Thailand 2017: Night Bazaar and Day Market

There is nothing like a good market: the constant hustle and bustle of people, weaving around each other as you try to shop, finding new and exciting things, and learning culture. While in Thailand, we got to experience two markets.

Yes, those are live toads at Day Market

Night Bazaar
As night fell, the lights shone brightly. Crossing the street was done by saying "ok, we're going now! Go go go!" Shopping was dodging around other tourists and locals, peering into vendors' stands to see what's for sale and haggling to bring down the price at least 20 Baht.

Miranda, Jenna and I were shopping buddies, but first, food! Shh, don't tell - we ended up eating Subway the first night. However, we weren't the only ones eating American food...and at least we didn't eat McDonald's! The first thing we went to buy were "elephant pants." They are the comfiest pants you will ever wear, so we all got quite a few pairs! And we just shopped and shopped. It was actually hard to spend a lot of money, since it was roughly $1 to 30 Baht! We bought many things elephant, of course.

Miranda and I at the Night Bazaar
PC: Jenna Joseph via Miranda's phone

Night Bazaar!
PC: Miranda Moore

At one point we met up with Caleb and Jason by a weapons vendor, which was run by a little, older Thai woman. When they asked how much the taser flashlight was (which is apparently illegal to take into the US and got taken from their suitcases at the Chiang Mai airport), she picked one up and pointed it towards them with the taser part going, and they jumped back and she kept at them every now and then and they were super wary of her and this little lady started cracking up laughing, and her laugh was so funny the rest of us watching were dying laughing at the little woman! It was hilarious. When I asked about one of the knives (which I ended up buying for my brother-in-law) she took it out of its case and pointed it against Jason's stomach (and lightly poked it) and was like, "sharp!" She was pretty crazy.

The Night Bazaar

The second night, as I mention in my food post, we ate pizza at Duke's and shopped some more (however I was feeling very sick that night so I didn't do as much shopping as I would've liked).

All in all, it made for a fun experience at the Night Bazaar. P.S. I you're dying to know what "elephant pants" are, here's a picture of Miranda wearing hers to the Day Market.

Miranda in elephant pants

Day Market
I have been to many farmer's markets around the US, but never have I seen a market as big as the Day Market in Chiang Mai. While there, we were split into groups, with two Thai staff in each group to help us find our way around and also find the item that we were supposed to purchase for ZOE. I was in a group with Betsy, Josh, Susanna, Jamie, and two Thai staff whose names I am very sorry that I forget. Our item to find was 30 kg of white cabbage, which our guide found very quickly, but we decided to explore the market first and come back for the cabbage later.

Of course, while walking around the market, you had to be mindful of the motor scooters, motor scooters with side cars, and trucks weaving their way through the people and aisles. Several times we were literal centimeters away from a vehicle or from our toes getting run over. Eventually you got a bit more used to it, but it did keep you a little more aware of your surroundings.

Some large buildings were full of vendors all selling meat, or all selling fruits, or all selling what seemed to be some sort of cabbage (I had never seen so much cabbage all at once in my life!). It was a fascinating experience and along the way we also sampled some of the food from the stands.

A view of the Day Market

One of the large buildings full of produce

Oh yes, there were all kinds of fun things such as live toads and fish, octopus tentacles, squids, whole chickens including the heads, a whole pig head, and bins of live eels swimming around...which Betsy told Josh to pick one up, so he did.