Chiang Mai

Overlooking the city from its mountain throne, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is one of northern Thailand's most sacred temples, and its founding legend is learned by every schoolkid in Chiang Mai. The wát is a beautiful example of northern Thai architecture, reached via a 306-step staircase flanked by naga (mythical sea serpents). The climb is intended to help devotees accrue Buddhist merit.

Chiang Mai's most revered temple, Wat Phra Singh is dominated by an enormous, mosaic-inlaid wí·hăhn (sanctuary). Its prosperity is plain to see from the lavish monastic buildings and immaculately trimmed grounds, dotted with coffee stands and massage pavilions. Pilgrims flock here to venerate the famous Buddha image known as Phra Singh (Lion Buddha), housed in Wihan Lai Kham, a small chapel immediately south of the chedi (stupa) to the rear of the temple grounds.

The Saturday Walking Street takes over Th Wualai, running southwest from Pratu Chiang Mai at the southern entrance to the old city. There is barely space to move as locals and tourists from across the world haggle vigorously for carved soaps, novelty dog collars, woodcarvings, Buddha paintings, hill-tribe trinkets, Thai musical instruments, T-shirts, paper lanterns and umbrellas, silver jewellery and herbal remedies.

Chiang Mai is the most popular place in the country to learn Thai cooking, with well over a dozen schools competing for the honour of teaching you how to prepare your own curry pastes, Thai soups, stir-fries, curries and Thai puddings. Courses are typically based around one-day modules that you can bolt together to learn an entire Thai menu over a week, though some short half-day and evening courses are available.

All the courses will teach you about the ingredients as well as the techniques, with trips to local markets to buy herbs and spices, or walks around the herb garden. The best courses take place at bespoke communal kitchens at country farmhouses around Chiang Mai. Along the way, you get to eat the Thai food you make and you'll leave with a recipe booklet so you can create the same magic back home.

In the early morning, this market is Chiang Mai’s larder, selling foodstuffs and ready-made dishes. If you want to make merit to the monks, come early and find the woman who sells pre-assembled food donations (20B); she’ll explain the ritual to you. Things quiet down by lunchtime, but the burners are reignited for a popular night market that sets up along the road.

Almost everyone ends up at Riverside at some point in their Chiang Mai stay. Set in an old teak house, it feels like a countryside reimagining of a Hard Rock Cafe, and bands play nightly until late. Stake out a claim on the riverside terrace or the upstairs balcony to catch the evening breeze on Mae Ping.

Set inside the former Provincial Court, dating from 1935, this imaginative museum re-creates Lanna village life in a series of life-size dioramas that explain everything from lai·krahm pottery stencilling and fon lep (a mystical Lanna dance featuring long metal fingernails) to the intricate symbolism of different elements of Lanna-style monasteries.

Not to be confused with the small Wat Umong in the old city, this historic forest wát is famed for its sylvan setting and its ancient chedi, above a brick platform wormholed with passageways, built around 1380 for the 'mad' monk Therachan. Keep an eye out for the Sri Lankan–style stupa, and as you wander the arched tunnels, look for traces of the original murals and several venerated Buddha images.