Quote: (02-03-2012 12:42 AM)LowerCaseG Wrote:
Chiang Mai
5 solo nights here. stayed inside the city but not where all the bars are for 450bht a night in a nice clean asian style hotel. Fuengfa something it was called. I rented a bicycle, basically you have access to the whole city by bike. Nice and small. There was some flooding downstream so train service to bkk was out, hence the bars were pretty empty at night. I had to do some serious recon to figure out where the THAI people went to go out. Everybody kept pointing me to the gogo bars until about the 10th person i asked. Anyway, think it was called PingPorn Hotspot. Seemed like the kind of scene the ballers on this board might like. Dude in a tuxedo bringing me whiskeys. Actually did some approaches but nothing came of it. Chiang mai is really cheap. You can get an hour massage for 5 bucks. That would cost $80 plus tip $100 in the US. I cant stress this enough, get as many massages as you can take.
Good post.
Just wanted to point out that Chiang Mai is probably far bigger than you realized - based on your comments about the bicycle. There's over 900,000 people in the entire metro area and it's pretty spread out. I've always said it takes at least a week just to get an inkling of the place, which is unfortunate because most tourists just blaze through then check it off the list. The first week you're kind of sitting around wondering what the big hype is all about, but the longer you stay the more you realize just how big the place is. I love this city.
Anyways, some clubs I recommend checking out for guys going through:
Zoe in Yellow - Yeah, it's a real touristy spot in the center but it's a cool bar with a good crowd of people. Has a disco-type bar for dancing and then a good mellow area with a band - nice for sitting down to have some wine and chilling out. Lots of freelancers here but I've also picked up middle to upper class women. The non-pro girls that go there definitely have a taste for white dick and are likely there for that reason.
Riverside - Again, plenty of white folks here, but I find it's the only venue where locals and foreigners mingle without some type of ulterior motive. One of the best bands in the city and lots of well-off women go here, though they aren't really on a farang hunt or anything. A lot of people show up early and eat but I've personally never been impressed by the food. It gets really packed, which makes it hard to enjoy yourself sometimes, but you can walk directly across the street and through the parking lot to find they have a second venue - the bands alternate halfway through the night. If the other bar is too busy, I go to the smaller one for more breathing room.
Monkey Club - Thai disco/rock and roll bar. The band is very good and popular. Lots of hot uni girls. The food is also fantastic and they've got a nice beer garden set up with a mellower band outside.
Warm-up - Cool Thai uni spot. Discoteque inside. Mellow band outside. This is where the cool Thais hang. Over the years more farang have discovered the place and its gorgeous women but overall it's still a very Thai venue.
JJ Market - A conglomeration of various bars popular with Thai uni students. Mostly sit-down beer garden type bars. A good place for sitting around drinking with friends and if you're creative you can find ways to hit on the girls at other tables. A good ice-breaker is to buy flowers for all the girls at a table. Even if you have your eye on a specific one, just get them all a flower. They'll appreciate it.
Fashion House - A cool, very Thai club that sits down below ground level of Kad Suan Keaw mall - down in the parking garage. Was closed for a while after a customer got shot and may have a new name now.
Fabrique - This is one of the hottest clubs in town. 2-room discoteque that goes until early morning and not too far away from the tourist center. One room has the usual Thai band you find in discoteques. The other is dj with a lot of American music. Also mostly Thais. Very fashion-conscious women go here and foreigners have to pay a cover unless they buy a bottle. Beers are pricey at about 150 or 200 baht per bottle; this is the type of place you want to show up with friends and buy a bottle of whiskey to keep at the table.
Mandalay Club - Lots of gays but a very cool spot. Huge auditorium with live dancers and coyote girls. Two more clubs upstairs that go until early morning.
Discovery
Chiang Mai Bar
These two I think were closed, remodeled, and renamed a couple time while I was living there, so who knows what they are now. But I can virtually guarantee some type of club is there. Also a Thai spot. You can find it if you walk across the street from the Kad Suan Keaw mall, walk up the stairs, and prick your ears for the music.
Mo'C Mo'L -
You have to eat at this restaurant in Chiang Mai if you want to catch a glimpse of how moneyed Thais roll. This is my kind of spot here - favorite restaurant in town and one of the two nicest restaurants in the city, I'm told. You won't likely see foreigners there. They've got a mellow band and it's a courtyard setting with koi ponds and fountains. Fancy but to our standards the prices are still extremely reasonable. It's quite a ways out of the center so the tuk tuk bill will be substantial.
Fine Thanks is another nice restaurant, and I think they have a disco inside that opens up at night, though I never made it there at late. The women working there are s.t.u.n.n.i.n.g. Seriously, I think the hottest women I ever saw in Chiang Mai were working at this restaurant. I snagged ones phone number but never turned into anything. I really don't know why I didn't go here more often.
I know a lot more places in town but not sure I ever knew their names. Such a ridiculously huge number of places to drink in Chiang Mai - it boggles the mind.
Just avoid Spicy Club as much as humanly possible (though I must admit I've been quite the human myself at times). Easy shoring but very sleazy and it can be dangerous. Stay away from Lucky Bar too.
Also highly recommended is renting a motorbike and driving out to Mae Ngat Dam, which is about an hour from the city. Once you get there, you buy a ticket fr a seat on one of the longtail boats which will take you 15 or 20 minutes out on the lake. There you'll find floating bamboo rafts with guesthouses. You can get a cheap room for about 150 baht per night or twice as much for something a little nicer. Gets pretty busy on the weekend when locals go out there to get away from town and party. The rafts have restaurants and a couple even have some karaoke. A fun time.
Beyond All Seas
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling