Old City Chiang Mai Explained: What You Need to Know

hello and welcome back to the channel we're going to take a look at Old City and old city is what the expats foreigners that's what we call the downtown area of Chiang Mai so we call it old city but if you talk to ties they will not call it old city just know that that is a term used with expats to refer to the very center of town now this is the area if you're looking to come to Chiang Mai you will be very familiar with this map shot it's the square right here and this is kind of like the epicenter of Chiang Mai this is where everything's happening at this is the tourist area of Chiang Mai so the way Chiang Mai is set up of course you got this square there's an old wall that used to be there there's remnants of this wall all around the perimeter of Old City there's also a moat full of water that surrounds old city just so you know so we're gonna talk talk about most things that are inside those walls being old city now the first thing we're going to talk about when you're talking about old city we're going to zoom in here to the right side of Old City to where you see this top pad gate this is what is the epicenter of Chiang Mai if you ever see any videos or footage of the city of Chiang Mai you're going to see a shot of the Top Hat Gate this is where everyone is getting their pictures done there's pigeons there they get there's a lot of people that ties that stay there all day long making those birds fly up so people can have great selfie photos this is also the place if there's that if you're in town and they're having any sort of Festival of any kind this is where it will be this will be the epicenter of most of the festivals we'll be right here there's also worth noting there's also an area there right there where you can rent bicycles so if you're looking to rent bicycles there's a spot there the bikes are all in green there's also if you're sick of eating Thai food right across the street from the top head gate you can find on the other side of the road McDonald's and they also have a Starbucks so if you're just trying to get away from some Thai food for a little bit that's a good area for you everything in old city is pretty much set up for foreigners So speaking English will get you a long way in Old City it's probably the easiest place to communicate in English now if we take a look on the other side of the Top Hat Gate there's also yeah a Burger King on that side of the road there's also an area there that's fairly new and it's an area where you can rent electric scooters so that's there now and this road right here this is as you come through the gate and you're walking down this road right here this is where on Sunday they're having the big Sunday night market it's uh The Walking Street it takes up oh it'll take up this whole Road and many of the other adjacent roads but if you're wanting to get right into the middle of everything on the Sunday Night Market well just tell your cab driver to take you to the top hagate get off there and you will be right in the center of everything again that's on Sunday evening going into the night it's the biggest Market there is in Chiang Mai held of course on Sunday nights now another thing worth mentioning here in Old City for you to see should be right here in the middle is this is a big big Temple for the Buddhists this is probably the most famous One in Chiang Mai AI so if you're wanting to see two temples let's say all you have time for is two temples make this one your number one and there's also one I would say would be number two it's kind of behind it so here's the first one and if you go out on the main road come down a little bit farther you're gonna find what Crossing and this is another big one this would be the second biggest one that's in downtown Chiang Mai I would definitely say if you only have time to see two those would be the two that I would suggest for you to see now all along these streets is everything pretty much catered to tourists you're gonna find places that will take you on tours of everything out in the jungle wherever you'll pass them all the time there's plenty of massage places Spas everywhere you look there's also places to rent motorcycles so if you're looking to rent a scooter or something like that the the whole perimeter is that mostly the outside perimeter of Old City you're going to find a lot of different motorcycle rental places but there are some in the city as well so just walk around it won't take you long to pass one of them since we're talking about motorcycle vehicles or cars anything like that just keep in mind that in Old City there's not much room there for parking parking's kind of strict they even have uh some parts of the road where you park on the left on certain days of the week and you park on the right hand on certain days of the week and yes they do boot cars if they're parked in the wrong spot and Tow people so don't put them to the test because they're they're driving around the police are everywhere just looking for a boot to put on some vehicle somewhere now I want to draw your attention down at the bottom of the square right along here let me kind of go in just a little bit so on this side see what this corner is should be right about here this is an area that's always happening for food you're going to find a lot of vendors Street vendors set up all along this at night it is everywhere during the day you're going to find some vendors selling different items like clothes and trinkets and souvenirs things like that and you're going to have your food but at night this transforms into a mecca for your street vendors so if you happen to be staying in Old City at night you want to come down here to this bottom and it's inside so you know the water is let's see let me zoom in here a little bit more if I can zoom so you're going to be on this side all right so you're on that side inside the moat and it will just be busy busy busy full of people there'll be a lot of song tiles which are those red Vehicles it's kind of like a Chiang Mai's version of a taxi and you'll also see the tukdukes every everywhere you go this is a happening area of downtown Chiang Mai now while we're talking about this area there is one of my favorite restaurants that you really should check out I always butcher the name but we're gonna look at it here