We travelled up north to Chiang Mai last Wednesday. We've been stayng in a lovely guest house named Lai Thai, the best thing about it was that it had a swimming pool. At first it felt a bit like cheating staying in a nice place like that, but I got over it quickly.
Chiang Mai is the capital of Northern Thailand and both of our guide books recommended it as one of the lovliest places to visit in Thailand. We were gravely disappointed. The second day of our stay we already were planning to get out of there.
Chiang Mai seems to be a major centre of sex tourism and almost every Western guy you see is with a young Thai girl. Most of the bars in the centre at night are more or less brothels. The city seems to be a big destination for american package tourists and it's quite a bit more expensive than Bangkok. The locals are way too friendly to be genuine and to be honest the feel you get is that it's more like a theme park for Americans. Its also a very polluted city.