Sunday Walking Street Market

If you are a 'market person', and are always on the lookout for something a bit unusual at bargain prices, you mustn't miss the Sunday Walking Street Market during your visit to Chiang Mai. Every Sunday, a large bustling market is set up on the entire length of Rachadamnoen Road, from Wat Wat Pra Singh to Tha Pae Gate on the edge of the old city and the entire area becomes a traffic free zone. For more than a kilometre, every square centimetre gets transformed into a massive street bazaar, with hundreds of locals selling their wares. Many of the poorer residents of Chiang Mai spend most of their week making things to sell on Sundays to tourists and visitors from all over the country. On sale are handicrafts, clothes and all manner of bric-a brac, such as carved soap, wood-carvings, Buddha paintings, hill-tribe trinkets, Thai musical instruments, T-shirts, paper lanterns and umbrellas, silver jewellery and herbal remedies. The Sunday market is further enlivened by the presence of dozens of food sellers, who set up their stalls in temple courtyards and will serve food to you as you sit on Thai mats spread on the ground. The market starts in the late afternoon and really gets going at around 6:00pm.