Post: #1

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.

Post: #2

Nice sheet, Rio.

Didn't Discovery get shut down though?

Some other great places to check out include JJ Market, Fine Thanks, and Infinity. If you want amazing fine dining with laid back music - probably the nicest place in town, check out Mo'C Mo'L.

As for the Bandidos, in 4 years in CM, I only saw them a couple times, and they seem to roll with a somewhat mellower vibe over there. Warm Up is definitely a standup place to hang out.

I'm Here.

"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

Post: #3

Chiang Mai Girls:

I did pretty well while in Thailand. My total 4 months in Thailand I nailed down 14 girls I believe it was, but with most of my time in BKK being with one girl (aside from the girl I banged when she was in Lao lol). Only one of those girls was a pro, but I pulled her for free. I believe my total for my 3 months in CM was 12 girls, so I averaged a new girl each week. I even turned down a fresh girl one night because I was in bed watching the Wire on my laptop and didn't feel like taking a Tuk Tuk to her place at 2am. Guess when you have girls over 3-4 nights a week a night off is welcomed.

How did I do it? ThaiLoveLinks.com. The girls in CM are not as open to foreigners as girls in BKK. A lot of the girls in CM are rich university students and from what I experienced, and was told, it seems they don't particularly like being with farangs because it makes them look like hookers/gold diggers. This isn't true for all girls obviously, but the university girls at clubs didn't seem to be too warm to foreigners approaching them. I have a friend in BKK who goes to RCA (which would be similar to Monkey Club/Warm Up in CM) and he cleans house there. When he came up to CM for Songkran he said it seemed much harder to pull girls.

ThaiLoveLinks is great because lots of the girls on there in CM are college educated and have jobs. Two of them came to my place and picked me up in their cars, which were brand new. These girls speak some degree of English, and like farangs. I had more girls lined up on here than I could deal with and let several girls slip through the cracks that I probably could have closed. Honestly, I feel I could have pulled 50% more girls in CM than I did had I wanted to put in the effort. Also, be sure to move them over to MSN because Thai girls will be on that shit all day long and you can keep them in the loop for later. They don't stay logged on ThaiLoveLinks for very long so sometimes it can be hard to chat with them a second time if you need.

My SNL was damn near 100%. I would chat them up online, escalate quickly to weed out more conservative girls, use LOTS of emoticons (Thai girls love these) and then have them meet me at Cafe Del Sol for a drink. On a side note, you are expected to pay for the girls drinks in Thailand. One time a girl I met there brought 3 of her friends without telling me and apparently I was expected to pay for their drinks, but Mai my bartender friend informed me of this later so I didn't. Still got the bang the next time we met, so it worked out. I guess this is a common Thai girl tactic, though I only encountered it once. After some drinks and flirting I would take them back to my condo, which was walking distance, and seal the deal.

I have found that Thai girls in CM are more reserved in public than Western girls, as in you don't want to go for the makeout at the club. I would do lots of flirting and touching, but no grabbing or kissing. However, once I got them back to my room, they were just like any other Western girl and it was a done deal.

Where To Live:

The two areas I have the most experience with are the Nimmenhamen area (by Chiang Mai University) and the Night Bazaar area, which is the main tourist area. This is a good site to look for apartments and even houses. http://chiangmai.thaiapartments.net/ You can rent a house just outside of CM, like 5 min by motorbike, for super cheap prices. My friend had one 5 min motorbike from the train station, about 10 from the moat, for under 3,000 baht a month. Two bedroom with bathroom, living room and kitchen in a Thai neighborhood. Even had a front yard and car port.

Nimmenhamen:
This is where a lot of CM University students live, and is probably the most upscale and trendy area of CM. It is one main street with lots of side streets (Sois). You can find small studio apartments here for about $200 a month, or go for a western style condo which can run about as much as you want to spend. Lots of apartments in this area so finding one shouldn't be a problem. If you live in this area learning Thai would be helpful, and would probably open up TONS of super hot Thai uni students that you might not have access to only speaking English.

A great hostel to stay in this area is Spicy Thai. It is in a two story house and run by two early 30s Thai guys named Noom and Pong. Super cool guys who would take us out to Warm Up and were always very helpful and fun. I hear Noom is a straight gangster at pool, so watch out.

