CHIANG MAI, THAILAND
Every Sunday at 4pm Chiang Mai closes off about a kilometer of road in the middle of the old city. Hundreds of stalls are set up, selling every kind of food, clothing, handicraft and knick-knack you could think of. Some of it is tacky nonsense, but the vast majority is excellent local art made by everyone from college kids to housewives and businessmen. The street food is amazing as well, a far cry from the deep-fried Snickers and barbell-sized sausages you’d find at, say, the Montgomery County Fair.

There are street performers, too – many are blind musicians or hill tribes trying to make a living, but some are students or old people with nothing else to do. It’s all fairly standard fare, but three kids with a sax and two guitars were rocking noticably harder than everybody else. I walked up to throw in some money when I realized one of them was the guy I was playing with on the train up here. He’s embarrassingly good.