Pasar Malam

Pasar malam is an Malay and Indonesian word that literally means night market, "pasar" being related to "bazaar" in Persian. A pasar malam is a street market in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia that opens in the evening, usually in residential neighbourhoods.

It brings together a collection of stalls that usually sell goods such as fruits, vegetables, snacks, toys, clothes, shoes, alarm clocks, and ornaments at cheap or at least reasonable prices. Pirated DVDs, CDs and computer software are often sold at a pasar malam. A pasar malam often takes place only one to a few days of the week, as the traders rotate around different neighbourhoods on different days of the week. Haggling over prices is a common practice at such markets.

Pasar Malam are often differentiated by ethnicity. A Malay pasar malam will often contain stalls selling Islamic books, kopiah hats, sarongs and other Malay specialty items. Chinese pasar malam may sell Mah Jong sets, incense, joss sticks, joss paper and various Chinese prayer supplies. Indian pasar malam may contain Hindu prayer supplies

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Katoey at the Chiang Rai Night Market

This could be a photo in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro during carnival time ... but it's actually a couple of katoey (or lady boys) at the night market in Chiang Rai, Thailand making their way flamboyantly through the crowds after their cabaret show on the stage.

Hold up in Chiang Rai Night Market

I was standing in the night market in Chiang Rai, patiently waiting on my wife who was shopping in some trinket shop when i turned to see a guy holding up a woman at gunpoint. I also quickly realised that the woman was selling a collection of wooden toy guns and this customer was just playing the fool with one of her products, as you can see from the expressions of the onlookers.