Ok so I went tonight to the creatively named Sunday market. And yes I hadn't been there before. I think I had been at some similar thing on the wet side of the gate, but not up the street they call Walking Street; at least they call it that on Sunday nights. In the day time it is Racha-something.

It is true there is more local craft type stuff there, that will be good to remember when guests come. I wasn't interested. I have been in Thailand 7 years and I still haven't found a Thai craft object I like. It is fun to look though. We did have some food at one of the wats, mine was alright (kow soi) my wife hated hers (canohm jin).

There is definitely a shortage of the night Bazaar type stuff, crappy watches, pirated videos, and copyright infringed T-shirts. This was actually too bad because I was looking for a new shirt. Anyhow, I was there, it is really long and it will be fun to take new people there. I did notice that the estimate of Thais being the primary shoppers there is not obvious, I saw at least as many farangs as Thais, maybe high season is warming up.

It probably is the best market of its type I have seen, it just isn't my cuppa.

I went

had a blast

david

ive been to walking street sunday market every sunday for at least 5 years,would not miss it for anything,its becoming a habit now,lol.

My wife and I went there when we visited Chiang Mai a couple of years ago. Had a ball and trust me, I am not a market type generally. My wife kept trying to push me to have a foot massage or something so she could browse to her hearts contentment, but in the finish, I was still going when she cried "Enough!" The gear from the northern tribes was well made, fairly cheap and colourful. We purchased gifts that we still haven't exhausted although we are now getting close. Have to come back to stock up again.

It's amusing to see people drive their cars up roads that are already clearly impassible.

It's too crowded for me. But I will go early and get some 10 THB PAD thai or some skewered pock for 5 thb each. It's mobbed by 8 pm. Sometimes it seems like a convention of people that don't know how to share a sidewalk or are inconsiderate of others. Blocking 40 people to take a photo of a fruit cart, pushing their baby,s stroller right at you, etc....Too many young kids, but I guess they get bored with Number 1 Bar after a while.

I see, this may be an interesting situation as we will start the vacaiton in Chiang Mai, so we will end up carrying all those gift for the rest of the trip.

You could always buy up big and post them to your final destination. I've found that mail prices are very cheap in comparison to Australia and possibly an easier way for you to do.

Howard