Night Market

Night Market, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

The night market is a big deal in Chiang Mai. It isn't hard to get to. Jump in any tuk tuk and say night market and off you go. We had no idea what to expect and were properly blown away.
I think we went three or four times. The first night there was a major hatching out of flying bugs. Moths and something that looked like our black termites. We stopped under a light to get our bearings and I suddenly had about eight of them under my shirt! Krista was aftraid Eden would see that and freak out, but she didn't.
We went back the very next night and were bracing ourselves for the onslaught of bugs, but they weren't there! It was only that first night.
I've included quite a few photos of goods on offer there, but these really only scratch the surface.

Here's a post from Chiang Mai:

We were all blown away by the craftwork at the night market last night. The Thai make really beautiful and diverse fabrics, especially silks. Trippy shoes, handbags in great organic shapes, wood carvings (we bought Eden a little wooden tuk tuk--the ubiquitous three wheel taxis ), I met a guy who made gorgeous hanging lanterns, metal bas relief images. Lots of hemp things, I bought a new wallet for 40 baht. Then there are the hill tribe women peddling real and fake handicrafts. There are gaggles of Akha women, all about 4.5 foot tall. They come on pretty strong! India got pressured into buying a belt from them, studded with beads and shells, which actually looks good on her. Several stalls were selling these astonishing soap carvings of flowers. They look absolutely real, glowing in vibrant colors in these polished lacquer round boxes. Not something we'd want, but stunning work. I can't possibly relate it all. And you have to haggle. At the night market I usually offer half of the asking price, but it's really subtle, which things are way overpriced or not. I bought these little brass phallus totems, which have a lizard perched on them (about an inch long) from tribeswomen. They had a bunch of them, some with tigers, one with a buffalo! I bought an extra one for my friend Danny.
This was the first thing I bought and I haggled hard. But when the price was finally agreed upon I felt guilty and paid the old women more than we'd agreed. I think they were baffled.
The best thing I got there was a little pocket knife in the shape of a silver leaf. The blade itself was leaf shaped. I loved it and carried it all through Bali and most of NZ. I finally lost it somewhere in NZ and felt very sad!
It feels really wierd to write this, but I wish we'd bought more stuff there, in Thailand and at this market. But we had just started out and we were both watching our money and being cautious about becoming encumbered with stuff.