Not a lot to report recently as we have not booked any organized activities for the weekend in preparation for the Saturday and Sunday night street markets.  There will be  fair amount of walking ahead and we don’t want to be out adventuring all day at the expense of being too tired to shopt later!

The Saturday market is just outside the old city wall and runs down a street that they block off for about 8-10 blocks.  They close the street to cars and motorbikes in the afternoon while the people set up their ‘shops’ and the activity starts around 5pm.  For the entire distance of the market the street is lined on both sides (and sometimes down the center) with people selling food, shirts, pants, and various trinkets.  In some places the market spills into the side streets and at intersections they use the extra space to sometimes put out a few chairs for people to sit and eat.  Mrs Columbus and the teenagers are doing their best to jump start a Thai stimulus package and are soon carrying several bags of local goods.  We stopped at a few places along the way for some street food but unfortunately we are all full by the time we find the fried insect vendor so I guess that will have to wait for another time.

We had a little discussion about planning something and Russ wanted to do some mountain biking, but given the amount of mountain biking I already do at home I figured that I was on vacation and should take a break!  Mrs Columbus quickly agreed and we let Russ book something on his own for Sunday morning/afternoon while the rest of us decided that we would hold down the fort while he was gone.

We have discovered a media room here at the hotel that contains some rather comfortable oversized bean-bag chairs, so holding down the fort mostly consists of us catching up on emails and what is going on back home, while making sure that the bean-bags do not sprout legs and try to escape – needless to say we are very diligent about our responsibility and not a single one is able to make it’s escape.

After Russ returns we make our way over to Sopa’s for a massage to shake off the days hard work and to prepare ourselves for the market.  During our massage it decides to start raining but we will not be deterred from our goal of visiting the Sunday market so the troops decide to pop into the 7-11 and see what they have for rain gear:

I decide that I am better off either searching for an umbrella or just getting wet, so me and the Teletubbies head out for the market. The Sunday market is the big brother of the Saturday market and while similar in that it runs down a closed street, it is easily twice the size and according to people we have talked to is constantly growing farther and farther down the side streets all the time.

The market is a Chiang Mai highlight and is popular with both the locals and tourists and when the weather co-operates it is just a sea of people moving slowly up and down the streets looking at the stuff being offered for sale.  Because of the rain though the place is only about 1/2 as busy as we have seen it during previous trips so that is a mixed blessing – we have to contend with a bit of rain, but it is easier to move around.  After getting mostly damp, but not soaked I manage to find a lady selling umbrella’s for a paltry $3 and can now use my camera again, and also keep the rain off my noggin.

After a bit more street food and some more wandering through the market, I decide that I have seen enough wooden frogs, keychains, and t-shirts and decide to trek back to the hotel, leaving Mrs Columbus and the rest of the crew in charge of the search for some treasure that we did not spot at one of the first 500 vendors’ stalls.