We made reservations at the Old Chiang Mai Cultural Center. The price is about $10 per person (320 baht each) This includes return transportation from your hotel in Chiang Mai as well as dinner and an evening of Thai dancing entertainment. You can’t beat that price for an evening out.
We arrived at the center and checked in our shoes before entering the dining area. It was a large outside area with some tables around the outer edge. Most of the seating is on the ground. You sit crossed legged on mats. Everyone has a small triangle wedge cushion for some back support.
Your meal comes out on a round table with small legs and is put in front of you. There are several different dishes of flavorful food. Including rice, curried vegetables, vegetable tempura, and soup.
The dancing started up shortly after the food was given out. We got to see over a dozen different styles of dancing. The dancing done by the ladies was very elegant and graceful. The children did a really neat dance over large crossed pieces of bamboo. People held each end of the bamboo pieces and moved them as the children had to dance in a hopscotch type style over the bamboo pieces as they were criss crossed.
At the end of the evening we moved to an old wooden amphitheater for Hill Tribe dancing. It was done around a fake fire and had a lot of chanting and singing with traditional ceremonial dance movements.
It was an excellent night of entertainment, highly recommended.