900 Baht for 60 Minutes at Many Chiang Mai Spas – Download Now!
Chiang Mai is an important city. Full of historical importance, ancient traditions and stunning views, it is a destination that both locals and tourists strive to visit as often as they can. Whether you are a visitor to the north or a local resident, escaping the stresses of work and the busy pace of adult life can be difficult – so that is why the Tourism Authority of Thailand is teaming up with the Thai Lanna Spa Association to bring a special spa deal that extends to almost all of Chiang Mai’s most amazing and professional spas.
Time to Explore: The New Faces at Jing Jai Market Chiang Mai
If you ask the managers of Jing Jai Market, they’ll be the first to agree with many locals when we say that one of the best things about Chiang Mai is our food and coffee culture. It is no surprise then that Jing Jai Market is taking steps to enter into this world of deliciousness with their own personal take on what it means to be a green, open air shopping market in the heart of the Lanna capital.
TEKA: Servicing Chiang Mai Since 1995
Founded in Germany almost a century ago in 1924, Teka Group manufactures and commercialises kitchen and bath products, ceramic glazes, industrial containers and professional kitchens. Teka’s founders were one of the first people to ever bring the newfangled, totally modern, stainless steel sinks into Germany. Surviving the poor wartime economies, Teka soon found itself growing and expanding across Europe with factories set up in a number of locations and seeing rapid growth. Soon domestic appliances joined the ever growing list of products that Teka supplies and by the end of the century, the then former president Dr. Klaus Graf decided to go international.
Central’s Northern Home
For Chiang Mai, the Central Department Store is something quite special. First opening its doors in Chiang Mai an impressive 24 years ago in the now ageing local shopping mall, Central Kad Suan Kaew, it’s aimed to provide Chiang Mai and the north of Thailand with a range of products hot off the shelves from the capital.
Boonthavorn’s Forty Year Legacy
The atrium of the 20,000 square metres Boonthavorn showroom is a lush green open-aired space centred around a lively dancing fountain. It was here that we met Wiwat Thayanuwat, CEO and founder of this colossal and wildly successful home supply business. A spry gentleman in his early seventies, a smiling Wiwat greeted us, offered us refreshments, posed for our photographer, told a staff member to change locations of his favourite Charlie Chaplin mascot to face shoppers, as well as organised the location for our upcoming interview.
Warorot Market’s Secret Treasures
We have all been to Warorot Market, it is a Chiang Mai institution. Our mothers took us shopping there in our youths and now we take our foreign friends to take Instagrams and try out bugs and all sort of local delights. For over a hundred years, Warorot has maintained its market vibe, changing its produce and faces as times and generations go by.
A Timeless Teahouse
I stepped through the doorway, took off my shoes and slid into a pair of Chinese slippers. The floor was of varnished mahogany, the furniture inside the teahouse similarly polished to a high sheen, with quintessential Chinese designs finely engraved into every nook and cranny. In the far corner stood a man, dressed in traditional clothing – of which tradition it was hard to tell – with a silver teapot in his hand and a serene smile on his face.
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.
Improve Yourself
For everyone, it is important to look your best, feel your best and just take good care of our bodies and our brains. For some that could involve a two week detox at a spa in the mountains or a heavy workout to get the blood pumping, for others it could be a little of nip and tuck to feel younger again. So however you wish to improve yourself, ether inside or out, here are three places just for you to book into and begin the transformation.
A Chiang Mai Success Story: Buonissimo’s Sergio Canale
Succeeding as a foreign entrepreneur in Chiang Mai, or anywhere else in Thailand for that matter, is not easy. Expats who’ve been here for some years will vouch for that. Foreign owned restaurants, for instance, come and go as regularly as the three Thai seasons. There are however a handful of entrepreneurs who came to Chiang Mai for a holiday, like so many of us, and ended up taking a bright idea and turning it into a remarkable business.
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.
Why Did People Give This Man 100,000 Dollars?
I stopped by Sangdee Gallery after work on August 25th for a glass of wine with a few of our writers to find the usual convivial crowd replaced by a handful of expat men huddled over sleek laptops – marketeers, bloggers, online experts of all walks – tensely sipping espressos on the long teak table, huddled in whispered conversation, and startling the staff with the occasional fist bump and shout.
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.