together it's called anniversary camp and Cafe put that on your must eat at list the menu so long it's so long it's ridiculous the food's all good whether you order Western food or Thai food it's absolutely fantastic so there's a little bonus tip for you make sure you give them a try and while we're talking about that let's also just look right up the road from this there's a place called Trailhead so if you're somebody who likes to bike they can rent bikes for you here not only will they rent your bike but they'll also do tours and inside they also have a place to get drinks so they have like a little cafe there really cool place with a bike theme another place to show you guys going to be up in this upper left section of Old City it's called Fern Forest Cafe you must check out fernforce Cafe if you're wanting to take a rest get away from all of the hectic parts of Chiang Mai and just go in there and enjoy a good drink some good eats and some nice music and a relaxing atmosphere since we're in this area up here in the top left there's also another restaurant that you should try it's this cow soy kunyai that is a small little place yes you can get there from Google Maps and if you you'll pass it in a heartbeat more likely you're gonna pass it have to come around and look for it again it's like this wall and then there's this little opening you go back there the place doesn't look like much food's fantastic a dirt cheap we're talking like 40 or 50 Baht for the the world famous cow soy of Chiang Mai fantastic little a little mom and pop own place lots of people come there I would say to get there between 11 and 11 30 if you come any later than that you're pretty much not going to get a seat I can almost guarantee it also and just remind you guys where we're at we're at this top left area there is another place called Versailles de Flor this is a neat place this one is like a little slice of Europe they have a lot of neat things to do and see there it is a cafe so you can go there and spend very little money just buy yourself a frozen drink or have a tea whatever you want there but the place is gorgeous I would say spend a Max of maybe 30 minutes there enjoy it look at the sights it's pretty cool lots of places to take selfies and other things like that and it's worth noting since we're right over here in this top left corner if by any chance you're visiting and you had to go to the hospital you wanted to get something checked out all of the hospitals there's several in this area but they're right here and a lot of I know these right here in this area this top left corner they speak English very well in these hospitals so if you're needing to see a doctor it's very close to downtown it's up here at the top left just walk over there and check it out also I don't want to not say anything about the lower left hand side down here they do have a public park down here I have checked that out once I gotta say I mean if your question is is it worth visiting this park I'm gonna say no I mean there's really nothing mind-boggling there it's a pretty basic Park uh my guess is you've probably seen better but if you happen to be in this bottom left-hand side and you want to check it out go right ahead I just want you to know that it's there now if you're wondering now I'm at the top right of the square if you're wondering what's going on in this area well all around the entire moat there are restaurants everywhere and I can assure you they're going to speak some English and there's there's a lot of food that's going to be Western food plenty of Thai food all that stuff's in there keep in mind also that the prices in Old City are going to be a little bit higher here than other parts of Chiang Mai this area is definitely like I've said before catering towards tourists and matter of fact there's one other restaurant that I can see on here that's really good if you want some good traditional Thai food try this human fin I may be butchering the name but I've eaten here a couple of times very good restaurant it may be packed when you get there you might want to get there a little bit early but if you're looking for a good traditional Thai food you can go there and give it a try there's also a few other areas that have some good well Western kind of food I mean after a while you're gonna get sick of eating Thai food all the time so let me show you where I'm at so there's the Top Hat Gate come down this way take your first big road here and let's see what we got this should be the correct yes the Happy Frog sandwiches are kind of hard to find here so if you're wanting a good and I'm this is a high-end sandwich this isn't some chintzy sandwich you want to come here to the Happy Frog fantastic place to eat also if you're looking for Western food maybe some of you the people you're with want Thai food cat's kitchen right out here right over here it's just across the street and down just a ways from uh the Happy Frog is this cat's kitchen great place to eat and look there's another motorbike rental place there everywhere anyway so old city is just full of places for you to see I say that if you probably spent about two or three days here you could at least see and do just about everything in Old City then after that make sure you Branch out in a lot of the places that are selling tours are selling you tours of places farther away out in the jungle and neat excursions that you could go on are they worth it yes would I recommend them yes they're going to take care of everything for you it's kind of kind of TurnKey I would definitely suggest doing that anyway thank you for watching I hope this really helps if you haven't subscribed please consider subscribing if you feel so inclined buy us a coffee we'd really appreciate it also below the video you may see in the navigation a thanks button you can contribute to the channel that way and if you want to support the channel on a monthly basis check out our patreon page and our merchandise store which is there's a link to it in the description where we have shirts and everything and it's all Chiang Mai oriented anyway thank you very much for watching and until next time

Channel: The Narrow Gate

Views: 27,158

Keywords: Chiang Mai, changmai, chang mai, chang my, Thailand, thiland, tailand, 2023, vlog

Id: RtDwdRwFznA

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 12 2023