We live in the small town of Pra-putta-bat, about 2.5 hours north of Bangkok, along a major highway headed north.  Chiang Mai much further north of us, about an eight hour drive from where we are located.  In the map below, point A is Pra-putta-bat, Point B is Bangkok, and Point C is Chiang Mai.  If you are familiar with American geography, it would be like driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  So no, we're not close to Chiang Mai.