The Chiang Mai Songkran Festival
The Chiang Mai Songkran Festival: love or hate? The Chiang Mai Songkran Festival (ประเพณีสงกรานต์): there doesn’t seem to be a middle way. You either love it or you have it. Let’s make one thing...
Category: Chiang Mai History
Wat Chedi Luang by night
The history of Chiang Mai
Studying the history of Chiang Mai is one of my passions. In 1998 I moved from Bangkok to Chiang Mai but was heavily involved in the management of Destination Management Company. That company was Khiri Travel. From 1998 until 2012 I traveled a lot to Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Only after I left Khiri Travel in 2012 did I start to focus on Chiang Mai and North Thailand. I managed Tiger Trail, which later became Green Trails.
Chiang Mai a la Carte
In 2013 I founded the brand Chiang Mai a la Carte. Tiger Trail Thailand was a company that only offered adventurous tours and trekkings but I also wanted to offer tours on Chiang Mai history and culture. In 2016 Oliver Backhouse contacted me, which ultimately led to the creation of the Facebook group Chiang Mai Memories. The group now has more than 500 members.
A short history of Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai is the political and economic center of North Thailand. The city was founded in 1292. It was the capital of a kingdom that was later on called Lanna, literally meaning “one hundred thousand rice fields”. It was occupied by the Burmese from 1558 until 1774. The Burmese occupation and the wars following it left the city in ruins and depopulated. Under King Kawila the city started the recovery to its former glory. Chiang Mai gradually became integrated into the new nation-state Siam in the early 20th century. The arrival of the railroad in 1922 changed the city.
The demolished Lerdphruek Heritage House
The Demolished Lerdphruek Heritage House The Lerdphruek Heritage House was a European style house located on Bumrungrad Road. It was a beautiful property set on a spacious plot of land. For many years this...
The Sri Prakard Hotel, Chiang Mai
The oldest hotel in Chiang Mai Construction of the hotel The Sri Prakard Hotel was built over 100 years ago by Por Srimo Vichai, the first Thai from Chiang Mai who visited the USA...
The First Christian Church
Daniel McGilvary and the First Church Reverend Daniel McGilvary and his family arrived in Chiang Mai in 1867. The American missionary family traveled from Bangkok to Chiang Mai by boat, which took three months. Reverend...
A trip to Doi Suthep in the early 1930s
A trip to Doi Suthep in the early 1930s Doi Suthep or the Chiang Mai Hill, as the mountain that looms over Chiang Mai was once called, became a popular destination for foreigners living...
New Year’s Day at the Gymkhana Club, 1938
My friend Oliver Backhouse gave this picture to me. It was taken at the Gymkhana Club in Chiang Mai. British ex-pats founded this club in 1898. At that time we only knew the names...
The Chiang Mai British Consulate
The Service 1921 Restaurant and Bar of the Anantara Chiang Mai Resort once was the Chiang Mai British Consulate. The first consulate building was constructed on this plot of land of seven rai, a...
Robert Greg visits Chiengmai in 1922
Introduction Robert Greg was the British plenipotentiary in Bangkok from 1921 until 1925. He traveled to Chiengmai (Chiang Mai) in December 1922. I found this report at the British Library in London. I...
Report of Salween Consular Tour 1926
Report of a Tour of the Salween District in Siam in 1926 This is a report written by Mr.W.W.Coultas, British consul in Chiang Mai of a consular tour in the Western Part of the...
Great-Uncle Ned – first British consul in Chiangmai
AUTHOR NOTE Tony Gould grew up on a Devon farm. He contracted polio while serving as a National Service subaltern in the 7th Gurkha Rifles in Malaya, India and Hong Kong, which has...