Word of advice: Travel there for a week or two first. I find that is true of any place you want to live.
Great advice. Fortunately, we’re not stepping into this blindly; I spent a month there in 1988 (too long ago for any meaningful relevance other than to add context for later visits), a week there as newlyweds in 1990, but most recently, I spent two weeks there in November of 2024 with my son but not my wife (big changes there from 1990!!). Our next visit (my wife and I) will be to spend the month of November 2025, for the sole purpose of scoping things out for retirement. In addition to Chiang Mai, we’ll spend some time in the south, and in Da Nang Vietnam to scope out places to spend the ‘burning season’. We will use that time to visit other parts of the world.