Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Center — Local services in Chiang Mai Province

This museum is not the best museum I ever visited though.. By the time I visited, there was an admission program: buy the ticket for B180, I can visit 3 museums in 7 days (with once visit every museum), where normally, for foreign visitor it will admit B90 for each museum.. The collections are so so so many, and managed in interesting and artistic way.. Not just a meaningless group of "old stuffs" put it together and clean up everyday.. No.. Not like that.. They arranged it so we can be brought up to d past.. It is so interesting, with the help of audio and even visual media, to bring us to d time.. Unfortunately, the language of those media were only in local language.. I ever went to one museum in Cambodia, and they provide us the recorded audio media that arranged to follow through the journey of visitor, and it is provided on some international languages as well.. It was amazed me deeply, because then I knew the meaning of some "meaningless looked" of a stuff.. I hope there will be more progress to make the museum less boring and more...

The strength of this museum is definitely the real-life representation of main aspects of Chiang Mai culture (agriculture, Lanna people life like houses, market, shops...). It's really well done and immersive in terms of objects, size and sounds. We've learnt how Chiang Mai was built, the different tribes cultures and how they came to all live together. It's interesting and cheap for a 2-floors museum (90 baths/pers). The course is intuitive and natural, you don't even need a floor map (which was surprising at first for me but I've understood why since then). The only "weakness" would be that some objects or references (to Buddhist traditions or historical context) could have been a bit more detailed. The hill tribes differences could have been a bit more explained, it's lacking and we don't necessarily understand their different characteristics. However, it might be quite personal as I love museums and detailed descriptions. I reckon it's completely adequate for children and adults not used to spending hours wandering...

BEST MUSEUM EVER!

If you are interested in the below, go there first before going to any other place (including temples): History of Chiang Mai Buddhist religion Thai history Thai culture

This museum is interactive and interesting, and the flow is perfect. There isn't too much information to the point of feeling overwhelmed, all straight to the point and relevant to what you have in front of you and the "zone" you are in.

⚠️ There are buttons to start the videos on the screens present in the room, either in Thai or in English. Look out for them they can be quite discreet. ⚠️

If you do not speak English or Thai, it might be difficult to understand the descriptions around the place.

Lovely souvenir shop also.

Good and clean toilet, no toilet...