Chiang Mai night market – Amazing!
It was probobly the friendliest shopping experience I’ve ever had, and it involved bartering. I know, I wouldn’t have believed it either, had I not experienced it. In fact, I found myself wandering around the market night after night and waiting for the in-your-face sales tactics I’d experienced in other night markets around the world, but never finding any. By just being nice, the stall-keepers had sold me on the Chiang Mai night market, and I loved it.
The market itself, no necessarily the items for sale, was the attraction. It’s beautiful, a crazy maze of colours, textures, lights, people and sounds, everything brighter, louder, more sparkly than it’s predecessor. It’s quite spread out as far as night markets go, although in places you’re still inevitably squished up against the other shoppers/walkers/stall walls (but then again, that just adds to the street market experience), and it’s large square footage means if you can’t find it here, you don’t need it. Sure, most of the wares on offer are souvenir kitsch – carved elephants, Thai pillows, T-shirts with the Chiang Beer logo on them – but it’s fun as hell to buy it. One of my favorite things I’ve bought anywhere is my intricately detailed tuk tuk sculpted from a Coke Light can, some wire and a couple of buttons. Carved soap was also a huge hit (we bought 5), where the artisan takes your standard drugstore bar of Dove and carves and paints it into a stunning orchid or mum or random pretty flower, then safely puts it in a small laquered box. They look great on display, and it’s also good to know that in case of a dire soap shortage, I have a backup.
Bartering scares me. I know a lot of people who love it, who attack bartering as a game and will do almost anything to come out the victor, but I always get overwhelmed by guilt and knowing that the item advertised for CAD$3 would be at least CAD$15 at home, I’m willing to pay the full price. Don’t get me wrong, I always barter, but I’m a soft sell. I think that’s why the Chiang Mai market and I clicked. The salespeople, being salespeople, would call out for your attention, but all you had to do was shake your head a polite “no” and they left you alone. I’ve been followed by annoying bootleg DVD pushers in Kuala Lumpur, so this was a welcome surprise. Not once did we have to pretend to be deaf (man, our sign language is so bad we’d probobly accidentally insult the royal family and someone’s dog) and could wander around for hours taking in the smells, sights and ambiance. The only people that were kind of in your face were the hilltribe women selling the wooden frogs that if you ran a stick up and down their backs, they croak. The women themselves were equally as friendly as the other salespeople, but that damn frog sound will follow you around for days!
If you ever visit Chiang Mai and you don’t visit the night market, you’re doing yourself an injustice. Even if you don’t like to shop, it’s a place that can’t be missed. I’m already trying to figure out when I can go back!