Chiang Mai is the biggest city in the Northwest of Thailand, and is popular with Western visitors. It runs at a much more reasonable pace than Bangkok, and is overall homier than that urban jungle. The old town is stacked full of small restaurants, bars, coffee shops, street food, markets (day and night) and of course, massage parlors. As far as I could tell, it has most of what Bangkok has to offer, just maybe not at the same scale, density or variety. It lacks skyscrapers, The prices are a bit cheaper, e.g. you can find main courses at restaurants for 40 baht ($1.25), espresso for 25 baht ($0.75), and nice managed (multiple cleanings per week, gated) apartments for $150-$200 per month, depending where and what size. I was only planning on staying 3 nights here,
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