Mending not Spending
The Guardian named us the “Lost Generation”, the Bangkok Post: “Gen Me”. We are the new generation that has rocketed the consumption rates to a previously unheard of level. Though I have never really considered myself a proponent of the consumerist world, in all honesty, I also can’t be excused from being a part of disposable culture. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to give us all the blame.
Organic Markets
Rainfall and sunshine grow a lot of things that do a body good, and Chiang Mai is home to many people that know how to grow them just right. Brought to you by love, care and diligence, are these seven toxic-free organic markets that offer you all of the good stuff, with none of the bad.
Editorial July 2015
We are inundated by advertising; and no, the irony is not lost on me. Whether by emails, in text messages, on Facebook, online, on television and radio, or in print, everywhere we look, we are told that we need to whiten our skin, blacken our hair, de-yellow our teeth. We’re urged to detox, retox and get botox. We’re seduced by images of luxury cars, penthouses, trips to Europe, if only we’re willing to put ourselves just that little further into debt. Temptations, temptations…
Gifts That Keep On Giving
1. Art Relief International ARI offers Chiang Mai’s struggling social groups the opportunity to create as a form of expression and therapy. Browse a variety of prints and paintings by participants, featured in their online Art Shop. Every piece is unique and the proceeds change lives. www.artrelief.net 2. Healing Family Foundation With a lovely studio near Wat Gate, this nonprofit seeks to provid … Continued
Citylife’s Super Duper Gift Guide
For you, dear readers, a glorious gift guide just in time for the holiday season, curated by Citylife’s expert editorial team. We’ve got something special for even the most difficult person on your list. Happy Holidays! Snazzy dad: An old-fashioned shave and a haircut Let your father channel his inner Mad Man with a trip to The Cutler, where true gentlemen stay a cut above the rest with tra … Continued
Fashion Meets Compassion
It all started a few years ago when Mark Weber was at his local Trader Joe’s grocery store in America. He and his now-wife and business partner, Alana Hitchcock, were at checkout one day buying their usual brand of fair trade coffee, which costs about 70 cents extra than the regular kind.
Community Renaissance
Chiang Mai has been known for its artisans and handicrafts since the Lanna period, the city rife with bustling markets that even today remain a vital part of daily life. But with towering megamalls popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm and traditional markets turning into dime a dozen tourist traps, many worry about rapid modern development replacing what used to make Chiang Mai, well, Chian … Continued
A Winning Recipe: Ido Berger's Tea & Fruits Empire
In business, innovation and success, contrary to expectations, do not necessarily go hand in hand. Great ideas fail to get capitalised and successful empires are often built on the shoulders of creators who came before. To take an idea and turn it into a successful business is a combination of hard work, pure luck, strategy, curiosity, vision and skills. Israeli-born Ido Berger started his young l … Continued
City Guide: Chiang Mai Gate
What are the defining characteristics of your neighbourhood? My neighborhood has loads of small boutique hotels and temples, and it’s close to my workplace, Nok Hook Design Shop, where I design, do graphic work and run a handmade shop to sell my art. Why did you choose this neighbourhood? I opened my studio here over seven years ago, so I have spent most of my adult life here. It’s convenient for … Continued
Unique Boutiques
Chiang Mai is rife with fabulous independent shops selling all manner of goodies, from fancy gowns to painted elephants to trendy trinkets. Here are a few unique boutiques around the city to check out on your next shopping spree. 1. Lamai This Airport Plaza shop is an experiment in fashion fusion, featuring everything from K-pop bubble necklaces to Harajuku platform sandals to Alice in Wonderland … Continued
Francois Russo: International Man of Luxury
From the outside, Maison Takuya’s headquarters don’t look like much. A low, grey building, nondescript in every way, located in the outskirts of Chiang Mai. It has no sign at the entrance, and at first we’re not even sure we’re in the right place. But this is the home, studio and factory of Francois Russo, an international French designer who specialises in luxury leather handbags under the brand … Continued
Convenience Culture
Another day, another eight million people step through 7-Eleven’s automatic sliding doors to a colourful assortment of snacks and items temptingly arranged on white shelves. A toastie? A chopped up hot dog? A packet of lobster hot plate flavoured potato chips? The choices are endless. In 2014, Thailand opened its 8,000th 7-Eleven branch, officially surpassing the United States for most 7-Eleven br … Continued