What Sex Workers Want You to Know
On its surface, Can Do Bar seems like your average after-hours watering hole. Shelves of liquor bottles shimmer under neon signage, and the latest pop chart-toppers drift out from the loudspeakers. Despite its comfortingly nondescript appearance, it is the only bar of its kind in Chiang Mai: it’s run entirely by sex workers.
7 things to do after midnight that does NOT involve alcohol!
Although Chiang Mai is still holding onto its vibrant, lively nightlight despite the midnight Cinderella curfew, sometimes a night off the booze is just what you need. Whether you’re a night owl or just not looking for a drink, here are some things you can do after midnight that does not involve alcohol.
My First Taste of The King of Fruit
As I peered at the strange meat-like fruit on my lap, I knew I had to do it. After slowly peeling back the clingfilm on the plate in my lap, the pungent smell of durian infiltrated my nostrils. I took a deep breath, and thought “how bad could it be?”, and took a bite.
Be Inspired at the 3rd Northern Digital Expo
The great leaps in digital technology can be utterly bewildering to the average person, as we grapple to keep up with latest devices, trends, gadgets and their seemingly endless possibilities. Wares, both soft and hard, may be simpler to use, but for many, difficult to master and command. Social and new media may feed us, but they also consume us, as we struggle to keep up.
Architects of Interaction: The Visionaries Behind Two of Chiang Mai’s Innovative Community Spaces
Beyond the walls of the Old City far from the usual bars and clubs where many Chiang Mai residents find their nocturnal weekend entertainment, a new social space began filling up by 8pm. In an unlikely location — a warehouse tucked behind a Nissan dealership — the city’s hippest tastemakers flocked to take part in a new kind of nightlife.
Dee Jai at Jai Thep: A fantastic new festival on Chiang Mai’s calendar
I am an American student studying at Chiang Mai University who had the honour of attending one of the best festivals Chiang Mai has ever seen, according to many of its fans and followers. Doors opened at 10:30am, and I arrived at the festival in Pun Pun Organic Farm by 2pm ready to engage, dance, twist and laugh the day and night away with people prepared to spread love and positivity. The promotion flyers for the Jai Thep Festival were hanging on the walls of many music and eclectic arts venues all over town for weeks leading up the festival, such as Northgate Jazz Co-op, Mixology, and Overstand Cafe, so I knew the work put into it would be immaculate.
Editorial: February 2017
Our Citylife Garden Fair is going to be spectacular this year! As the event has grown and its ambitions expanded, we have found it to have outgrown our wee media company. Thankfully over the past two years a group of volunteers have stepped up and helped us turn our amateur little af(fair) into something which is going to be quite extraordinary this year.
Iconic Hard Rock Cafe Comes to Town
Many of us over a certain age have been to — perhaps even gotten the t-shirt from — a Hard Rock Cafe. This iconic brand of restaurants, casinos and hotels has, since its inception in 1971 expanded to all corners of the globe, having sold hundreds upon hundreds of franchises.
AIS Organize Activities to Showing Devotedness and Reminisce About the Divine Grace of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej
HR Executives, Board of Directors and staff of Advanced Info Service Public Co., Ltd. (AIS) organised activities to show devotion to the Late King Bhumibol Adulyadej following a silence of 89 second and the singing of the Royal Anthem.
Straight to the Jai Thep: Chiang Mai’s Best Music Festival in Years
Let me be frank. The Jai Thep festival last weekend was outstanding. Hailing from the southwest of England, I have had my fair share of festivals, hippies and healing circles in my time. Each year I would hear the reverberating bass echoing from Glastonbury Festival (the biggest festival in the world) from my home and my festival experiences have been wide and varied. The point is, I can be critical of festivals and think that I have enough experience to be a fair judge. But today, criticism failed to materialise as the latest alternative music event to grace Chiang Mai opened its doors to a new era of festival life in the north of Thailand.
The Voices of Chiang Mai: Local Talent on the National Stage
It’s no secret to those of us who live here that this city is full of talented artist and musicians. All over Chiang Mai musicians can be seen playing music at a variety of establishments like restaurants and bars. Some of these musicians have gained fame outside of our fair city on one of Thailand’s most popular platforms: The Voice.
A Podcast Interview of Don Linder, Writer of Award Winning Film The Last Executioner
Chiang Mai resident Don Linder, spent many months interviewing Chavoret Jaruboon, known as Thailand’s Last Executioner, who executed 55 people, including one woman, with a machine gun. Chavoret worked at Bang Kwang Prison in Bangkok and was the last person in the country assigned to perform court-ordered executions by gun before Thailand switched to lethal injection, the method still used today.
Imperial Mae Ping Welcomes Biggles Big Band
Set in the heart of the Night Bazaar, the Imperial Mae Ping sits majestically amongst the bustle on a vast property, attracting tourists and locals alike. The modern Lanna style hotel offers up a fantastic range of facilities, from full service accommodation to multiple dining venues. This month however, on March 11th, Imperial Mae Ping is playing host to something a lot more special.
TEDx Asks if You Dare
For all those who don’t know, TEDx is and international creativity and ideas forum which invites guest speakers to explore a vast range of topics — sciences, philosophies, cultures, religions, politics and anything else you could imagine. This year TEDx will be held here in Chiang Mai on the 30th January 2016, locals and visitors attending the event will be asked to “Dare To…”
Editorial: December 2015
I’m a glass half full kind of girl. Always have been. And while my Pollyannish outlook has often led me into all sorts of trouble, I believe optimism makes me a happier person. That isn’t to say that I don’t treasure my cynicism. Cynicism is a healthy state, it makes us question the world around us and challenge status quos. Which leads us to search for solutions to make things better, which brings us right back to that brimming glass. So my cynicism is in fact most sunny in its disposition.
10 Years of Citylife Garden Fair
This was the 10th year of our Citylife Garden Fair, and was by a long shot the most spectacular affair to date. It all started when a few of our readers came to ask to use our old Citylife garden to organise a small fair to raise money to help the victims of the 2004 tsunami. We invited friends, clients and anyone who cared to join in and had about thirty or forty stalls selling goods to the few hundred readers who turned up. It was such a lovely day that we decided to do it twice a year (choosing two to three beneficiary charities per event), which we did until the whole thing simply got too big so we pulled it back to an annual event.
Citylife Garden Fair ’15
Over the past ten years our Citylife Garden Fair has grown up, evolved, and simply grown into a pretty incredible annual event which, according to JJ Hobby Market, attracted over 5,000 people last year, raising nearly 220,000 baht for two local charities in 2014. The fair is now way bigger than our small staff can handle, and thankfully we have been supported by a team of dedicated volunteers, who are promising to make this year’s event the biggest and best yet.
It’s High Season
After a few quiet months, Chiang Mai’s festive season has started with a spectacular bang. Following a strange cold spell last week, this past weekend saw enough events to keep Steve Yarnold from complaining of boredom for a few days. A running commentary by many people who attended these events was that Chiang Mai is almost unrecognizable from the city it was in the past. Sophisticated affairs – sans flip flop – incredible world cuisines and wines and high caliber art work battled it out for our attention.
Timeless Classics
With the number of tourists out-doing itself every year, the population on a steady incline, and major development projects dominating the landscape, Chiang Mai definitely has its fair share of modern growing pains. To help us take a step back and get a feel for simpler days, we put together a list of some of our favourite timeless Chiang Mai classics.