This morning, one of those weirdly serendipitous things that you hear about happening when you travel actually happened. Eron and I were having breakfast in a nondescript little local restaurant located on a tiny out of the way lane when we heard someone call out our names. It was Rhonda; a fellow BC Ambulance Service Paramedic and world-travel devotee. She had already been in Southeast Asia for several weeks and was in Bangkok when she saw the first post for this Thailand Blog and hopped a flight north to try and find us. Sounds simple right? Well, in reality, it would be much like dropping into our home city of Richmond, BC, Canada (population of about 200,000) and finding us sitting in a restaurant off some random alley. We sat and caught up on each other’s adventures and made plans to meet up later to go to the Sunday Evening Walking Street Market.

After breakfast we made our way towards the south end of Old Town. Along the way we found this… a mobile cocktail bar!

Mobile cocktail bar.

First off for our explorations today was the terracotta garden at Baan Phor Liang Meun’s Terracotta Arts (http://www.artterracotta.com). This little gem is hidden away in the south end of the old town (behind the market close to Chiang Mai Gate). The garden is off one side of the road and the showroom is on the other. The garden features thousands of decaying and repaired moss-covered terracotta sculptures enclosed in a walled enclosure making it feel like a true urban oasis… a cool, tranquil refuge in heart of the old city. The sculptures are for sale. Therefore, the layout of the garden is ever-changing.

Terracotta doorway frame.

“Double-headed” terracotta statue.

Terracotta and green moss.

Moss-draped terracotta statuary.

Reconstructed terracotta wall panel.

Terracotta and jungle in the city.

Terracotta heads.

That evening, the three of us headed off to the Sunday Evening Walking Street Market. It was absolutely jam-packed! There were literally thousands of of vendors, street performers, food stands, and multiple entertainment stages set up along several roads and various lanes and courtyards. And the crowds of shoppers and lookiloos were shoulder to shoulder and, at times, even oppressive. However, for us, it was the sheer volume of choices for street-food that was the most impressive; you had your choice of everything from cotton candy to roasted caterpillars… and just about anything hot or cold in between. Plus, the ambiance was truly surreal; checking out table after table of goods to glance up and see a golden Buddha looking down at you from a niche on the side of a Chedi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chedi).

Sunday Evening Walking Street Market.