As we were exploring, we found the night market in Chiang Mai, and it was great! So many beautiful things. I bought the guy I was dating a silk tie (I knew he’d get a kick out of getting a tie from Thailand…yes, we were corny like that…).
A couple of my best friends are guys, so they got the beautiful silk ties as well. The coolest thing to me was this artist that made things out of rope. He had all these amazing dragons in varying sizes. I couldn’t decide between a unicorn or a dragon. My sister decided by getting me a dragon. I still display it in my living room, which probably looks like a Hallmark with all the different things I have brought from around the world. This is one of my favorite things I have brought back home.
Another great thing about the market was the food! I had basil chicken with egg, and drank coconut water from the coconut itself. It tastes so much better than the stuff you buy in the store. There is no comparison. The markets have all this amazing food, and you can get delicious smoothies made with all kinds of exotic fruit…I had a thing for dragon fruit, maybe because of the name. We definitely made it a point to go to all the night markets in every city we visited.
Thailand has a high population of trans-gendered…men that get sex changes or are in the process of becoming women. We found a cabaret that featured men dressed up as women. These women were gorgeous! There was a guy who performed as half man, half woman that was really good. The best part was when they picked this tourist from the audience, and one of the performers gave him a lap dance. He was loving it! The show was right in the night market so we were able to browse, and get some more stuff before we headed back to the hotel. There is a picture of us with all of our bags on the table that makes me smile.