Forget Kyoto! Thailand's Chiang Mai has its own stunning cherry blossom season, and it's straight out of a fairytale.

It’s an utterly zen, Japanese-style luxury hotel that sits in the rolling hills of gorgeous Mon Jam, a quaint region in greater Chiang Mai that’s just 40 minutes out of the city centre.

Areas in two Chiang Mai districts where wildfires have been burning for the past two weeks have been declared disaster zones as local authorities battle to bring the fires under control.Chiang Mai ...