10 reasons I love chiang mai

When I travel I often find that I do what I do at home, but in a different location. Some of my favourite activities are hanging around in coffee shops, bars and restaurants. And chiang mai has about a million. In case you're ever around here, these are my 10 favourite places to sit and do nothing in chiang mai.

1. iberry

I'm there right now and have been for the past four hours.

This cafe is owned by a famous Thai comedian and specialises in delicious but bizarrely flavoured ice creams like guava mix salted plum, pomelo sorbet and the dreaded durian. The decor could have been done by a graphic designer or a four year old let loose in a toyshop: giant yellow dog sculpture in the garden, baskets full of plastic wine goblets for lightshades, a life size model of chairman mao, lights that look like shooting stars and machine gun-shaped silver door handles. love.

2. the garden

Well, its real name is raan baan suan I think. You can get yummy Thai food for 50p. You may have to wade through a flood to get there but that only adds to the joy when you eventually eat. My favourites are the suki (fried glass noodles with meat, vegetables and chilli sauce on the side) and kaeng phet (spicy curry).

3. jerusalem felafel

You may think its crazy to come to thailand and go for felafel. But once you've been to jerusalem felafel, you'll understand why...

4. coffeezilla

It looks like the inside of an ipod and it makes an epic iced mocha. 'nuff said.

5. qbar

THAT bar on nimanhaemin. Don't get it confused with the other bar on nimanhaemin... Last night I had a cocktail that looked and tasted like mint choc chip ice cream. And you can sit on high stools and people watch in the centre of chiang mai's nightlife. Sights to look out for include hipsters in spray-on jeans despite 30 degree plus heat, high school kids trying to sneak into warm-up and drunk drivers.

6. warm up

It's hard to describe exactly why warm up is so awesome. Maybe it's the big bottles of sangsom for the same price as the 7-11. Maybe it's the fact that it also serves food, so you don't have to move when you get the drunk munchies. Or maybe it's just that you know it's where everyone in chiang mai will be on a friday night...

7. pun pun

It may take approximately a million years to get there, in which time you'll have been eaten alive by mosquitos, but it does make delicious vegetarian food and fruit shakes. My favourite is the indian curry with roti, but the veggie khao soy (northern style noodles with spicy soup) deserves an honourable mention.

8. monkey bar

I feel so much classier when I'm here: it's all low level white leather sofas and mood lighting. The elegant atmosphere doesn't stop me ordering a tower of Chang (thai beer that reportedly contains formaldehyde) though....

9. smoothie blues

even by western standards, the sandwiches here are epic. And right now it's avocado season - add avocado to your meal for 15 baht (30p).

10. the street

delicious food is everywhere in chiang mai. You can't avoid iced tea, roast pork, fresh pineapple, fried chicken, pad thai wrapped in a banana leaf and every conceivable kind of delicious thai meal being sold for virtually nothing on a street somewhere. Some of the best evenings I've had have involved strolling down to chiang mai university and grazing on street food until full. You can try the truly weird and wonderful - egg shell omelette, fried silkworms, chicken feet, and all the staples, and I've never spent more than a pound on a single dish. I think it's probably what I'm going to miss the most when I go home...