phuket or chiang mai?

>>1292528
Perhaps kind of a dumb question, but do you want to go to the beach?

I lived in Thailand for a number of years, including a year in Chiang Mai, and I understand why visitors/digital nomads/Thai people love it (it is almost certainly Thailand's favorite city), but there's no denying it's pretty well saturated with foreigners. There are always locals-only neighborhoods, and especially surrounding towns (I spent a month in Lamphun many years ago and didn't see a single fellow farang, although that is no longer as easy to do as it used to be), but you're going to have to spend a long time on rot sii law to get somewhere without tourists.

Phuket is obviously a tourist destination, too, but there are probably more places with fewer visitors than you might expect. Phuket town is kind of charming and most of the city is not that touristed--most tourists are right on the beach, which Nakhon Phuket is not. Patong is pretty ugly and mostly foreign; not recommended unless you speak Russian or want hookers. The outlying islands and southernmost beaches are fairly quiet.

>>1292536

i don't care about the beach, already visited krabi

i think the only reason i want to go to phuket is because i've never been there

>>1292538
In that case, I'd say Phuket city is worth a visit. Chiang Mai has more going on, but Nakhon Phuket is pretty distinctive.

>>1292539
...you didn't mention it as an option, but another surprisingly off-the-beaten-track destination might be the town of Na Thon, biggest town on Ko Samui; it has a surprisingly lively little urban-esque center but almost no tourists stay there, passing through it to one of the beaches.

>>1292528
Bukhutet more than meets the eye