The Sunday Night Market

vaccination verification and temp check at Sunday Market

The Sunday Market is a massive affair with blocks and blocks of booths and side street booths selling all sorts of stuff: toys, clothing, jewelry, trinkets, bags, postcards, art, crafts, and of course food. Judging from my phone app, I walked about 3 miles around the market (the main street is less than ¾ miles but there are tons of sides streets you wander through too including a wat with a large courtyard where there are tons of food stalls). You can only enter if you are vaccinated and they check at the entrance which is pretty cool. Then almost the first thing I saw/heard was this machine clinking bottles around. It was a drink cooler which I had to take a video clip of.

Sunday Market with vendors selling everything you can think of

3 boiled quail eggs fried with wonton 35 cents

There are many booths, but the main reason I came was to get my hand crocheted items from the night market people. I found them almost immediately and made my large purchase, which was still less than $50. Then I started to look for my painted elephant lady since I decided I wanted one more. I saw a booth of them, but it was the wrong person. Fortunately I had taken a picture of her so I knew what she looked like. I wanted to support the person who I knew was painting them herself. I saw a few more booths but not hers. Then I found a side street with food! A lady was selling 6 tiny fried eggs. I looked closer and saw she had quail eggs! I bought one each of her fried eggs and the wonton with eggs.

lady selling cooked quail eggs

6 delicious fried quail eggs for 70 cents

khao soi noodles are hot even if they say they are not

Then I saw a noodle place with the Chiang Mai special kaho soi curry. I asked if it was spicy and she said no so I got a bowl. She lied. It was totally spicy and I couldn’t eat it. I went back and exchanged for some plain noodles but they were a little boring so I ended up getting a shawarma which was also a little spicy but manageable. I also got some little dessert coconut wrapped items. Tipping is a little tricky. For service (hotels, taxis, guides), the sky is the limit for tipping though I did have people refuse a second tip for a follow up service such as delivering a printout I had already tipped for. But for people just being nice (like the helpful bank guard) they are a little offended when you try to tip them. When purchasing goods the easiest thing to do is just not bargain or bargain very lightly. With food booths like these, I found that a 10 or 20 baht tip was unexpected and welcome. In Samui I was able to tip 50 baht for a 100 baht order of food though I think more than that would seem like charity and again be less welcome. If anyone has better information feel free to comment.

prepping my noodle dish

swarma place I ate instead also a little hot

dessert lady with coconut wraps

my grilled calamari before I wiped off the hot spice

I bought a few small items and found this giant food area with lots of booths set up around the sides with tables in the center. I found a booth with lots of meat and seafood on a stick, ready to grill. I picked out a squid leg and she cooked it basted in what I think was butter or a butter based sauce. She also tried to sprinkle some spicy flavoring on it but I stopped her. She said “only a little spicy” but I said no. Later when I got it, it was spicy so she must have snuck some on when I wasn’t looking. I got a napkin from her and wiped it off. These Thai people with their notion of what “not spicy” means! I wish I was more hungry because there were many good looking things to try.

skewers to grill

grilling my calamari

food booths in wat courtyard

woman trying to sound wat gong

It was part of a wat courtyard so they also had a couple of large metal gongs. While I was waiting for my grilled item, a woman walked up, rubbed it just the right way and a beautiful tone emerged from it. Before I could even get a picture much less a video, she had disappeared. I did get a photo of a tourist attempting to recreate what the lady had done. I returned to the main drag of the market and eventually found my elephant lady and bought two more figurines from her. I paid full price but she gave me a discount anyways. I guess she had expected me to bargain a little stronger yesterday. I think she also appreciated that I had sought her out since there were at least 5 other booths before I got to hers selling the same elephants.

meat on a stick and dim sum

I got some good looking dim sum, but they were 7 pieces for the minimum order and I just couldn’t finish it. I felt bad tossing the last few away so the next time when I saw some excellent looking fried sweet potato balls and saw some boys looking on I said I only wanted one and asked if they would take the rest. They agreed and I felt much better not wasting food. Though they were so delicious I wished I had taken 2 or 3! Not that I needed them. For all my walking I have not lost any weight on this trip! I also saw some interesting looking crab cakes. They looked more like crab pies and I wasn’t sure which part of the crab they were made from. They were sold in large quantities of 12 and she wouldn’t sell just one so I passed. I was super full at this point anyways.

crab cakes that were packaged too many to try

delicious fried sweet potato balls I ate one and gave away the rest but wished I kept 2!

massage for just 80 baht (just over $2) for 30 min

About 2/3 down the street there was a HUGE area on a side street with about 40 people getting foot or back massages. It was pretty impressive and not surprising once I saw the price: 80 baht for 30 minutes, that’s about $2.50. My feet were a bit tired so I decided to come back and get one before the long (almost 2 miles) walk home but I found a closer smaller one so I went there instead. There are a few of these along the market, nicely timed for when people’s feet should be getting tired. It was not the best foot massage I had had, but very adequate and quite good for the money. This time I was able to tip 100 baht (for a service) and she was very happy. Down the same side street as the massage place was sort of an art area with multiple artists set up displaying their art. They were closing down as my massage finished so my picture doesn’t show the full effect, but you get the idea. I bought a postcard of a picture from this artist I really liked who did some cats and elephants.

mass massage place for $5 hour

I found another massage place closer to my exit

getting my foot massage

they had a little art area at the market

my favorite artist

tons of wats on the walk home

The walk home took awhile and I passed many, many wats. I will remember Chiang Mai for it’s spicy “this is not spicy” food, tons of wats, and artisan crafts. And of course the kind, polite, relaxed people (maybe because of all the wats so they are all very centered?). I also encountered several dogs, some with clothes on. Along one street I passed a beautifully light up area along the water. It was called Katam Corner (aptly named as it is a corner though the sides leading up to it as beautiful as well).

dogs in clothes

Katam Corner at night