One of my favorite places to eat in all of CM was right on Nimmenhamen Soi 6. It's an outdoor Burmese restaurant, you can't miss it. Their chicken and potato and their beef and potato curries were awesome. I believe they were 30 baht ($1) each. The corner stand at this place also had KILLER fried chicken, and also fried stuffed peppers that I would kill for right now. It was super cheap. You could go to these two stands, drop $3, and eat a full fucking meal.

Night Bazaar:

This is the most touristy area of CM, and where I ended up getting an apartment with a roommate because it was close to where I trained Jiu Jitsu, and close to his school he taught at. We originally wanted to stay on Nimmenhamen, but it is on the other end of town and I don't know how to ride a motorbike.

I was just outside the Night Bazaar, living at Doi Ping Mansion right on the ping river and about a 20 minute walk to the moat/city center. Only about a 3-5 minute walk to the Night Bazaar. We had a two bedroom, two bathroom condo with a kitchen and washing machine (rare for Thailand) and we got it for 15,000 baht a month, or about $500. I paid $300 a month to have the big bedroom with my own bathroom. Looking back, this was a great fucking idea since I had Thai girls in my bed every other night. You can find places cheaper than this if on a tight budget. This was a western style building with a very good location.

For food we would eat almost every day in the Night Bazaar, but not where the tourists go. Lots of German, Italian and Indian/Arab places to eat here if you want that. However, if you are looking at all of these restaurants, turn a 180 and walk to the back of the Night Bazaar. You will find about a dozen or more food stalls with killer Thai food. This is where the Thais who work in the Night Bazaar eat. The place to the far left was my favorite. It is the one with all of the pictures of the different dishes they make. Owned by a husband and wife who speak great English and are super nice. They charged us the local price, or close to it, when some of the other places would charge the farang price. All of the different curries here are awesome. Grab yourself some green curry and then go over to the Thai guy, who also speaks great English, grilling up the pork and chicken skewers and grab yourself a few of those for a good meal.

Another kick ass place to eat is The Dukes. There is one right in the Night Bazaar, and another just across the ping river by Rimping grocery store. The Dukes has steak, pizza, burgers and all kinds of good stuff but is known for the best ribs in Chiang Mai. Not bad prices either and is considered one of the top expat restaurants. Do yourself a favorite and get a Cubano. It's a sandwich made on a cibatta roll, with sliced ham and then pulled rib meet put on top with some chipoltele mayo. This was my go to hangover meal with two gatorade that MealsOnWheels4You would have delivered for only a 70 baht fee.

Want some Mexican food? Hit up El Diablos by Thae Pae gate around the moat. Pretty good burritos with homemade tortillas. I'm from California so obviously these burritos don't stack up with those from home, but I was pretty surprised with how good they were given I was in CM Thailand.

Post: #4

(12-13-2011 07:56 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  Nice sheet, Rio.

Didn't Discovery get shut down though?

Some other great places to check out include JJ Market, Fine Thanks, and Infinity. If you want amazing fine dining with laid back music - probably the nicest place in town, check out Mo'C Mo'L.

As for the Bandidos, in 4 years in CM, I only saw them a couple times, and they seem to roll with a somewhat mellower vibe over there. Warm Up is definitely a standup place to hang out.

Discovery was open while I was there. I remember hearing it got shut down for a few nights by the cops for staying open past curfew (and probably not paying their bribe lol) but I don't think it was permanent.

Yeah, I was super surprised to see Bandidos, especially in a place like Warm Up. My family is all old school bikers so I'm pretty familiar with that way of life. I had no idea they were in Thailand though. At first I thought the guy had watched too much Gangland because he was just wearing a hoodie. Then later in the night I saw him with 2-3 Thai Bandidos all wearing their cuts. The shortest of the group gave me the evil eye when I walked by them in the club, but they seemed to stick to themselves.

1%er clubs seem to be really popular in Thailand, especially in Pattaya and CM. I guess the Bandidos are the main club in Thailand right now. There is even a Hells Angels support club in CM. I saw a Thai 1%er outside of Discovery one night so I decided to go up and talk to him just to see how he would react. I would not approach a 1%er in the US out of the blue, but I was curious about this guy since his cut was all in Thai and he didn't appear threatening. Guy didn't speak much English, but was super nice. Might not be a great idea to do this, but I take after my dad and always go down the road someone tells me not to, just because they said not to.

Mai, the bartender at Cafe Del Sol, is also a 1%er. You would never know it by meeting him tho. I get the feeling that Thai 1%er clubs, aside from Thais in the Bandidos probably, might not be quite as hard as 1%er clubs in the US and Australia. I get the feeling it is more of a "cool" thing to ride a motorcycle that isn't a Honda Wave and be in an outlaw club.

