Old City

Things to know

• Every temple in here is a working monastery. Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before any raised floor, never point your feet at a Buddha image, and women should not hand anything directly to a monk. Sarongs are lent or rented at the bigger wats if you turn up in shorts.
• Only two Old City temples charge foreigners: Wat Chedi Luang (40 THB adult, 20 child) and Wat Phra Singh (50 THB). Wat Chiang Man, Wat Phan Tao, Wat Lok Molee and the other twenty-odd are free. Carry 20s and 50s — nobody is breaking a 1,000.
• Go temple-hunting between 07:00 and 09:30. The light is soft, the monks are still doing morning chores, the tour groups haven't started and it isn't yet 34°C. By 11:00 Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phra Singh are both queues.
• The evenings run on a weekly calendar. Sunday closes Ratchadamnoen for the Walking Street from about 16:00 until late; Saturday's equivalent is on Wualai just outside the south moat; every other night the action is the food carts at Chang Phuak Gate (north) and Chiang Mai Gate (south).
• At 18:00 during the Sunday Walking Street the national anthem plays and everyone stops walking and stands still. Stop walking and stand still.
• The good cheap food shops keep tradesman's hours, not tourist hours. Khao soi and khanom jeen places open mid-morning and shut when the pot is done, often by 14:00; SP Chicken closes around 17:00; the pork-leg carts only start at dusk. Plan around the shop, not the other way round.
• Cash. Guesthouses, bars and sit-down restaurants take cards; temple donation boxes, market stalls, songthaews and every good food cart do not.
• It is small enough to walk and flat enough to cycle, and both beat a songthaew for anything inside the moat. If you do flag a red truck, agree the fare through the window before the door closes — 30–40 THB per person is the going rate for a hop.
• The women-only exclusion at the city pillar shrine inside Wat Chedi Luang is real and signposted, not a misunderstanding. The rest of the temple is open to everyone.
• February to early April, the burning-season smoke sits in this valley and the Old City has no escape from it. If you're here then, the museums and the covered market halls are the plan, not the temple walk.