But, but, that cannot be!

Everyone knows that Chiang Mai is paradise given earthly form and the gilded crown in Thailand's touristic firmament garlanded in bouquets of wondrous beauty hosting a population of naiads and cherubs guided by the wisest sayers of the land.

Gosh, and it turns out it is no different to any other Thai sinkhole mired in stinking shit out of which the local serfs ooze along in their daily suffering, a vignette of their miserable lives under the jackboot of medieval exploitation and neglect.

Whoudda thunk it.