Travels of a Yogi: The Night Market

Travels of a Yogi: The Night Market

Every night in Chiang Mai, Thailand comes alive. Especially, Sunday nights. The night markets are an amazing display of sights, sounds and smells. A true sensory overload at its finest! Everything from foods, to tapestries, to massage to incense. After being awake for over 48 hours, my senses were even more piqued. Upon entering the Thape Gate we were welcomed by local craftsmen and artisans displaying their wares. There were beautiful, ornate tapestries, decorative tote bags and wallets everywhere you turned. Paintings, drawings, carvings and handmade jewelry adorned one table after the next. Silver, jade, beads and leather were just some of the many selections to choose from. For our friends back at the studio, I have chosen a selection of yoga pants and handmade jewelry as well as some decorative wallets. For the kids, I was lucky enough to come upon a man who was creating the most interesting yarn animals. I know, yarn animals? Yes! He had created his animals by using different colors to weave and shape these animals into shapes such as dragons, elephants, horses, lions and snakes. Once the animal was complete, he would apply some mod-podge type of medium to get it to hold it's shape. It was really fascinating! Other items that caught my fancy were dainty and delightful flowers that were carved out of soap. They sat in carved bowl-type containers and were painted to look like gardenias, plumeria and lotus flowers, just to name a few. I will be bringing a few of them home, too. You can never begin to buy stocking stuffers too early, right???

As if the wares were not enough, the food was a vision in itself! From an array of colorful sushi, to fresh cut coconut water, to fried squid and chicken feet, anything you could have wanted was at your fingertips. Since I don't eat meat, I won't be trying any scorpions on a stick; however, the local mangosteen and fruits that I don't even know what are called have been a joy to the palate! Although, I have not tried the darita fruit yet. While Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain have both featured this fruit on their shows, I haven't gotten the courage to taste it just yet. It is about the size of a large cantaloupe and is covered in spikes. Apparently, it smells like a cross between rotten onions and dirty feet. Yummy, right?!?!? I'll keep you posted! We will be luck enough to get to visit the market again next Sunday, so I look forward to exploring things that I missed the first time.

Today, we will be heading up North to the floating cottages today and will be out of connection for a few days. In the meantime, delicious food awaits!