Citylife (which changed its name from the Chiang Mai Newsletter in 2002) has been in publication for over seventeen years. Let’s look back at what we wrote 10 years ago.
1999:
After two years of renovations, and costs running into many millions of baht, the Chiang Mai Museum reopened this month expanding its exhibition space, making them more interactive and adding a stronger Lanna heritage element and theme.
“We intend the National Museum to become a centre of Lanna education as well as an arts and cultural centre for the northern region,” said Somsuda Leelayawanich, the director of the museum.
2009:
In spite of the renovations and improvements, the Chiang Mai National Museum appears to be more of a relic, similar to those it houses, than a fitting showcase for such relics. Activities are few and far between and often with hardly any notice to the general public beforehand, while other museums in the city centre attract many more tourists to their constantly evolving and revolving exhibitions.
100 YEARS AGO
The Chiang Mai Record was kept by D.F. Macfie from 1884 to 1919 noting the names and movements of foreign residents and visitors in the north of Siam.
March 1909 was a quiet month for content…
1909: C. Collingwood R. Survey arrived and W. Shand left Prince Naret and party left for Bangkok on the 9th.
March 1909 seemed to have been a quiet month among Chiang Mai’s expat community too…