Night Bazaars in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai 

• Chiang Mai is known for night markets and the mountains home to Northern Thailand’s hill tribes. Once the capital of Thailand, Chiang Mai is now Northern Thailand’s largest city. 

Traveling Gingerbread Note: Chiang Mai is a great home base for tours of Northern Thailand. Transportation is included from Chiang Mai on our tours to The Golden Triangle and the Kanta Elephant Sanctuary.

• A square moat still surrounds the brick walls separating the quiet Chiang Mai Old City from the lively night markets and bustling city outside.

Pavilion Night Bazaar

• The Pavilion Night Bazaar open 7 days a week, from dusk until dawn, rain or shine is the perfect place to indulge in street food, shop, and enjoy live music. Clothing, jewelry, DVDs, artwork, soap, handcrafted items, and more are for sale at the bazaar. Remember to haggle!

• We walk through the Pavilion Night Bazaar inspecting the street food hawkers: clean stands, no visible insects or rodents, vendors wearing gloves, meat on ice, orders prepared to order, and we deem the food safe for consumption. Time to eat our way through the bazaar from Japanese Gyoza to Thai coconut cakes.

Kalare Night Bazaar

• Vendors line the street selling spices, paintings, tailored silk dresses, DVDs, and so much more. Inside, the Kalare Night Bazaar is an open market and coupon dining food court. At the entrance of the food court, Baht are exchanged for coupons that can be used at any vendor in the bazaar. Live music, dance performances, and puppet shows provide entertainment to diners. The quality of products and food is slightly higher inside the market than from vendors located outside.

• We follow the stairs to the quiet, underground market. Artists are hard at work painting, texturizing, and sculpting works of art. Paintings of beautiful orange and black landscapes, large black elephants splattered with a rainbow of colors, textured black and red temples, and multicolored dog heads hang from the floor to ceiling.

Lemongrass Thai Cuisine

• Down the street from our hotel, Duangtawan Hotel Chiang Mai, is the popular Lemongrass Thai Restaurant. In 1996, the restaurant opened a second location in Fairbanks Alaska. Extremely busy, the food is worth the wait. We highly recommend the Yellow Curry.

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September 2018