Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was the capital of the Lan Na kingdom and was only absorbed by Siam in the late eighteenth century, which is why both its temples and its food differ from the south. The old town is a square inside a moat, and all of it is walkable.

Inside the moat stand over thirty temples, and the difference from the south is visible at once: wood instead of gilding, lower roofs, teak. Wat Chedi Luang stood some eighty metres tall until a sixteenth-century earthquake took its top off; it was left that way, and is now the most striking building in the city.

Doi Suthep is the temple on the mountain above town, reached by a road of hairpins and about three hundred steps at the end. Go in the morning, before the haze lifts, because the whole city is laid out below. Evenings are another matter — the night markets open, and on Sundays the whole of Ratchadamnoen road closes to traffic and turns into one.

Here, more than anywhere in Thailand, elephant excursions are sold. The distinction is serious: places offering rides or shows should not be supported, while genuine sanctuaries with no riding and no performances are another matter. The question that separates them is simple — may you sit on the elephant? If you may, it is not a sanctuary.