After the excitement of last night, we are taking it easy today. Like we don’t every day? But today, we have absolutely not plans except to go to the Sunday Walking Market. We actually sleep later than normal, eventually making our way out, finding a new easier way to get to Nong Buak Haad Park for our morning walk. We pass the Chedi at Wat Phuak Hong and can’t resist pictures. We can never get enough of the beautiful chedis or temples here in the city.

It is an incredibly beautiful day to walk the park. There are tons of families out enjoying the holiday and of course the Takraw game going full steam. We make our 9 circuits, completing 3 miles, then head back to the house, passing the front of Wat Phuak Hong with its beautiful Viharn.

Later that afternoon, we make our way up the street to the Sunday Walking Market – which has grown over the years and now includes side streets – like ours – filled with vendors. We start to see the street traffic build as we near the corner, only then realizing that the market is as far down Prapokkloa Road as it is. In the before times, the market was only on the perpendicular Rachadamneon Road. Wow. The other thing we notice is that the demographics are totally different tonight. Last night it was 95% Thai, tonight maybe 35%? The rest Farang or Chinese (for certain) and we’ve not walked but a few hundred yards before we’ve been jostled 3 times each. And the mask ratio? Ha! Non-existent. Also, when the National anthem is played, we all stop, stand still and listen. But, no, not all. There are a number of people who still wander about, looking at stalls and trying to do business. Sigh.

We meander a bit, managing to snag at least a couple of snacks – one being a Hot dog waffle. Oh yeah baby! Barksdale….are you reading this???? That thing was absolutely fantastic – a waffle encased hotdog with cheese. On a stick. And only 15 baht – that is about $0.44 cents USD. Oh my!

Pushing our way through the less orderly crowds, we do make it to one of the food markets on the wat grounds towards the end of the street. It is jam packed here with no chance of getting a seat, so we ditch the idea of eating here, but do grab some dumplings on the way out that we can eat while walking. A little further down the street we also buy a chicken “burger” sandwich which is really just a chicken filet on a bun with condiments. It’s only 20 baht – yeah, you can do that conversion now – and will tide us over until we figure out what we are doing.

By this time, we’ve reached the end of the street, and quite frankly, we’re done. It is nowhere near as comfortable as it was last night – we don’t like the crowd, the merchandise is the same – so we ask ourselves, what are we doing here? and make a bee line for Singharat Road to circle back to our side of town. On the way we look for restaurants, but being a holiday virtually everything is closed. We end up back at the house for a rest stop, then venture out again, stopping at Always thinking we could eat there. Unfortunately only the bar is open tonight – but at least it is a drink. So we sit on the little deck right on the road and enjoy a beverage along with a little plate of peanuts (nice) only to find that it is really, really expensive – like double what we are paying elsewhere. Really? Those peanuts were not worth it. That’s brutal – won’t be going back there again, sadly, as it is our closest restaurant/bar.

So where do we end up? The street food market at Chiang Mai Gate, which we have dubbed “our market.” A lot of the vendors are closing up because it is later than usual. Plus being a holiday and with the Sunday Walking Market, there are less folks here, but there are enough. We end up with fried chicken and a spring roll from the same sweet lady we got the chicken from on our first visit. Even better than before! Crispy and crunchy – and really all we needed since we’ve been snacking all night.

Then it is back to the house, with a picture stop for more photos of Wat Muen Tum. Only this time we go inside the grounds to take pictures of the Wat all lit up for New Year’s. It is a beautiful wat, and one of our favorites. Obviously since we are always stopping there for photos!

And finally back to the house for drinks on the balcony and a relaxing night on the sofa. Tomorrow, our Elephant Rescue Park adventure.