In November we ran the business out of Thailand and went looking for the AI scene. On the island we didn't find one. So in February we came back for it — me and Anish, Bangkok then Chiang Mai — and this time the whole thing was switched on.
Same country, completely different trip. Last time the meetups were something we couldn't find. This time they were the reason we went.
Bangkok, switched on
The one that mattered was SCBX Next Tech. Thailand's biggest fintech company opening their doors for an AI meetup — proper talks, proper demos, proper people. The venue alone tells you they're serious, but that's not what stays with you. It's the quality of the conversation in the gaps between sessions. The demos are polished; the corridor is where the honest bit happens. This is where the Bangkok AI community showed what it can actually do, and it's a lot more than the London calendar would have you believe about this part of the world.
Around it, Bangkok did the rest. We ran on rooftops between sessions — Korean BBQ up at Anju, soju flowing, a view that makes your phone camera feel inadequate; cocktails at Keep in Touch where strangers turn into friends by the second round. Down an alley that doesn't look like it leads anywhere good, Adhere Blues Bar sounds like Mississippi and looks like someone's front room. Live music every night, a crowd there for the sound and not the photo. And Siam Square after dark is the city at full volume — neon, youth, energy that makes you feel ten years younger just walking through it.
The demos are the brochure. The corridor is where the truth lives.
The nights ran long. The Black Cabin became the late spot — dark, strong drinks, music that keeps you longer than you planned, and stories not all fit for print. The Thonglor boat market comes alive after midnight: boats turned into kitchens, live cooking, the kind of organised chaos only Bangkok pulls off. We went late, stayed later, ate everything. And The Commons in Thonglor answers a question you didn't know you had — what if a food court was actually cool? Multiple levels, independent kitchens, a rooftop, design so good you want to work there even when you're meant to be off.
North, to the actual find
Then Chiang Mai, and this is where the trip earned its name. The anchor was the weekly AI Engineers meetup — regulars, guest speakers, live demos, and a level of technical depth you don't always get when people gather to talk about AI. This was the community I'd gone looking for in November and not found. It was just eight hundred kilometres north the whole time.
The one I keep telling people about was Agents in the Wild, at Zulu Library. Exactly what the name says. People building AI agents, showing their actual work, and being completely honest about what works and what falls over. No corporate polish. No slides about synergy. Just builders in a library sharing what they've learned the hard way. That's the room I want to be in every time. It's the whole reason I don't take the loud accounts at face value — a thousand people quoting one confident bloke is still one bloke, and it's the foundation I build on that a claim either survives contact with reality or it doesn't. A library full of people showing working code is the opposite of star worship. It's the antidote.
No slides about synergy. Just builders in a library, honest about what breaks.
4Seas brought the other half — the business side. Less code, more strategy. How are people actually making money with this, and what's working in Southeast Asia specifically? Different conversation entirely from the engineering rooms, and a useful one. Then AI Engineers Saturday: coffee in hand, laptop open, the casual counterpart to the weekly. Less structure, more experiment. Side projects, shared debugging, the particular kind of people who choose to code on a Saturday morning in Chiang Mai. My people, precisely.
The nights up north
Chiang Mai does evenings better than almost anywhere. The Gate Market is where the locals actually eat — not the tourist bazaar, the real one, prices in Thai and the food unapologetic. We went back more than once and never ordered the same thing twice. The White Market is the cleaner, more curated version and still carries the energy. Sax Music Bar delivered live jazz done properly, that relaxed sophistication the city pulls off without trying. Surr and Lovely Hearts became the regular haunts inside about ten minutes each — the sort of bars where you can have a proper conversation without shouting over the music.
What the two trips added up to
Here's the whole point, across both. The AI scene wasn't missing in November. It was just somewhere else, and I'd been looking on an island that trades in beaches rather than build sessions. Find the right room and it changes the trip — Chiang Mai gave me more genuine technical depth in a week than a lot of what gets shouted about online in a month.
And it lines up exactly with how I work. Trust the people showing working code over the people with the follower count. Go where the honest builders are. The best of both trips wasn't a place or a view — it was a library full of people being straight about what actually works, and the crew I got to share it all with. That's the bit worth flying for.
