Ta Ta to Thailand
Trip Start
Sep 19, 2002
1
79
129
Trip End
Sep 22, 2003
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
19th April - Back to the market but this time with a shopping list! I only had to get onions which were easy enough to identify but Phil had to try and find wide pepper leaves. Luckily Meiu our teacher was on hand to celebrate her succes in finding something we didn't know and pointed us to the maple leaf looking vegetable. We made another noodley / saucey dish, steamed fish in banana leaves (with the wide pepper leaves as well) (mine was too salty apparently - thanks for that), yellow curry with chicken and cashew nuts, spicy prawn salad and then bananas in coconut milk. I swear that Thailand would come to a stop if there was a coconut milk or fish sauce or chilli shortage! The fish had to be wrapped up in the leaves and this was quite tricky. I thought Phil would really struggle as he would rather I wrap my own presents at Christmas but as usual he was the first to finish and it was done very well. Smartass. The food was all very nice but I didn't eat so much and spent most of my time blowing my nose which really impressed everyone, especially the people from Singapore who had to cross the border again the next day!
20th April - Last day of the course and the teachers want to know when we will be setting up our restaurant! One chappie there is getting a noodle cart to stand at the markets in Holland with so we think we should do a mobile curry van and park outside the nightclubs in Pompey - we'd make a killing! Our morning lesson was vegetable carving and I thought Phil would really hate this as he has little patience with craft type things. After he successfully completed his tomato rose and lotus flower and carved two leaves from carrot slices, they said he was an expert and a master of the class. Me however, they said I should keep practising and that big bags of tomatoes were quite cheap in the market. Today's menu was minced pork soup, spring rolls, red curry with roast duck, fried chicken in pandanas leaves and mango with sticky rice. Phil, obviously, finished first each time and it was all wonderful. Alltogether I managed about 5 mouthfulls but Phil polished off most of his knowing it was his last day. When we came to leave we noticed an abundance of children's paint all the way up the path, into the house, across the floor and all over the doors. It seemed Somphon's children had been having fun with bottles of paint and we felt sure that they would be suitably reprimanded once all the class had gone! Of course I was hungry by the evening so we went back to our favourite western bar (I know I know, we are supposed to be eating with the locals) and the Thai ladies behind the bar laughed when they saw us again. I also managed to purchase a hand embroidered Akha tribe shoulder bag (like a little girls purse on a string with coloured threads) because I needed something to put my little flu bits in (see Mum I did learn something from you after all) which cost 60 baht (just under 1 pound!)
21st April - Our last day in Thailand for a while. The old ladies reminded us that they had our passports which was a stroke of luck as we left for the border (oops) and they also gave us a little photo of the house cat doing a wai on the table (thats wai as in prayer like gesture of greeting and not wee which is.... well you know!) They said they wanted her to travel with us (oh bless..) Of course the minibus to Chang Khong was a squeeze with all our luggage as usual and the driver looked very odd with wild staring eyes that got bigger and smaller independently of each other. However, we did manage to get to our final destination in one piece and remarkably early. We checked into the arranged geusthouse and Phil was alarmed to be 'soothed' on the arm by the owner who had obviously been a man at some point on her life. The minibus, guesthouse, breakfast, packed lunch and two days on the slow boat were purchased together in Chiang Mai for 1200 baht each. The owner showed us the difference between the 2 boats (our one was 300 baht more expensive but it was 'special') and we definitely saw cushions, life jackets and a western toilet in the picture (this will become relevant in the next log).
Chang Khong is a bit of a one horse town with it's sole reason for existence being that it is a border crossing to Laos and China. However it was really nice there with a rural and real feeling and relaxed atmosphere as if the foreigners haven't really made so much of a difference. A few places to eat and stay and a few little shops (I use this term loosly) so we bought some crisps and water for the next day's slow boat journey knowing that we wouldn't be stopping (as they had said this many times). We ended up eating in a Mexican overlooking the Mekong river and it was surprisingly good. Mexican and Thai food has chillis, lime and coriander in common (cos we are hexperts now you see) so they lend themselves well to each other. A bit of shame not to eat Thai on our last night but of course we are coming back again soon. Definitely sad to be moving on from a country we have fallen in love with (again) but looking forward to Lao which despite being just across the river, apparently is a little different!
