Chiang Mai Markets

 During our trip to Chiang Mai, we were excited to share with Jan the wonders of the Night Bazaar.  When Jeff and I were here six years ago, we were amazed by the artists there.  Primarily painting and sketching, they exhibit a variety of artistic styles and are able to accept commission work on the spot.  Many people come with photos of themselves or their families or special loved ones and have them transformed into a custom piece of art to take home.  When not working on commissions, you can watch them painting, mostly elephants, but in just about every style you can imagine.  Pointillist, cubist, abstract.  Charcoal, ink or pastels; palette knife, paint brush or woodcut.  You find it all here.  Jan stops to visit with each artist and takes lots of photos.  Oh the shopping opportunities are endless!

On Saturday night, there is a weekend night market that we check out.  We get there about 6:00pm, just as things are starting to get rolling.  As we work our way in, we see musicians set up in the middle of the street and vendors crowding the road on both sides.  We walk and walk and finally reach what appears to be the end of the line.  Thinking we can find a cab as we exit that end, we poke around until we find a way out, then wander little alleys in the dark for 20 minutes before realizing that our only sure way to get back to a main road is to reverse our route and fight our way back through the market to our starting point.  

By now it’s about 9:00pm and approximately a million more people have come to shop.  We are like salmon swimming upstream as we fight our way out, but Jan is motivated and blazes the trail for us.  It’s actually quite impressive how well she finds a hole and darts into it.  She has learned to work her elbows as well, and is making good time.  Poor Gary is bringing up the rear, and is having trouble fitting through some of the gaps we are finding.  Eventually we are out of the crowd, panting and sweating on the street, trying to flag down a ride back to our hotel.  Jeff finds a tap-tap, negotiates a price, and soon we are flyng through the streets of Chiang Mai.  For once, traffic is light and our driver is making tracks.  We get back to our hotel in record time and agree that we are shopped out.  

Jeff and Gary head to a nearby bar for a cold beer, and when Jeff comes back an hour later, Gary continues on to check out a little more of the nightlife.  See the other blog posting about Harley Rides and Girly-Man shows for more on the rest of his evening.