Chiang Mai: shopping and eating

To sum up the main activities during my last three days here in Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand): Shopping. Eating. Shopping. Eating. Shopping. Shopping is amazing here. On Sunday we (Alice and me) went to the so called Sunday-market. It must have been the biggest street market I have been to. We spent eight hours wondering around the different stalls, at the end my feet were almost falling off. I found the market very interesting as they sell a lot of arty, locally produced stuff there: from handmade bedcovers, to hand bags, lamps, vases, different carvings, to necklaces, earrings etc. Despite my luggage restriction I couldn’t hold myself back completely, so I purchased a few things…:-) (I have no idea, how on earth that is all going to fit in my backpack!) In terms of food you could buy all sorts of different things: different kind of grilled worms, to grass hopers, to brains, to…etc.

Yesterday we then went to the night market. Not as impressive as the one the day before, but still quite good. But I hate it when they try to rip you off all the time (which you can’t avoid). I definitely need to keep working on my bargaining skills. (Although, I have learned from my past experiences in India.)

The other thing worth mentioning is the food here in Thailand: absolutely delicious! – and also so cheap. At some of the markets you can get a full meal for half a dollar. My absolute favourite so far are Chiang Mai noodles. Although the fried morning glory with oyster sauce or a red chicken curry cannot be despised either. Not to forget the yummy mango or coconut shakes! As I love the food here so much I decided to go for a one day Thai cooking course, which was on today. It was a lot of fun. We first went to the local market to buy all the ingredients and then we went ahead to prepare six different dishes. Yummy! As I type these lines I feel still stuffed….

As you see, life is beautiful! Tomorrow I will try to check out some more of the Buddhist temples here. There are literally hundreds of them. And then I’m off to Laos soon.