Thinking about markets

It's not every day that you can say this: I was very close to the Burma border yesterday. It was eerie, knowing all the bad news going on over there. I took a field trip with the director of ECHO's Asia office to their field station in Fang. It was a beautiful drive through mountains and the villages were amazing.

Since I am a farmer's market vendor at home, I love going to the markets here. There are stores and small storefronts everywhere, but most people seem to get their food and veggies from either street markets or more established roofed concrete structure markets. (Note to self: need to make a separate entry about the glories of real Thai food.) I particularly like the Sunday evening "Walking Street," where a long street in the center of the old city is blocked off to traffic and people bring their art and crafts to sell...I've been going every week and have felt a certain kinship with the people selling their art, of course. This past weekend was Chinese New Year, so there was extra street market action happening downtown. I continue to gleefully support the local economy.

By the way, to follow up on the monkeys--over-the-back-fence discussion previously entered, I found out that the sounds I've been hearing are actually a bird. Sorry!