Day 4 – In search of Night Life

Our last evening in Chiang Mai. We decided to try out “Ratana Kitchen”, as recommended in the Lonely Planet guide. We tried the traditional Northern Thai starter platter which featured a strange tasting spicy sausage. After dinner Monica wanted to find a bit of night life. She had read about a street that had a few bars she wanted to see. The trouble was she had forgotten to bring the guide book. Not deterred we went back towards the moat to find the place.


One of the Gates to the city.

We searched high and low, up and down the back alleys of Chiang Mai. Our bearings were completely messed up. The moat wall seemed to be a magnet as we were forever turning out of an alley to be confronted by it. We were convinced it was the south side but it turned out that we had spent 45 minutes walking around in circles.

Then Monica spotted a bit of neon lighting outside of the moat. We headed for it. The discussion before then, apart from me wanting to enter the first bar we came across, was how relaxed Chiang Mai was compared to Bangkok, with none of the seediness. Until we found the source of the neon. Chiang Mai’s very own red light district. Bar after bar of young local girls playing pool with retired westerners. A grim sight.


Seedy part of town/

We had given up the search and decided to head back home. Out of nowhere we found the place that Monica had wanted to go nearly an hour and a half ago. Finally, we could sit down and have a few beers.