MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum

If you've hit temple fatigue in Chiang Mai, this is the antidote. It sits out in San Kamphaeng, about 30 minutes east of the old city, and the building itself is the first thing people talk about, sharp, modern, unmistakable from the road. Inside, rotating shows put Thai artists front and center, and the range runs from abstract work to pieces that are deliberately hard to look at. It isn't Bangkok-scale, but the curation goes past the obvious names, and past exhibitions have included solo shows by artists like Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook.

Admission is 200 baht. Most people take about an hour and a half to work through everything without rushing, and the galleries stay quiet enough that you can actually stand and think. The café gets steady praise for cheap, decent food and a calm room to sit in, so build in time for a coffee rather than treating it as an afterthought.