when it rains........it pours

"what are you doing in chiang mai?.........you have to go to the sunday market."

"i recommend you go to the sunday market."

"one of my favorite parts of chiang mai was the sunday market."

"you're going to chiang mai? you have to go to the sunday market. i loved it!"

ok........so everytime i told someone i was going to chiang mai, they all raved about the sunday market. i had a cooking class planned for today but knew the markets are opened pretty late here so i wasn't worried i'd miss it. i took a nap after the cooking and woke up, got some dinner and went to get a coffee before going on a big shop, fulfilling the requests of my friends and getting myself some things too. well about 20 minutes into it (which isn't much when the market goes for miles and miles) it began to rain. i thought "this tiny sprinkle feels good on my sunburn. the sky doesn't look too dark.......hopefully the market stays opened anyway." about 15 minutes later the sky opened up and it poured.....hard. all the merchants were scrambling to cover their things and everyone else was taking advantage of any bit of umbrella or overhang to try and keep a bit dry. then the power went out and it became quite dark. after standing under and overhang for about 10 minutes i decided to walk the 2-3 km back to my room and get a shower and dry off. this rain wasn't stopping anytime soon and many people started packing up their things. i arrived dripping wet, had a lazy shower and dried off and took my time getting dressed, hoping that by the time i was in dry clothes and my hair was presentable i could venture out again. there's not much to do inside when traveling alone. by this time the rain was back to barely sprinkling and i made it to this internet cafe without getting drenched. so.....no sunday market for me. i like to get a feel for what's available before i start buying things so i hadn't bought anything in the short time i was at the market before it started raining. last night i was at the night market a few streets over and i guess i'll be back there tomorrow night. it's a pretty good market as well. the sunday market looked great but hopefully tomorrow i can find what i need.