Chiang Mai
Trip Start
May 15, 2007
1
13
19
Trip End
Jun 15, 2007
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Sunday, June 3, 2007
We get up bright and early to cross the border as soon as it opens, 'cause we're not sure when the connecting buses to Chiang Mai go. As soon as we're ready to leave our guesthouse the guesthouse guy tells us there's a minivan leaving for Chiang Mai from the guesthouse in an hour though, so we sign up for that and sit back and relax to have breakfast. :D A tuk tuk takes us to the border post in town and after signing out of Laos we get into little boats that take us across the Mekong to Thailand.
On the other side we go through the Thai border post and then get taken to a guesthouse where we wait for the minivan. The drive to Chiang Mai is very uneventful - the Thai roads are a lot better than the Lao roads so it's not very adventurous. :D We have one stop at a place selling dried fruits and nuts. Selmer and I only have a few bahts (that we got as change in Laos) so we end up buying a bag of dried bananas which turn out to be really yummy. I'm quite disappointed we can't buy any more. :D
In Chiang Mai we sign in to the Eagle House 2 Guesthouse (very nice place!) and go for a stroll
Selmer having curry
. Selmer was in Chiang Mai (the second biggest city in Thailand after Bangkok) a few years ago on his round the world trip and he keeps pointing out memorable places, like where he got his pictures developed and where he got really drunk. :D We have dinner at a restaurant and dive straight into the Thai curries; I have a green curry and Selmer a red one - both are heavenly. I *love* Thai curries. :D After dinner we walk around a bit more and see a few sights. Eventually we return to the guesthouse to spend the rest of the night reading books in the garden - a rather nice set up with wooden tables and benches and a fridge with cold drinks.
Day 23: Chiang Mai - Thailand
For today we signed up for a Thai cooking class at our guesthouse. We present ourselves downstairs at 9 am and are joined by one other participant, an English guy called Paul who turns out to be really nice. It's just the three of us, which is pretty cool as we get to take it nice and easy and get lots of attention from the teacher. :D First we decide on the menu from our cookbooks (that we get to take home) - each one of us gets to pick 5 dishes. I pick hot and sour prawn soup (Thom Yam), green curry, sweet and sour chicken, spring rolls and steamed chicken souffle. After having decided on what we want to make we go to the local market to buy ingredients - we all get a wooden basket which makes me feel like skipping and wearing my hair in braids. :D The teacher also tells a lot about the different Thai herbs, fruits and vegetables while we're shopping.
We move from stall to stall to buy stuff and after we got everything we return to the guesthouse
Chiang Mai
. First we have to chop everything - well, a lot, as they also have a few Thai boys and girls chopping things and cleaning up after us. Not bad actually, we only have to do the cooking and eating. :D After all the chopping is done we start on our dishes. Each one of us gets our own little stove and the teacher (who is like a mix of Mr. Miyagi and a drill instructor, but very nice and knowledgeable) tells us in which order and when to add ingredients so it's basically impossible to fuck up. After we made our dish we have to eat it straight away - which is probably the best part. :D After the cooking and eating of the first three dishes we get an hour long break. I joke we probably will get lunch now; but indeed, our teacher gives us a plate of fruit which we obligingly eat even though we're already pretty stuffed. :D After the break we learn a bit about food decoration and we get to cut up and arrange some tomato and cucumbers and then make our last two dishes.
After the class finishes we get a certificate with our names in Thai. It was a great day and I really enjoyed the food - I'm definitely going to try this at home!
At night we just sit around rubbing our bellies and we have a quick look at the night market. We don't buy anything and eventually return to the guesthouse to read a bit.
