Today (Dec. 18) is our last day in Chiang Mai. Tommorrow, we're off to Sukkothai to visit some temple ruins; it's about a five hour bus ride south. After about a day there, we're planning on riding the train back to Bangkok to finish off our trip.
Before we leave Chiang Mai, we have to talk a bit about the markets here. We've been hitting the markets just about every day. Some of the markets run in the day, some at night. Some are in big buildings with storefronts inside (kind of like a mall); some are set up right on the street.
Each market has its own character. Many have food vendors, some have street musicians. Some are packed elbow-to-elbow, others are a bit more sparse. Some are trafficked by many tourists (Especially Israelis!!! There have been Israelis in every single town we've visited so far!), some markets see mostly Thai shoppers.
The first market we hit here was the night bazaar. The bazaar sprawls over several city blocks, with the majority of the vendors peddling out of little carts on the sidewalk. It runs every night--365 days a year--from about 6pm to about 11 or 12. You can buy almost anything you can think of--artwork, crafts, jewelery, knock-off fashion accessories, souvenier junk, t-shirts, pirated CDs, DVDs, and video games, and on and on.
The biggest thing about the bazaar is the haggling. You've got to fight tooth and nail to get a good (and sometimes great) price for what you want. At first, this was hard for us. As Americans, we're used to having a set price for things, and some idea of whether it is a good price or bad price. With the bazaar, you just kind of have to get a feel for it.
During our first few price wars, we both walked away with our heads spinning...Did we get a good price? Did we just buy something we have no need for? Did we just get totally taken for a ride? But slowly, we developed a haggling strategy that worked...and was fun!
We started working a kind of good cop/bad cop routine for getting the best prices. It went like this: Kerry would approach a vendor and start looking at their stuff. The vendor would come over and start talking Kerry up. Kerry would talk about how cool and beautiful their stuff was, and how it would be a nice present for this person or that person.
Meanwhile, Adrian would stand slightly off to the side watching--usually with arms crossed and a distracted, sullen look about him. Kerry and the vendor would get to an initial price deal, then Kerry would come talk to Adrian. Adrian would roll his eyes or just look kind of annoyed, and would say, "No way. We're not paying that. Drop it another 60 baht or we're out of here." This usually resulted in another drop in the price, and we'd walk away happy. If you know us, as most of you do, you will get how this is funny because Kerry is actually the one who wears the pants when it comes to handling the pocketbook. This is especially true since Adrian almost lost a wad of money in Surat Thani a week ago. HA!
The next market we hit was called the walking market. For this one, they closed off several city blocks to all traffic. People (mostly Thais, with a sprinkling of farangs) would walk through looking at all the vendors, street performers, food, artwork, sidewalk massage stands, and, of course, all the other thousands of people there. It was a blast.
The walking market also had some of the most amazing food we've had so far in Thailand. It was all street vendor-style food, but the array of food they were making was mind-boggling. First, we had Khao Soi. It is a specialty Northern Thai dish that is like a spicy curry noodle soup with meat (usually chicken) and crunchy fried strips of fried on top. You get a little plate of stuff to put in the soup--green leafy vegetables (like kale or cabbage), onions, and a lime to squeeze into it--and some dry red-pepper flakes to sprinkle over. YUM! (Thanks to Sylia for the heads up on this before we came)
Another night we found one vendor grilling meats. We picked out some pieces of grilled meat (pork maybe?), they whammed em with a tenderizing hammer, then they hacked em to pieces with a big cleaver. They tossed it all in a little tray, and gave us two skewers to eat the pieces with. We also got some crazy curry sausage there. Delicious.
There was another food vendor who made these little scrambled egg thingys. He would pour eggs into a banana leaf that was folded into a little rectangle boat and put a variety of goodies in the mix (mushrooms, seafood, crab, etc.). Then he'd toss it on the grill (open fire), let it sit until the eggs were mostly solid, then put another banana leaf on top and flip it over. When they were done, his daughter (or younger sister?) would take over and cut the omlette in its banana boat into squares and hand it to you with a skewer. Then you could sprinkle it with soy sauce, hot pepper and other condiments before putting it in your mouth. Very tasty.
There were also lots of fresh fruit vendors, and some of them would whip up fruit smoothies right on the spot (you can get fruit smooties everywhere here, and we do). For desert, we got some Thai Iced Tea popsicles, some "Ancient Ice Cream" that tasted like toffee, some mini-pastries filled with pineapple goo and taro mash, and lots of sweets inside hand wrapped banana leaf arrangements usually made from sticky rice, coconut milk and banana mash. Soooo Gooooood!
We could go on and on about the food, and not make a dent in how much amazing stuff there was. Hopefully, this captures a little flavor of those tasty market foods.
Overall, the Chiang Mai markets were a blast. Even for those not terribly excited about shopping--cough,cough...Adrian--they are such wild sensory experiences, you just can't get enough.
