The Meechok Plaza is located on the second ring road and the corner of the Mae Jo Road leading out of Chiang Mai. Fortunately for us, it was only about a 10 minute motorbike ride from our rental on the outskirts of Chiang Mai—and the drive didn’t require us to enter the city at all!
The Meechok Plaza boasts of a variety of restaurants, McDonalds (not a restaurant…hahaa!), Rimping Grocery store (with a great selection of foreign imports and organic produce), a pharmacy, dentist (that we can recommend), ice cream parlors, spas, an excellent computer repair place, and a massage place!
Next door to the Meechok Plaza is a large covered local market where you can get any produce and Thai goodies to your heart’s delight!
Also, on Monday and Tuesday nights you can enjoy the Meechok open-air market! Tourists are rare in this area, so you’re likely to be the only foreign trying to push through the immense crowds (and small isles) and enjoy some street food. While there are clothing vendors, you won’t find touristy-type stuff here…and most of the vendors are there to fill tummies. The selection is wide and varied!
I still don’t know what these white things are. Anyone?
Seating is limited and only available with certain vendors!
We loved the garlic bread vendor. Yummy!
Mushrooms galore!
On market nights, the covered market next door stays open late!
The meat vendors have these funny fans (covered in plastic bags) above their fresh slices…presumably to keep the flies off? Gag!
You can get pre-made food here, as well. Curries, rices, noodles, etc.
If critters float your boat…you will get plenty of opportunities to munch on them here!
I thought it was interesting how they sliced and displayed these fish (lengthwise with the mouth turned under and through the center).
The covered market is open most days, and you can enjoy the Monday and Tuesday outdoor market starting around dusk until the late evening hours. Come early if you want to avoid the crowds!
Overall, we loved living in this area and having access to this great plaza on a regular basis, as well as the option to head down to the covered or outdoor markets!
I’m pretty sure those are fish eggs. Right? And this is definitely not a good post to read after being food poisoned from Thai food. Yuck!
They can’t be…can they? They’re almost the size of chicken eggs!
The white things are either pork ball or fish ball, they are pretty tasty.
And some extra information for the “seating is limited…” picture, that vender makes only papaya salad (som tom) and people swear it is the best in Chiang mai.
Good to know! I should have had some! I looove som tom, but only without the shrimp!!
The white things are fish balls, delicious!!! I hope you tried them.
Thanks for telling me!! I have wondered and been debating with my sister! Sadly, I don’t like fish, so I never tried them! 😛 Hahaha!!
Hi Alisa and Jared – yesterday I was researching Meechok Plaza and found your article so I continued to read more of your posts about Thailand and thought I would say hello as I am currently living in Chiang Mai. When I was in need of new spectacles, I also discovered The Vision Centre and was pleased with the service from the owner and the staff.
You say that you made a decision to “live outside the box” – that is fantastic. My husband, Greg and I also live outside the box, probably less by choice and more by circumstance. I am a novice blogger who is still learning about the development of my site and trying to attract readers. My blog is called eastwinglifestyle.com and my logo is “outside the box”. If you have time, I would like you to read my post called “Outside the box” in which I share my thoughts and my life. Now that I have discovered your blog, I have lots more reading to do. Take care, travel safely and hopefully we may chat again soon. Margaret