Post: #5

Almost forgot. A great way to save money at the clubs is to get a bottle and mixers. You can even do this at the nice places like Warm Up and Monkey Club. We got a bottle of Sang Som, a cheap Thai rum, and 3 bottles of coke for $12 I believe it was. Get there early and get a table tho or you will nowhere to put your bucket of ice. I believe at Fabriq we got a bottle of Smirnoff vodka and mixers for about $30. Might have been $40, but still a hell of a deal.

Post: #6

Great post. I've been in CM for three weeks and I can definitely say you are spot on about half those places - the other half are now on my list to check out! If you're still in the city and want to grab a drink, shoot me a PM.

Post: #7

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Post: #8

Great post. +1 from me. I'll be back in Thailand in January for a few months, never made it to Chang Mai last time round and really looking forward to it.

Post: #9

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Post: #10

I fly into Bangkok January 18th. Plan to be out Thailand / SE Asia for around 6 months.

Post: #11

Amazing data on CM RioNomad! Very very much appreciated!
I didn't get to make it to CM last time around, as I fell in love with BKK but this time around, I'll definitely spend some time in CM as I've been hearing and reading only praises about it. If We happen to meet in BKK or CM, drinks on me for the awesome info you shared in here.

Post: #12

(12-14-2011 06:50 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Amazing data on CM RioNomad! Very very much appreciated!
I didn't get to make it to CM last time around, as I fell in love with BKK but this time around, I'll definitely spend some time in CM as I've been hearing and reading only praises about it. If We happen to meet in BKK or CM, drinks on me for the awesome info you shared in here.

Sounds good bro. Are you headed to Thailand soon? How long you plan to stay? CM is awesome and I really enjoy it since it isn't a crazy city like BKK. A lot more trees in CM lol. When I was there it was WAYYYY less humid as well, though I am not sure if that is normal or not. People do say CM has the best weather in Thailand though, so I believe it is. In the past they have had very bad air quality problems due to farmers burning their fields at certain times of year. I was there while that was happening but I didn't notice it at all. People said it has gotten much better in recent years.

Post: #13

Thanks for the thread. As I will go there soon it is much appreciated.

Did you train somewhere?

And where did you take the girls for the first meetup? I honestly haven't done a date like that in years... Need help =)

Post: #14

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Post: #15

(12-15-2011 11:03 PM)RioNomad Wrote:  I trained Jiu Jitsu at Golden Traingle BJJ. GTIMA.com is their website. A pro MMA fighter named Cris Haja from Poland, who is getting ready to fight in Bangkok again next month, is the instructor. He's a 6ish year blue belt or something like that who I believe just won the Thai Open. Long overdue for a promotion but he doesn't train directly under a black belt so he doesn't have it. Super nice guy and a extremely tough BJJ player.

I would take the girls to Cafe Del Sol, as it was right by my condo. Take them there, the owner and bartenders all knew me so had some DHV goin on, then throw a few drinks down her throat and take her back to my condo. Done deal.

Wow thanks. I was thinking about training at team quest because I really want to train some grappling. This is much cheaper.

I will definitely drop in and check it out. I am a blue belt as well but only 1 year. As long as there are a few people to roll I'm happy.

Thanks for the tips.

Post: #16

Yo, Rio - what part of Norcal are you in? I'm here for the holidays as well and heading out after holidays.

I'm Here.

"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

Post: #17

Good info, I'm in CM for a week or so and last night I failed to find anything decent happening round the old town so this info is good.

Quote:a side note, you are expected to pay for the girls drinks in Thailand. One time a girl I met there brought 3 of her friends without telling me and apparently I was expected to pay for their drinks, but Mai my bartender friend informed me of this later so I didn't. Still got the bang the next time we met, so it worked out. I guess this is a common Thai girl tactic, though I only encountered it once. After some drinks and flirting I would take them back to my condo, which was walking distance, and seal the deal.

The general consensus seems to be Thai girls expect the guy or the highest status / richest person in the group to pay but I've been living in BKK for a short while and haven't found that it's been expected of me. Girls always chip in when it comes to paying for dinner and drinks, some all night or some just for the first few rounds. I don't ever turn down the offer and it's not affected on me negatively at all. Still consistently getting laid the same night I meet them for the date. I'll go into this in more detail in another post.

Thanks for the information!

