A one-hour flight from Bangkok, Chiang Mai is literally and spiritually a long way from the capital to the south. Here in the green and mountainous north, the air is noticeably cooler, the orange-robed monks far more numerous, the pace of life—and even the spoken language—slower. Bangkok is all about energy, glimpsed in the nightlife in Patpong and felt in the numerous Thai boxing (Muay Thai) street bouts. The old city of Chiang Mai, by contrast, reflects tranquillities of thought and spirit. It’s still enclosed by ancient walls and a moat, and filled with peaked-roof temples like Wat Phra Singh. Chiang Mai is also the artistic heart of Thailand, where scores of galleries and workshops offer outstanding paintings, weavings and carvings. Northern Thai cuisine is another lure, distinct and delicious. Out in the jungly countryside you can visit hill tribe villages, an elephant training centre and a gold-domed mountaintop temple, Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep.