In front of the Mosque, along side a hundred year old Thai style house in the Chiang Mai night bazaar area, there is a unique weekend market. The sellers are mostly all Hill Tribe, Chinese Muslim, Shan Burmese and more.

Get there early, this market is finished by midday, as most good fresh food markets usually are in Thailand. The main objective was to shop for fresh plums which are in season, we came back to Pai with a truckload of fresh fruits, and other fresh hard to find produce.

Shopping at open air markets is the best way to select fresh produce, you’ll never feel the same entering a supermarket again. Not only is market culture a place to shop for groceries, it is a social event, a place to see and be seen. Open air fresh markets in Thailand (especially northern Thailand) are ethnic melting pots where different people gather to sell their wares and co-mingle amongst each other.

Check out the assortment of colors, natures finest paintings…

This year’s Chinese New Year falls on the new moon of February 7th, 2008. Ending the year of the Fire Pig and entering the year of the Earth Rat. As always the hill tribes in northern Thailand will be celebrating by wearing their finest garments with silver adornments, dancing through the night, and lots of feasting and drinking.

One special tradition related to the new year is that everyone usually gets “new” clothes during this time of year. Being that I am married into the Lisu clan, that means new dresses for ladies, and new pants for men. As we speak there is a tailor putting together two lovely new dresses for my wife, and if I’m lucky, a couple pairs of pants for myself. I want to talk about the style of the Lisu pants, they are very unique in that the crotch hangs very low, followed by an elastic waste which makes wearing them extremely comfortable and versatile. The Lisu are very particular about their color schemes. Women’s trousers are the same design as men, except they are always black in color, there is no exception. Men’s trousers are always colorful, particularly some variation of either blue or green. Although over the years we are beginning to see more variations of blues and greens hitting the fabric market.