Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [228]
Technically there are two multi-storey buildings that comprise the market, but so much activity surrounds these enclosures and spreads into the neighbouring area that it is hard to define Talat Warorot’s specific boundaries. Outside the market buildings are fruit and vegetable vendors selling highland varieties that are considered exotic to central Thais. Parked nearby are an extinct species in Bangkok, shm·lór drivers who shuttle home produce-burdened shoppers.
If you push your way through the thick barrier of vendor stalls, you’ll find the interior market selling pickled products, pre-made curries and packaged kâap mo (pork rinds). There are a number of basic food stalls on the ground floor of the main hall serving popular daytime noodle dishes. It’s an especially good market for cheap clothes, fabrics and cooking implements, as well as inexpensive cosmetics and handicrafts.
Facing the river, Talat Tonlamyai (Map; Th Praisani; 24 hr) is the city’s main fresh flower market, locally called gàht dòrk mái. The arm-width bundles of asters, roses and coreopsis are ripened in the cooler climate of the surrounding highlands and are brought to market at night to avoid the wilting daytime heat. Varieties, like pussy willow, which need even colder temperatures, are grown by hill-tribe villages perched at higher altitudes. Then there are the voluptuous tropical flowers, like jasmine, orchids and lotus buds that flourish in the heat. The flowers are sold wholesale for delivery to Bangkok and other provincial centres as well as arranged into funeral wreaths or sold in smaller quantities to merit-making Thais and households. The flower market is always busy but even more so during citywide festivals, like Loi Krathong and, of course, the Flower Festival.
West of the market, along Th Chang Moi is the city’s small Chinatown, most obviously marked by a flamboyant Chinese-style arch and the typical two-storey shophouses of Southeast Asia’s mercantile districts. Most stores are family-owned businesses selling bulk household products and yellow-gold jewellery. There are also the old apothecaries smelling of tree bark and dried herbs. The area is also home to two Chinese temples and clan houses and hosts an annual Chinese New Year parade. A small population of Sikhs also live in this area and specialise in selling bolts of fabric. They worship at the nearby Namdhari Sikh Temple (Map; Th Ratchawong), catering to the Namdhari sect of Sikhism.
MAE PING & WAT KETKARAM
In ancient times, Thai cities were intimately tied to the waterways for basic survival and transportation. The fundamental role of rivers in everyday life often elevated them from thoroughfares and faucets to revered entities honoured by such annual festivals as Loi Krathong. Chiang Mai’s exalted river is the Mae Ping (Map), which starts in the mountains of Chiang Dao and winds through the highlands to the fertile Mae Sa Valley, the commercial hub of Chiang Mai and through the Ping Valley, the largest fertile valley in the northern provinces. In Nakhon Sawan, the river joins the Chao Phraya River, which flows all the way to Bangkok and the Gulf of Thailand. Along its 569km run, the river feeds a vast agricultural system of rice paddies, coffee plantations, lam yai orchards, strawberry fields and flower gardens.
The Mae Ping also fed Chiang Mai’s role as a thriving trading centre in the early 19th century. It was a much busier and a more powerful river in those days but still subject to seasonal water fluctuations. To accommodate the dry season’s low water levels, boats had shallow bottoms and a tall forked tail, often called a ‘scorpion’s tail’, which allowed for greater stability and buoyancy. Today the scorpion-tailed boats live on in the tourist-oriented river trips (Click here). You can also enjoy the scenery from the riverside restaurants (Click here) that sit on the east bank.