Thailand Highlights: Part #1

One of the things that I enjoyed in Thailand (and did a lot of) was shop. Normally I don't like to shop, but in Thailand everything is super cheap and you get to barter with the salesperson. About three nights when we were in Chiang Mai our whole group went down to the Night Bizarre on one of the main streets in Chiang Mai. It was a pretty neat place. There were a lot of foreigners there and a whole lot of interesting stuff. Paul Bradley was with us the first night and so he showed us who the good vendors were and who not to go too. You could buy anything from a t-shirt to a taser. (Sorry Timmy, I didn't buy one. I knew you were looking forward to being tased by your older brother.)

Some things about bartering that you should know. First off, everything is already dirt cheap, so you don't need to worry about haggling for $50 or so. I made that mistake a couple of times and felt like a big jerk. Second, the first buyer is always the "lucky" one. If you are their first buyer they will try and make you a special deal (which usually isn't too special), but if you start walking away they will probably chase you and make you buy it because they don't want to start the night off on a bad note. You can pull this on them by saying that you are the first buyer and will bring them good luck and then tell them a price. Another thing you need to know is that some of these people are crazy. I had people grabbing my arm to get me to keep looking at their stuff. If you don't seem too interested they try and sucker you in by lowering the price and then if you keep walking away you might even get it lower. Also, be careful what you touch because if you even more than glance at something, they will start asking you your size, "how much you give me?” and "what color you like?" and the infamous "For you...I give you special deal!"

Shopping in Thailand was fun because I got some cool stuff (whether its real or not I don't know) and I got to play a little game along the way. The first picture is the Sunday night market, which was packed if you couldn't tell, and the second image is of some of the guys at the market.