We were looking forward to the "cooler" weather we'd heard about in northern Thailand, so we packed up our bags and caught an 11-hour train ride to Chiang Mai. Umm, NOT cooler weather in the north. I'm not sure who started that rumor but it is NOT TRUE! Actually, I take that back. If you sleep in the national park in a small hut, you might be cooler, but since we did that only briefly, the rest of our time has been hot, hot, hot.
When we were staying at the sheep farm in New Zealand with the incredibly gracious Taylor family, we met a fellow American who was staying with them while on break from a bible college nearby. His name was Joshua and he told us that he had spent a couple years in Thailand and had some contacts for us to meet in Chiang Mai. Well, it happened that his friend Gade was willing to meet with us and actually picked us up at the train station. She got us a great place to stay in the middle of the city and we made plans the following day to go to church with her.
We woke up to rain on Sunday morning which is unusual for this time of year since it is not the rainy season. I mention this because after the rain, it became super hot and muggy. Anyway, Gade met us for breakfast and we had great conversation about what it is like to be a Christian in a country that is 95% Buddhist.
We arrived at the small home church and the 25 or so people were in the middle of worshiping in song. It was all a'capella and it sounded really good. The worship book was in Thai, but had Thai phonetic spelling so we could attempt to sing along. It was fun to recognize a few songs, but sung in a different language. An American by the name of Shawn has been in Thailand for over 20 years and has helped to plant churches and is translating the Old Testament into Thai (a 10-year process!). It was interesting to see a "falang" or foreigner speak Thai. He translated the service for us while another Thai native gave the message (this guy is working on the translation with Shawn). It was great to be with fellow believers and be in church. We chatted with some of the people afterwards and went to a great Thai food buffet.
Later that night we went to the huge Sunday night market filled with street musicians, handicrafts, and massage set-ups (basically mats and chairs for Thai massage and foot massage lining the street). This market was different than the others we have been to in the fact there were more locals out and it went on for blocks. We walked around for 3 hours and did not see everything. However, it did have the most important thing in my opinion which was cheap and delicious local foods.
Speaking of great Thai food, we went to a cooking school the next day. It was an absolute blast! We ate great food all day, learned some tasty recipes, and had an entertaining chef and equally great teacher. We started our course at the local market to pick up some supplies and learn about the different ingredients of cooking Thai food. Our chef/teacher's name was Permpoon. We were instructed to call him "Perm" (like the curly hair style) if we had any questions. I now know how to purchase good eggs, the difference between coconut juice, coconut milk, and coconut cream, and also the different types of rice. Essentials for cooking some tasty Thai soups. To be honest, we saw so many different herbs, vegetables, and spices that it was hard to keep everything straight. Good thing we got a cook book with pictures to remember all the information. After learning about all the ingredients, it was time to head to his Perm's house and start cooking.
The set-up was great. We had 15 people in a covered courtyard with individual cooking stations and all the necessary utensils and supplies. We each made 4 dishes each (a soup, a curry, a stir fry, and a noodle dish) in addition to the 3 dishes we learned as a group: mango sticky rice (yummy!), papaya salad (spicy), and spring rolls (delicious).
Highlights of the cooking school go as follow:
-Perm making himself laugh, no, crack up, at his own jokes
-Perm showing us the 4 steps of how to taste a dish upon completion:
1. taste a little bit
2. close your eyes
3. slowly shake your head from side to side
4. lastly, say the word "unbelievable" (I cracked up laughing everytime he did this, which was quite a lot)...unbelieveable could mean it tastes good or bad!
-Cooking stir fry and making a huge flame come out of the wok by tilting it so the oil runs into the fire
-Eating enough food for a week in 4 hours
The cooking course was such fun and now we can bring home a taste of Thailand and cook for those brave souls that can handle some spicy food!!!
After eating tons of food, we decided to get some exercise by doing a little trekking in the mountains outside the city. We met up with Kim (an OT colleague of Tristen's from back home) who just happened to be in Thailand at the same time. It was fun to share stories from home and to talk about familiar things with our new friend. more about the trek to come...
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