We begin our circumnavigation of Chiang Mai’s old city at the northwest corner known as Hua Lim, for no particular reason other than you have start somewhere. And we move in a clockwise direction simply because it’s considered the more auspicious by Buddhists. This is where Huay Kaew Road heads off west past Central Huay … read the full post

We’ve covered the excellent Chiang Mai Aquarium and Nakorn Ping Aviary but haven’t yet given you an overall rundown on the city’s famous zoo; so, it’s about time! Chiang Mai Zoo is situated at the foot of Doi Suthep, just behind Chiang Mai University, and covers a large area of secondary forest, foothills and stream … read the full post

Doi means mountain in the northern Thai dialect (see our earlier geographical names post), so Doi Suthep of course means Suthep Mountain. Doi Suthep’s most famous feature is its temple, Wat Doi Suthep, and is part of Doi Suthep-Pui National Park. Finally, Suthep is the name of the western district of Chiang Mai city abutting … read the full post

Some of our other regional Travelfish.org blogs have been busy of late giving you the rundown on popular and prevalent scams in their respective patches (such as here and here) so we thought we’d do the same for Chiang Mai… the only problem is we can’t find any! Many scams in other cities involve transport … read the full post

Along with the excellent aquarium, the aviary is another of our favourite spots in the vast Chiang Mai zoo. It’s actually one of the older parts of the zoo but was completely renovated in 2004 and now incorporates 2.5 acres of a steep valley on the lower slopes of Doi Suthep. Indeed the entirety of … read the full post

Instead of trying to cover the whole of Chiang Mai zoo in one post we’ll concentrate on what to our mind is the best part of it — the aquarium. Chiang Mai’s state of the art aquarium opened some three years ago and it’s been improving ever since. There’s an extensive array of fresh and … read the full post

Surprising how many people can stay several days in Chiang Mai and remain oblivious of the — by city standards — plentiful and varied bird life. Being a leafy town and with forested mountains not far away in any direction, you don’t need to go hiking in the national park to see some pretty exotic … read the full post