Night Bazaar Inn - Chiang Mai (excellent and relatively cheap)

There was a time when i was a hostel or guesthouse type traveler but those days are long behind me. These days I look for something a bit more luxurious when traveling but still am not ever really wanting to spend $100 a night.

One of the benefits of traveling in South East Asia is that it is very possible to acquire quality lodging for around $20 - $30 a night. The problem when searching in this price range is that for every "good" place that falls into this category there are 10 places that are pretty bad. Review sites can't be trusted and basically you have to operate on word-of-mouth. I found a real gem in a excellent part of Chiang Mai that the world needs to know about.

It's got kind of a combination of modern and traditional thai style in the overall look, which was just appealing as can be to me at first. Although I can't confirm any of this it appears as though the bottom floor is actually a classical Thai building that they built on top of - I don't even know if this is possible and of course it could be faked, but that is what it appears to be.

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The wooden lobby and stairwells on the first floor is something I find really appealing, especially considering that as soon as you get into the elevator and go up to the rooms the whole layout changes and the room are spacious and modern.

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Every room has a balcony, but honestly, unless you are a smoker I can't really imagine what you are going to do out there because it is quite small. Also, I'm not really a fan of the glass bathroom. No matter what kind of relationship you have with your significant other I can't really imagine a situation where sitting on the toilet is something you want to showcase.

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As the name would suggest, this hotel is right next to the Night Bazaar, which is one of the foremost attractions of the entire city. It is right next to it all and is certainly something to see.

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There is a delightful mix of counterfeit merchandise, loads of cheap snacks and drinks, as well as genuine local handicrafts. While a lot of the gear is similar to those on offer elsewhere in the country it tends to be dramatically cheaper here because Chiang Mai is the "source" for a lot of the merch that appears nationwide.

Also, there is a wide variety of bars and restaurants in the area - everything from Ethiopian cuisine to Burger King.

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_{at this price point i wasn't expecting a pool and although it is small, they do have one}

Most people try to stay as close to the city center as possible when visiting Chiang Mai. Mostly because that is where all the attractions are. If you stay at Night Bazaar Inn you aren't exactly in the middle, but you are very close. I would actually suggest that this location is better than staying in the overpriced dead center of town because from here, you can walk to the center in about 5 minutes and also end up spending about half as much on your room.

The staff are friendly in this place and the total per night cost for a standard double or twin room is around $30 US. Although I do live in this city, I occasionally will stay at hotels when friends are visiting and so far, this is easily the best "bang for the buck" establishment that I have found.

If you are like me and want a little bit of luxury but are not at all interested in paying hundreds of dollars to accomplish it, I truly believe that this is one of the best values in the entire city of Chiang Mai.

Location including GPS coordinates