Shop till you drop.

Dec 23, 2012

We start out the day with our guide Bee from Joy's House taking us to lunch at tue local famous noodle eatery called Kao Soi Sa Mer Jai which turns out to be probably the tastiest meal in Thailand yet.

We pay a visit the temple of the dog, and get some great insight into the Buddhist way of life from Bee, then get down to business with the shopping. Pee Bee navigates us thru endless corridors of indoor/outdoor markets and points out interesting fare to sample along the way.

We walk thru the flower stalls and marvel at heaps of orchids and other exotic flowers.

 One of our missions for the day was to buy some small gifts for the children to give out at the celebration tomorrow, and Bee suggests we stop at a knockoff sunglass stall and we stock up on a variety of trendy shades for 35 baht each (about a buck fifteen).

Later, we visit a hipster coffee shop for a quick break and then commit to 4 more hours of shopping at the famous Chiang Mai walking street / night market. Holy crap. This night market was awesome. They close off several city blocks of downtown old Chiang mai and transform it into the most extensive market we've been to yet. A nice mix of handicrafts from the local hill tribes people as well as more contemporary and trendy stuff, food carts, street performers, etc. It was great fun, and 4 hous was not nearly enough time. Yet another no-show on our ride back to joyshouse, so we have to (totally unprepared) try to explain where we need to go to several tuk-tuk drivers and finally get one willing to make the 5 mile treck. Back safely on our room finally afer a long long day. Tomorrow we have the Christmas celebration with the children which promises to be loads of fun.