A flourishing street

The Soi Chomjan is just one of the dozens of small side streets of the highway 108 in Chiang Mai. It is the street I live at, just a 2 minutes bicycle ride from the Team Quest gym. Here are no sports stadiums, no cinemas, no big markets or schools. There are no office buildings or a trainstations. Mainly it is a typical Thai style residential area with the biggest mall of the city, the Airport Plaza, several food markets and the huge Tesco Lotus supermarket within the reach of a 10 – 15 minutes walk.

You can get everything you need within a range of one kilometer – but never the less, the Soi Chomjan has developed a life of its own during the last years. Locals told me that 2 – 3 years ago there was not much on this street. Now, you can get nearly everything you need, at least for your daily life.

I described my neighbourhood in an earlier post, right after my arrival, and was especially happy about the big choice of restaurants I have here. Since I have arrived, now two months ago, this street is still growing: On two construction sites, houses are built that have flats on the second and third floor while the first one is built for small businesses to open up there. Nearly weekly new stores open up along the street: Two are specialised on selling animal food, two new pharmacies and a new milkshake and coffee place are just some of those that started their business since my arrival.

When I walk along the street after the evening training, the tempting smell of rotees, some kind of pancakes, typically sold by members of the Thai muslim community, work up my appetite – even if I had dinner in one of the many small restaurants already. Right next to it a stand offers waffels in chocolate sauce and on the other side of the street a man sells spicy meatballs, right from the grill. There are more stands, offering dried fish and seafood, fancy meatball soup, sizzling barbecue or slightly sweet, deep fried dough.

All these opened up just a few weeks ago and the people appreciate it: Especially in the evenings the street is busy ( but not crowded like the city centre or the saturday walking street), the small parking lot in front of the 7/11 supermarket is filled with a couple of motorbike and everyone is buying things. The people are having dinner in the restaurants together or sitting in the outside areas and having a few beers, cheering and laughing. The Soi Chomjan is flourishing – my favourite restaurant even opened up a second branch even closer to my flat – YES!


You can really get everything you need here. In addition to the 7/11, there are two more "private" supermarkets, 2 hairdressers, 1 massage salon, 1 butcher, maybe 15 restaurants and 15 food stands, 7 places you can get coffee at, 1 bar, 2 pharmacies, 1 shop where you can buy everything from umbrellas to forks, 2 motorbike repair shops, 3 laundry mats, 2 shops for clothes, 1 mobile phone seller and many more I cannot remember.

It is great to live in a lively neighbourhood and not in a boring multi-storey. The best? The gym is in this area as well. Just Perfect!