Thailand - My Chiang Mai Life

Exploring Suthep Road on Sunday morning I discovered a market on the grounds of Chiang Mai University. Chiang Mai has lots of Colleges and Universities with over 93,000 students! The market sure beats Wal-mart as all prices are negotiable!! Don't even have to look for the "Blue Light" special.... Everything from flowers - food - live and cooked fish - furniture - clothes - watches - sunglasses etc etc Local markets always have plenty of "bargain" priced flowers. Let's see I had the fried prawns, fried rice, and of course could not pass up the French fries plus more food then I can remember!!! Live and cooked fish! Gold fish and tropical fish are very popular with the Thais. Some are taken home for pets and others are released in ponds as a way of making "Merit". There are really great buys on locally made furniture... Here is some of my "loot" from the market - a few plants to help in the landscaping! Not bad at 25 cents a plant......

SATURDAY: Out of bed at 5:30 a.m. and off to the "city" to watch the "Monk March"! All 10,000 of them for one big day of giving merit. Bags and boxes full of cooked rice, fruit juice, milk, soap, tooth paste, canned goods all to stock up the Monks cupboards...... Traffic was all ready building when I arrived so parked a few blocks away. People had started arriving long before sunrise in hopes of getting a good place to sit. Merit baskets very from shopping bags to fancy straw baskets!' The army and boy scouts help the monks by providing large plastic bags to keep the items given for merit. The "Marching Monks" are on their way! Monks are all bare foot as this is how they must receive "alms". Young Monks - Old Monks - Short Monks and Fat Monks. Really very impressive show!!!! Lots of "goodies" collected to help the Monks in their daily lives. After 3 hours everyone is on their way home. The next big celebration will BE on the 5th of...