In 2016 we decided to move to Chiang Mai in Thailand for a year. We love this northern Thai city nestled amongst misty mountains and have often dreamed of living here. Chiang Mai is a digital nomad hub and it turned out to be the perfect place for us to work on our goals of making a sustainable online income through writing and online teaching.

Our Story: Living in Chiang Mai

Here’s a collection of all our tales about Living in Chiang Mai. Read about how we found an apartment, how much it costs to live in Chiang Mai and how to get a visa to live in Thailand. We blogged about everything from where the best festivals, temples and restaurants are in Chiang Mai to what daily life is like in Thailand. You can also check out our trips from Chiang Mai to explore more of the country.

We’re happy we made this city our Asian home for a year, are you hoping to do the same? Leave us a comment if you have any questions about living in Chiang Mai. You can also subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see weekly vlogs we made about our Chiang Mai life and travels around the world. Check out all our blog posts about living in Chiang Mai below.

Looking for adventure? Moving to a new country has to be one of the most exciting life changes you can make, but also one of the scariest. We know this from experience, having lived in Thailand, Vietnam and Portugal, encountering visa issues, culture shock and even bats in our apartment along the way. If you’re planning on moving to another country, here’s a few survival...

Imagine thousands of paper lanterns, lit by flickering candles, floating into the night sky against a full moon. This moving spectacle is the highlight of Thailand’s Yi Peng festival, which we celebrated around this time two years ago. Here’s a look at some more top Thai celebrations, from the famous Songkran water festival to the Full Moon Party and Loy Krathong.

So, it happened. This week we said a very sad goodbye to our life in Chiang Mai. Two days and three delayed flights later we arrived in Nepal’s dusty, chaotic capital city, Kathmandu. Even though our lives are more transient than the average person’s, I still find change hard, especially when I’m moving on from a place that I love. So, on the first night in this strange new city, I’m not ashamed to admit that I shed a few homesick tears for Chiang Mai.

Sawadee Pee Mai – Happy New Year! Last week we celebrated Songkran, the Thai New Year Festival, which is also known as the world’s largest water fight. Here in Chiang Mai, the streets were flooded with people wielding neon water guns for three days of partying, parades, Buddhist ceremonies and watery fun. This was our second Songkran experience and we’re so glad to be ending our time here in Chiang Mai with a splash (we leave for Nepal next week!)
The stormy afternoon sky dissolved into a fiery sunset that painted the clouds neon orange. Despite being in Thailand for almost eight months, this was the first time we’d sat on a beach and felt the sand between our toes. We watched a fisherman row to shore as the sun sunk slowly into the Andaman Sea and congratulated ourselves on choosing Koh Lanta as the destination for our final Thailand holiday before we jet off to Nepal at the end of the month.
Our final Thai visa run took us back to our former home in Vietnam’s hectic capital, Hanoi.  We relished the chance to hang out in our old city while painlessly applying for our final Thailand tourist visa before we head to Nepal in May. Here’s everything you need to know about applying for a visa at the Thai embassy in Hanoi, including the address, cost and what documents you’ll need.
Things are hotting up in Chiang Mai, quite literally. As temperatures hit 38 degrees, we’ve had to switch on our air conditioning and start avoiding the scorching midday sun again. That’s how we found ourselves rising at 6am last weekend to trek in the relative morning cool up the Monk’s Trail, a forested path marked with orange monk-robe cloth, which snakes up Suthep Mountain.
As we move into our final six weeks of Chiang Mai life, I’m trying to make the most of this city and the life we’ve built here. After failing to set down roots in Spain last year, being able to so easily slip into this lifestyle has been a huge relief. This city has given us exactly what we needed: the ability to live comfortably while focusing on our goal of building a sustainable freelance income. With that in mind, here are five of the things I’ll miss the most about our Chiang Mai life when we leave at the end of April.
Somehow, five months have dissolved since I last published a report of our progress towards making a digital nomad living. So, what have we been up to? Well, we’ve made visa runs to Penang and Hanoi, taken a spin on the Mae Hong Son Loop, celebrated our four-year travelversary and taken up yoga. Oh, in case you missed it, we also got married and started planning our onward adventures to Nepal and Sri Lanka. That might all sound exciting, but daily life in Chiang Mai has mainly been all about work. So, what have we achieved?