After traveling to Asia for over a decade, still haven't made it to REP - it's not the pain to get to / get from it used to be, but it's still a pain.
Chiang Mai is OK, but there's not a beach nearby, and it seems that's what OP would like @:-)
Agreed.mall in how you read it !
There are many, many beaches in SEA, so if it were me, I'd just look for one that would be least painful to get to from REP
