So I'm going to talk about my trip to Chiang Mai here. I'll include links and stories, but only non-mongering in this section. I'll write up a report in the "Rest of the World" section. My recent trip to China got canceled last minute, so I was set to stay in-country for the holiday. Last minute, I found a round trip to Chiang Mai at under $500 for 5 days. Not too bad considering it is a massive holiday weekend here in Kimchi-Land. Reports on CM are all rather sparse. From what I can read, there are 3 major soapy spots, 3 major gogo bars, and mostly nightclubs where YMMV. And lots of karaoke bars.
CASH TROUBLE: My trouble first started at the airport. I didn't know that once I entered ICN's main terminal, there would be NO ATM machines. No problem. My ATM card is international and I had a US and also a Korean credit card. On arrival in CM, I found that my US card was broken longways, down the magnetic strip. Then, I found that my int'l ATM card wouldn't work, but not until Monday, when most of my cash was gone. And as it was a holiday in Korea, I couldn't call the banks for another four days. Looks like I was stuck with my Korean card and what little cash I had on hand. My options and decisions were heavily swayed by this info.
WEB RESOURCES: I used two "recreation" sites to fair success. The first includes maps and descriptions of
various places to recreate in CM. I don't know how often this gets updated, but it includes a fairly comprehensive list in Northern Thailand, something other websites often neglect.
Second site (livingthai.org) is run by a guy named Chris that lives in CM. He asks for folks to send him some money in order to see the address of the places he reviews. If you dig around on his site, you'll find that he lists the addresses in various places, or check the site above. Don't pay for free info. Here's the most helpful,
his Google map, updated most recently in Feb 2014 as of this writing.
Hotels. Type "Guest friendly hotels CM" into google. I stayed at C H Hotel. AVOID. Very good location, but VERY dirty. I've lived in Thailand, and I'm not squeamish. This place was okay for me, but the girl was very unhappy coming here. So avoid. After, I stayed at Inndigo. (search agoda or hotels.com) Place was clean, but road construction at 7 am made life tough. I'd definitely stay there again barring road construction. Location was difficult, but rent a motorbike and you'll be set.
First Stop. Arrived on a Saturday evening. I went to a few of the beer bars, but I was a bit shocked at how ugly the CM beer bar scene was. Girls were old and/or fat. Thailand's changed since I lived there 10+ years ago. I wanted to check out a gogo bar/nightclub that was well known for having younger (but still legal) girls, called
Star Six. The place supposedly closed at midnight, and also supposedly charged foreigners a cover fee. I wanted to sit outside and see who came in and out before paying a cover, so I slid up to one of the many beer bars in the area to watch and wait. Uncomfortable. I didn't notice that I sat down and ordered a beer from a ladyboy bar. The "girl" that first waved me in was quite attractive out of the corner of my eye, but when "she" sat down with me, it was immediately obvious that I had made a mistake. No worries, I was just there to eye the gogo club. But for 20 minutes, no one came in or out. And it was getting near midnight, so I decided to bounce.
I ended up seeing one beer bar girl that I liked, a 20 year old skinny chick with lots of piercings. I'm not into piercings, but she was fun to chat with, and I just got her number, thinking I could hang out with her at a club later in the week. 20 year olds tend to have 20 year old friends. I found out her name was Aw. As I was dead tired, I decided to go home at 2am. I jumped in a tuk-tuk. The driver asked if I wanted to have a drink with sexy girls? Why, yes, that sounds perfect. He drove me over to a karaoke pub.
Warning lights went off in my brain, as I know how these places can rip off the unsuspecting. I went in, found a SYT with a mouthful of blue braces. I selected her to sit with me. She begged me to choose a friend. I asked her to choose. She chose a shy, tall, dark-skinned girl named Mint. So I sat with Mint and Darling. Mint was 19, a freshman at university and new to the karaoke game. She was less comfortable with my touching her, but she was much more enthusiastic about dancing up and grinding on me. Darling was 20 and a second year student. She was a pro, always begging for another drink, something to eat, a tip, etc. She allowed over clothes touching, and would often grab my Lil Bro over my pants. At the end of an hour, attempts to take either one of them home were rebuffed. Got phone numbers, went home alone. Damage for 1 hour at karaoke -- a little over 5000 baht including tips. They allowed me to pay with CC, except for tips, so that helped me out. I hate leaving an electronic trail though.
I ended up at karaoke 3 more times in the next week. The first place, described above, was called So Nice. They had the best line up of girls IMO. I also tried out a local joint a few hours outside of CM. Girls were not as attractive, but I had more fun as there wasn't a constant upsell. I went to
Bunny Girl. The room was stiflingly hot. Even the girl, a pudgy little cutie named Nak, was drenched in sweat at the end of an hour. They also tried to rip me off by not bringing me the bill when requested, then charging me for an extra hour after they brought the bill late. The mamasan fee to get a girl in the room was 900 baht. Excessive. One girl, not many drinks, hot room, not fun, all for 4500 baht. On the plus side, Nak is the only girl out of the crew that I hope to keep in contact with. So it may be worth it down the road. Last is
Rose. This place was fantastic. Mamasan (Noon) treated me great after I complained in Thai about getting ripped off at Bunny. She wouldn't let the girls upsell me. I was the only customer there, and girls and Noon were constantly coming in and out and chatting. I had a great time there with two girls chosen steadily, all at 2000 plus 1000 in tips. I felt like I ripped Rose off -- Karaoke in Thailand should be at least 3000 with only 1 girl. But she liked that I could speak Thai, or else I just got lucky. I found out that karaoke girls in CM can choose whether or not to go home with the guy, but that the range to take one home is between 5000-8000baht, as they're all young and fairly new to the trade. (To avoid: Aii karaoke and Violin karaoke. I experienced almost getting ripped off at Aii, and Violin has a bad reputation online for ripping people off. There were more bouncers out front of Violin than there were girls!)
Final thoughts on CM. Everything was expensive. The usually helpful tuk-tuk drivers only dropped off at karaoke, which was a bit odd -- they must be getting tips from the Karaokes. I had a great time, and I don't regret any of it, but... 5000 baht to sing karaoke with university students, then go home alone? As stated above, having credit card only, this was more fun than I thought I'd be having. So no complaints.
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Last edited by bfbgmn at 10-5-2014 02:14 ]
