Throughout our three day stay in Chiang Mai, we went to more markets that I think Hubby was ready for! Honestly though, besides temples, really the only thing else to do in Chaing Mai was to shop!
The first market we discovered after our temple excursion when we were walking to eat. Somphet Market was a very small market located about half a mile from our hotel. This was just a small food market, but was very cool. After this market we learned that even the alley ways were worth walking down and exploring, as that is how we found it.
The next market we went to was with Our tour guide, Pin. Pin took us to the biggest market in Chaing Mai, and where she shops, Tom Lam Yai Market. This market is in Chinatown (yep, there is a china towns everywhere!) And was HUGE!!! It took up two or three city blocks and was inside and outside. It had EVERYTHING. Pin would walk around and have us try all these different kinds of food and of course all the Thai tea you can drink!! Thank goodness she didn’t have us try the bamboo worms!!!
That night we also visited the Ploen Rudee Night Market. Holy smokes, that was nuts! There were streets upon streets of booths selling things. A little secret about this market though, we kept seeing the same things for sale over and over and over again. This market was all about the food and live music. We wandered around until Hubby could tell we were being followed a little too close (pick pockets are crazy all over in these markets), so we decided to walk back to the hotel.
The next day we were on our own, so we went back to Tom Lam Yai market to explore a little on our own. There we found counterfeit toys, and specifically fake legos! We spent probably an hour looking through them! It was crazy!!! We also found some beautiful bowls and dishes made from the saffron tree. The wood looks like zebra wood, and was so beautiful!
We also discovered the the other two or three floors of shops that we didn’t get to.
Our final night in Chaing Mai, we ended up on the Walking Street, which is the Saturday Night Market. We thought the other market was crazy, this one was INSANE!!!!! It started at the gates of old Chaing Mai, and went on for MILES! We started around 6 pm and by the time 7:30 came around, there were SO MANY PEOPLE! They were actually making announcements periodically to watch for pick pockets and also to not smoke, even though we were outside. This market actually had a lot of more the home made and hand crafted items as compared to the other night market, which was all mass produced, or so it seemed.
Unfortunately, we left on a Sunday, so we missed the Sunday night market hat was setting up right in front of our hotel as we were leaving for the airport. That would have been really crazy!!
All in all, we did a lot of shopping in Chaing Mai and a lot of walking. The Saturday we were on our own I logged over 22,000 steps! They were well worth it though, and the experiences were a must do.
