2016-02-02
Thomas Martin
These days i'm travelling around Thaïland, and now currently in Chiang Mai. This city is temporary residence for a large number of digital nomads: programmers, designers, startup founders, and all kind of people having the chance to be able to work wherever they want. They all enjoy the laid-back atmosphere, good weather, and cheap cost of living.
Having to handle some computer stuff, I've joined this community for a few days, in some of the coworking spaces available in Chiang Mai. Here's a review of two of them:
CAMP is a coffee shop with quite good chairs and tables, power outlets, speed internet, and quite silent environment. Wi-Fi is free is you have a mobile data plan with the AIS thaï mobile operator, or you have to buy at least 50฿ at the bar to get 2 hours. The location in the Maya mall (west of the old city) is very convenient because you can find a lot of cheap and healthy food in the same building, as well as a fitness club.
Punspace is a more traditional coworking space. The current price for one day is 229฿, and decreases with weekly or monthly membership. The place has confortable chairs/tables/couches, fast internet, free coffee and tea, printer, and more. I have only been to the Tae Phae Gate Punspace (the other is located in Punnam), and the environment is very quiet. You can stay hours without hearing someone talking. Fortunately, there is an outside terrace and skype booths for social activities, as well as a small coffee shop downstair.
So which is the best? Well, in CAMP you can have a 8 hours work day for less than the Punspace's entrance fee, while drinking and eating at the bar with this same money. If you have AIS suscription you can even stay all day for free. But, if you want to be really focus on your work without any distractions, Punspace is better, with total silence and more comfortable desks. Maybe more suitable if you plan to have full weeks of work. One last detail: CAMP internet traffic is filtered through a proxy with sometimes bad behaviour (blocking access to harmless technical docs).