Post: #18

On first impression, compared to Bangkok:

1) Noticeable drop in talent. The average is about 1-1.5 lower. This could be expected, as the talent migrates towards the money.
2) Noticeable increase in waist sizes. While nowhere near Western levels, probably around 10-20% of people here, including women, are fat, compared to <5% in Bangkok. This really took me off guard, as I haven't seen such a high density of fat people anywhere else in Asia.

Post: #19

How long are you staying? I want to say its easier to teach there than in BKK. You fly, bus or train? I am interested. They have the cert training out there too. BKK is a little expensive for me. Relatively speaking of course.

Post: #20

Have you ever been to PornPing Hotspot? It was at the bottom of some apartment building, the locals told me thats where all the regular thais go, but there were a few farang mixed in. I was still tromping around in flip flops at that point so nothing happened, but it seemed like a decent spot.

Post: #21

(04-07-2013 12:54 PM)TexasMade Wrote:  How long are you staying?

Undecided.

Quote:You fly, bus or train? I am interested.

Flew. Couldn't be arsed to waste a day on the train/bus (immersed in a deeper "cultural experience" or whatever backpackers claim with a false sense of superiority) to save a couple dollars when you can fly there in 45min for $70 last minute.

Post: #22

(04-07-2013 11:10 AM)Soma Wrote:  On first impression, compared to Bangkok:

1) Noticeable drop in talent. The average is about 1-1.5 lower. This could be expected, as the talent migrates towards the money.
2) Noticeable increase in waist sizes. While nowhere near Western levels, probably around 10-20% of people here, including women, are fat, compared to <5% in Bangkok. This really took me off guard, as I haven't seen such a high density of fat people anywhere else in Asia.

I fight the talent in CM more spread out, i.e. the hot girls don't all concentrate to do their stuff in a few areas. The girls in Warm Up club are good though.

Post: #23

(04-07-2013 01:58 PM)LowerCaseG Wrote:  Have you ever been to PornPing Hotspot? It was at the bottom of some apartment building, the locals told me thats where all the regular thais go, but there were a few farang mixed in. I was still tromping around in flip flops at that point so nothing happened, but it seemed like a decent spot.

I hit up that place one night and wasn't too impressed, there was a live band playing and a mostly Thai crowd, the foreigners there were of the greasy old ex-pat variety. I don't remember if it was a weekend or not but its a good sized club so may be worth checking out for anyone in CM.

RM did a really good job of listing all of the places to go in CM, I didn't go out a lot there but I wasn't impressed with what I saw to be honest.

-Zoe's can be fun for a few drinks but its a backpacker crowd where you'll see drunk idiots in flip flops and singlets dancing like retards. The guys I used to train with at Team Quest go there some times to practice their MMA skills on drunk backpackers, good times.

-Spicy's is a dump, one of the grossest clubs I went to in Thailand, small, stinky and crowded with old geezers dancing like retards. This is where you'll go though if you plan on shoring.

-Monkey and Warm up were by far the best clubs I went to, dress up though.

-El Diablos is a good Mexican place near the all the hostels, just down the street from Zoe's, cute Burmese girls working there.

-I forget the name of the street where all the hooker bars are, but you can play hooker snooker there and you'll likely see those girls at Spicy's after 2am.

-Check out the Muay Thai fights at the back of the night bazaar every Tuesday and Friday to see Thai guys fighting farang, good times there.

-Make sure you check out some of the many "adventure activities" in CM; kayaking, zip lines (flight of Gibbons was over priced IMO), fishing, trekking, etc.

Post: #24

(04-07-2013 11:10 AM)Soma Wrote:  On first impression, compared to Bangkok:

1) Noticeable drop in talent. The average is about 1-1.5 lower. This could be expected, as the talent migrates towards the money.
2) Noticeable increase in waist sizes. While nowhere near Western levels, probably around 10-20% of people here, including women, are fat, compared to <5% in Bangkok. This really took me off guard, as I haven't seen such a high density of fat people anywhere else in Asia.

Have you ventured much beyond Chiang Mai Center much yet? Because it sounds like you're describing the area within and just surrounding the moat.

The metropolitan area of Chiang Mai has over 900,000 people, and the center is not at all representative of the talent there. Most Thai men declare the most beautiful women in the country reside there, and they hardly like fat women, so you may have just gotten a bad impression because of the low-quality women who flock to the center for the farangs.

Bangkok is a huge city though, so of course you're right the talent would migrate there. That said, I think the best of the talent heads to Korea and Hong Kong.

I'm Here.

"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