care for it much, but it's very popular with the Bohemian crowd and also regular backpacker crowd. Don't get too wasted here, because the stairs I wrote about would seriously be a night ender if you were.
Spicys: If you absolutely can not get any pussy before 2am, this is one of your last stops. Granted you will have to compete with 3 dozen very unattractive 50-75 year olds in the process. Place is mostly backpackers, old men trying to dance (which is fucking hilarious since they play all MTV/Hip Hop type music) and pros/semi pros. Some non working Thais here, but not many. Place smells like shit and half the time went there I either had a blast, or wanted to punch someone in the face. My friend who lived in CM for 3 years told me this is one of the few places you will see a fight break out. I got into a heater argument with a French guy who had a pool stick here one night, so I can see it happening. Upside to Spicys? The lady out front with the food stand has some pretty decent Pizza slices. Or, at 6am and you've been drinking for 10 hours they were decent.