Chiang Mai Sunday Market

A vendor selling a large variety of brass Buddha images.

Chiang Mai has a very well known night market every night of the week. Silk, watches, sunglasses, flashlights, Buddha images, spices, clothes, food ... The audience is farangs, the aisles are narrow, and the vendors are aggressive and occasionally even rude.

The older part of Chiang Mai is enclosed in a moat (there used to be a wall, but most of it is gone now) that's about one kilometre on a side. On Sunday evenings, they close about half the major streets (I'm not kidding - it's HUGE) and vendors set up shop, sometimes on a tiny little cart they've driven in attached to a motorcycle, sometimes on a small mat on the pavement. Wares are very similar to those sold at the night market, but the audience is primarily Thai and the vendors are a lot more peaceable about the whole thing. It has quite a carnival atmosphere and is a pleasure to attend.

In the picture above, the mass of brass at near left is small Buddhas, Ganeshas, and possibly Shivas.