Today is a relaxing day here in Chiang Mai with nothing on the agenda but trying to stay up for midnight. Yep, that’s the challenge! We start off our morning walking through the city to the west side, stopping at a lovely little cafe for an expensive (for here) cappuccino – but one that comes with an adorable little bear cookie that is a one bite chocolate bomb. Oh it is so good, makes the high price worth while for the coffee. LOL.
Walking back to the house, we circle down by the moat and walk around Nong Buak Haad Public Park, which is the park where they hold the Flower Festival every year. It is a lovely park with a walking track that circles the ponds, playgrounds and the Takraw court. What is Takraw you ask? Well, let us tell you! It is the most amazing game – it is played on a court that looks like volleyball. There is a net, yes, but there the similarity ends. The net is lower than volleyball, the ball is made of rattan, oh, and players can not use their hands. Only their feet and their head. It is sort of like soccer on a volleyball court. And it is amazingly athletic and acrobatic. It is so wild to watch these guys kick the ball over the net, some of them actually do splits while standing or jumping. Every lap we make, we sort of slow down to watch. Very entertaining!
And there are also exercise machines all around the park – seated rowers, arm machines, bikes, etc. And this make shift weight lifting platform where some of the weights are actually concrete forms attached to the end of bars. It is just great – and definitely our go to morning walking place.
Leaving the park, we walk down the moat, stopping to swing on a really cool little rope swing, then circle our way back home through the market to hang out the rest of the day. While we are doing essentially nothing at the house, our host has bananas delivered to us – 12 ripe bananas for New Years. She has also been sending us messages about the celebration at Thae Pae gate tonight and telling us where to go and that we can’t miss it! So sweet. She is the best.
Getting bored, we head out for an afternoon walk, making our way all the way around the moat, stopping for some quick shots of the Wat Sai Moon Muang all decorated for the New Year, grab a drink at Farangs (always a go to when in need of beer and wine – at least they have wine!) and return home, biding our time until the Saturday walking street.
Finally time to leave, we meander down to the Chiang Mai Gate, where our night food market it totally packed. Not a seat to be had in the house.
We cross over the moat road to get to Wua Lai street and oh my God! The Saturday Walking Street. Maybe because it is New Year’s Eve, the market is wall to wall people. I can’t even begin to estimate how many are there. But interestingly enough as we make our way through the throngs, it is mostly Thai or Asian folks and virtually all wearing masks. The only people we see who aren’t wearing masks? Farangs. Mostly Caucasian Farangs at that. No surprise there. We’re happy campers because you know we’ve got our masks on. And the crowd is so well mannered and orderly, we all just weave and bob and no one knocks into each other. It is just a lovely, if not super crowded, experience. We buy a cute little purse for me to replace the Nepalese one we bought in Kathmandu (which is falling apart), and peruse all the stalls on one side of the street, passing this adorable little girl holding a sign for massages between stalls. Too precious.
We wander down to the food market, where we totally luck into a table. I hold down the fort while Ed goes to get beer and water, then forages out for his meal which is some sort of a squid thing with noodles. Who knows, it was all in Thai language, but it looked good and tasted equally wonderful. I head out and after making the rounds, decide to stick with the traditional (and quick – the papaya salad line was 3 deep) Pad Thai. Ed has a second course of hot dog with egg – although we can’t really find the hot dog inside the bun – but the sign definitely said hot dog….maybe it’s a Thai thing? Anyhow, all was delicious and we are fully stuffed and prepared for the rest of our evening.
Navigating the crowds, which ebb and flow much like the ocean, we meander through stalls of everything imaginable, veering off down the soi that leads to the Silver Temple where silversmiths ply their trade in part of the temple where only men can visit (yes, that again). We were drawn in by the music and it turns out they are having a celebration show there tonight, which we decide to stay and watch for a while. It is an amazing traditional pageant with costumed warriors and kings and concubines.
It totally captivates us for quite some time watching all the ornately costumed players dance and jump around. So much so we have quite a few videos below:
We made it to the end of the street, which is almost exactly 1KM – this market is huge, much, much bigger than the lst time we were here (albeit years ago) – then reversed course, stopping back at one of the leather vendors where we saw a credit card wallet we liked but didn’t like the price. As we walked back we decided it was perfect and the price was only equal to $6 USD (you get really spoiled and go overboard with the cheapness once you are here for a while), so we were going to go for it. The sweet vendor remembered us and said “You came back!” and lowered the price to the equivalent of $5 USD. Perfect. Sold. Successful shopping, successful weaving and bobbing and successful waste of time to get us out past 9pm. LOL.
We can’t resist more pictures of Wat Muen Tum on the way back to the house…
then hang out for a couple of hours before it is time to head off to Thae Pae Gate to see what the celebration has in store for us.
Andiamo 