With how much I love flowers, one might have thought that I would have experienced a flower market before. I have seen blooms for sale at various venues across the globe, but never one place wholly dedicated to them. Well, I had a ball today, the beautiful flower market in Chiang Mai is amazing!
Location
The market is located right at the river, beside Chinatown. I will put the google pin here. It was an easy walk for me along the moat that surrounds Old Town, however it took about 45 minutes each way. If you are staying inside the Old City, you can simply walk out through the East gate and follow that street all the way to the river.
Flower Street
More of a street that is lined with flower stalls, than what I would think of as a traditional market. There is a small covered area extending in behind the flower stalls. When I walked into this space, part of it was being rinsed after being used as a butchering space and the smaller dimly lit portion, was full of wholesale unwrapped flowers.
Facing the river, are about 20 narrow shops, each filled to the brim with fresh cut flowers. Most of the shoppers are arriving on bikes or pulling up in their vehicles along side their favourite vendor. They simply remain in their car, and are sold the flowers through the window.
Buddhist Garland
Some of the vendors are creating beautiful living offerings that the Buddhist people will purchase and take to their respective temples. These are absolutely gorgeous and many are so creative and detailed.
The simplest variety is a string of tiny white flowered garland made from what look like snow drops. These are oftentimes embellished and have orchids and other small flowers added to create a ring with fringe.
The big bright orange marigolds are the traditional offering and these are arriving in huge plastic bags. Workers are adding the ribbon and string to create the garland.
Flowers
Of all the flowers I saw, these are the most amazing and beautiful ones for me. My camera reel was getting overloaded as you can imagine so I have narrowed down all the utterly gorgeous beauty I saw into these 10 photographs. Enjoy!
Other stalls are full of the wholesale bundles of flowers. Some still have their paper and plastic wrappings on each individual bloom to protect the delicate petals.
I was surprised how few of shops had pre-arranged bouquets ready for sale. Perhaps because of the warm temperatures, they only make a limited amount at a time. Only one store was completely enclosed to keep it cool inside and it was full of roses. ๐น
Surprises
Two things were a surprise for me. One, there was virtually no pleasant fragrant smell around this area! I was expecting to be infused with the perfume of natures bounty, but alas, it was not so. Just ordinary city smells except when standing right near the two vendors selling greenery.
And two, the bundles of orchids come in huge cardboard boxes that look beat to crap! I had no idea such a delicate flower would be transported this way.
Anyone who loves flowers, colour and traditional items will enjoy perusing this market. I was able to see the temple garlands being made at a number of stalls and it was so interesting to me, using these tiny delicate flowers to create such a beautiful item. See if there are any flowers you have never seen before! There was for me. ๐
