One of the very few lucky things that happened to me during my backpacking Indochina tour was that the Chiang Mai leg fell on the weekend. Because of that, I was able to experience Chiang Mai’s night market or the Sunday Walking Street Market. Unlike the markets of downtown Yangon, Chiang Mai’s night market is really catered to tourists. Stalls and stalls of local crafts, clothes and souvenir items line up the wide streets of Ratchadamnoen Road and Prapokklao Road. It is an ideal place to do your shopping in Chiang Mai. Street food also abound and there are even a couple of stalls that sell exotic food. Yup, I’m talking about insects and worms here. Innards don’t faze me as much. ;p
Read more: Checklist of wats to see in Chiang Mai
The Ratchadamnoen Road is also lined with restaurants, cafés and hotels. And because of this very strategic location at the very center of the Old City, the Sunday Night Market gets really packed. It’s inevitable, what with every stall giving some welcome distraction.
Click the photo to enlarge.
The Sunday Walking Street gets really crowded so better get there early. It starts from 5pm and ends at 11pm.
The paintings were my favorite. Wished I could buy one.
I spy turtles!
Of all the stuff I saw in the night market, these elephant wall clocks really made me regret not paying for check-in luggage. No kidding.
Scarves. Scarves. Scarves.
Native accessories.
Local instruments for sale at the night market.
Warning: May contain ant eggs or bee eggs.
Crickets, grasshoppers and worms: protein-packed street food.
Do you know what a whirligig is? Seems to be the most popular of the bunch.
But not all the street food were of the exotic type. 😉
I wonder how long she stayed there for her portrait…
Bu since I could not really buy anything, I just indulged in having a caricature drawn.
Check out her finished product here.
I was going to Thailand! How could I forget and just skimped on check-in luggage? It somehow escaped me that shopping in Chiang Mai would be just what I’d need, the necessary break from days of temple hopping. All those dresses I fell in love with and could not buy… All those souvenirs I could’ve brought home… Oh, well. A great reason for me to go back, don’t you think?
Read more: My (mis)adventures while backpacking around Indochina.
August 23, 2015
***photos were taken using iPhone6 and GoPro Hero 4 Silver
Good thing they allowed you to take photos of their paintings 🙂
Natawa pala ako doon sa girl na ginagawan ng portrait! Hindi niya kamukha, haha! 🙂
Chiang Mai is really a beautiful place. Once, the Asian Game was hosted there if my memory serves me right.