Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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Creative Core
Nimmanahaemin Art Promenade

Text : Kate Joy
Images : SP.

If you take a quick tuk-tuk ride out of Chiang Mai’s ever popular tourist hub, the old city, you could find yourself at the very centre of the cool and creative heart of this dynamic city.

Nimmanahaemin Road is now internationally regarded as being in the vanguard of development in the city, whether it is for clubs, bars and restaurants; or for boutiques, shoe shops, designer outlets or individual quirky stores and interior designer-furnished condos. The development in the area over the past 10 years has been staggering and has opened up a huge variety of exciting shopping opportunities for those seeking a truly unique gift to take home from their travels in Thailand.

Nimmanahaemin Road can be a chaotic and confusing place, but there is one soi which still retains a semblance of calm and is filled with shops and businesses offering a dazzling array of arts and crafts, top notch beauty and hair dressing experiences - and to energise you for your wander through the shops, one of the best coffee shops in Chiang Mai. This cul-de-sac also hosts the annual Nimmanahaemin Arts and Design Festival in early December. NAP started 11 years ago and was the brainchild of Khun Wichit, of Gong Dee Gallery. The fair has grown in popularity and success very year as hundreds of self-made booths take over the street and vendors, artists and visitors from all over the region turn up in town to share their offerings and the experience. This year, for the first time, the fair will be spreading as far as Think Park, a testimony to its popularity and success.

What makes Soi 1 particularly interesting and important is that it very much sets the tone for Nimmanahaemin Road, and in turn the future cultural and artistic development of Chiang Mai. It’s a place where you can step out of the pressure cooker of the haggling markets and take your time. You’ll find everyone from discerning tourists to resident NGO workers wandering the one way street in search of an affordable Asian artistic treasure.

Gong Dee Gallery remains the central focus of much of the social action on the soi, with their regular gala theatre evenings, and with distinctive contemporary Chiang Mai style of Balinese gardens and petite ‘coffee and cake’ venues.

If we think of this area and why it has emerged in the way it has, it is pretty clear when comes to Soi 1 that the Amari Rincome Hotel is a major player in this story. It’s common for high end hotels to attract businesses seeking custom from their guests and this is very much the foundation of why many of the businesses, such as Gondee, came to Soi 1.

It’s fitting then that the man behind the NAP Fair, who had the original vision to put on a kind of open house for artists, should be Mark Demore, the former GM of the Amari Rincome Hotel, showing how the hotel embraced its relationship with the local area. When NAP first started there were only 20 booths and 10 shops in Soi 1. Now there are 20 shops and 80 booths. The decision to expand into Think Park this year was motivated by feedback from last year’s visitors who felt the soi was getting overcrowded.

This year there will be multiple stages for performing arts and much more space, so people will feel it is much more like a festival. The organisers hope that the diversity of attractions on offer will motivate people to stay at the Fair for longer enjoying the creative output.

Soi 1 has attracted the interest of style publications from across the globe and products have featured in the articles of many glossy high-end magazines. So it is no surprise that Elle Decoration will be at Think Park this year, bringing with them their own hall and activities, including a community art piece which they will be creating in Think Park.

The organisation of NAP is largely down to a committee of Soi 1 businesses who have maintained the flavour and style of the street. “It’s a lot of work and some years we have thought, ‘Oh let’s give it a rest this year’, but people keep saying, ‘No, you must carry on!’ So we have and NAP grows bigger every year.”

What really marks Soi 1 out as different is that all the business owners are selling self-made or self-designed products; everyone creates their own project here. They are here to show what they have and what they can do, which is very different to most Thai markets, where there is a lot of copying. That’s what has really has allowed this soi to keep its identity.

Here’s some of our top tips for finding your way around one of the most exciting and innovative sois in the city.

Gongdee Gallery

This is the place to head for unique home decor and accessories designed by well-known artists in Chiang Mai (www.gongdeegallery.com). The gallery-cum-café specialises in quality items made from locally sourced materials - mostly wood. The company’s ethos is to ‘make products that beautify homes as well as meet the aesthetic criteria of being simple in both form and function’. The charming space has a small garden where coffee and snacks are served. Items include furniture, carvings, paintings, lighting, handbags and tableware.

Circle Source

This is a charming paper shop with a delightful display of handmade paper out front. You’ll be missing something if you don’t see the floating lace paper and brightly colored lanterns. Circle Source offers completely natural paper products made from the saa tree from Laos. Using fibres from fast-growing crops such as Kozo, Saa, Banana, Salago, Sugarcane and fully biodegradable papers, this natural paper shop brings you the best natural paper and paper products under the influence of the company philosophy‚ ‘Nature demands Nature’. Types of paper on offer include decorative paper, flower paper, Japanese paper and artists’ paper.

Silver Birch

Here you can step back into a magical make-believe world of beautiful childhood toys carved from wood and displayed in a wonderfully atmospheric shop which will have you wishing you were five years old again. Like many of Chiang Mai’s shops, Silver Birch has goods crafted from locally-grown mango wood, the most visually striking of which is an 80-cm-long wall-mounted dragonfly. A good place to pick up toys and ornaments for children, it is reminiscent of a toy maker’s workshop with a certain magical quality about it. To top it off, you can get a decent cup of coffee here.

Elephants

This family-run business produces wooden elephant sculptures. Beautifully crafted, the sculptures perfectly capture the grace of elephants with an almost life-like authenticity that comes from almost 40 years of experience. A wonderful memento of your time in the Land of the Elephant.

Wits Collection

This ceramics shop showcases the work of the Parisian artist Fabienne Jouvin, who has a distinctly quirky, modern approach to ceramics. Recently, her collections have begun to gather pace and are becoming well known in Thailand and abroad. The essentially minimal pieces throw in splashes of colour to great effect - the result being whimsical, contemporary ceramics that definitely lighten the house up and make for a great gift.

AKA - Earth and Fire

Contemporary Oriental functionalism is at the core of AKA’s design philosophy. “It’s never enough that something looks good. It has to work as beautifully as it looks,” says the website’s manifesto. Founded by architect and designer Eakrit Pradissuwana, who remains at the creative helm of the brand, AKA delivers ceramics, stoneware, traditional art pieces and decorative household items, all implicitly timeless and totally stylish.

Studio Naenna – Adorn

One of the mainstays of the street, the retail outlet of Studio Naenna is the perfect place to pick up ethically sourced and beautifully designed clothing. Part of the Weavers for the Environment Group, Studio Naenna’s designs are inspired by the research of its founder, art historian Patricia Cheesman who has dedicated much of her working life to recording the textile history of the Laos people. Adorn is managed by her daughter, who has brought her fashion design skills to the company resulting in some wonderfully diverse and vibrant offerings, all made from eco-friendly fabrics. You can also find out more about textile workshops that Studio Naenna runs throughout the year by dropping in and having a chat. We also strongly recommend grabbing a coffee at the newly-opened coffee shop next door, Beer and Beds. It’ll give you the strength to carry home all those gifts!

So head to Soi 1 now while it is still small enough to hint at what the entire Nimmanahaemin area could become. All the land on the north side of the soi is owned by the adjacent Amari Hotel but the shops here are beginning to spill over into adjacent sois keen to be a part of the creative heartbeat of the new Chiang Mai.