Hi All,
Food was great in Bangkok. We found a nice thai cooking school / restuarant near our hostel with a very amusing and excitable 'gay' thai waiter (ess?). The food was excellent and perhaps we will head in there some time for a class when we pass back through Bangkok on our way south.
We have been getting into the swing on things traveling up and down the river on the ferries to get around and sweltering in the local buses to get into town. Who needs a sauna.
The sure is a lot of shopping that could be done in Bangkok! Perhaps
another time...we did pick up some facemasks and snorkels for later.
We decided that it would be a good idea to head to Chiang Mai for a few days to a less humid climate,a place renowned for its quality cooking schools and hill tribes so booked on the 12hr ´Special Express´(read expensive tourist train)day train ride. It was early but hey it was 830am and soon we were on our way. We paid a bit extra for an air conditioned carriage but it was worth it. Tickets were 611 baht (AUD 20 for 12hr trip!) It was not a bad trip with lots rural scenery dotted with temples and one very large Buddha. We even got food and drink along the way served by thai hostesses (really girls). There was a young thai girl and her son next to us and he behaved himself for the whole trip. Quite amazing. The trip did get a bit tedious and we were glad to get off.
The first thing that struck us was how much more pleasant the weather was compared to Bangkok. The evening was warm but not sticky. We grabbed a tuk tuk and headed to our hostel. OK. I will own up. We have become flashpackers lately and are staying in cheap hotels and this one even had a pool. Very nice.
Next day. We wandered around town. Visited temples then booked a day at one of the many thai cooking.There are probably about 70 cooking schools from which to choose but we choose this one because it was about 17km outside of Chiang Mai on a farm. Wandered out to a large supermarket about 3km away then caught a local transport red covered ute back to the old town (cost 20 baht each).
Next day. Looking forward to the class. We were met by Tommy our teacher for the day and transported in the back of a covered ute to a very colorful market for some ingredients and then onto a nice rural setting with a large herb garden and well setup wooden sheds for the cooking. We were with a dutch family, a mexican american couple, a lone french traveller and a couple of older english women. Turned out to be a fun mix of people and Tommy was a star comedian who kept us laughing all day.
Thai Cooking school farm
Vanessa
Green Curry Paste from scratch
Green Curry Chicken
Tom Yam Soup with prawns
cashew nut chicken
Pad Thai
bananas in coconut milk
David
Red Curry paste from scratch
Red Curry
Thai Vegetable soup with coconut milk
Chicken with basil
Spring rolls
Sticky rice and mango
All tasted very good and we got to eat what we cooked outside in a covered setting overlooking the garden area. Very, very nice. The day ended too soon but we were very satisfied and we even got a cookbook each. Not bad getting 8hr cooking for about 900 baht (AUD 30 each ). Well worth it.
Next day
There was a tuk tuk driver at the entrance to the hotel who had been offering us a cheap tour of the area. The cost was to be 200 baht for the day. A little mental maths and we
knew that wouldn't cover the petrol for the day. We knew the catch was we would have to visit all the crappy craft, jewellery and carpet shops but figured it would be fun. First stop an elephant farm. We arrived in time for the elephant washing followed by a show. Some of the elephants painted quite good pictures! All a bit of fun. Good value for 120baht each. Strange that we later didn't want to see a monkey show with them riding bikes and lifting weights as it just seemed mean.
Next stop was a village with 5 different hill tribes in it. Very expensive at 500 baht each and it was really crappy. Overcommercialised crap. 'Hand' made items on the front of each house and villagers just lazing around. We just wanted to see the burmese women with the rings around their necks. It was like a theme park or perhaps as we have read a human zoo. It was a
mistake to go there. We just cut our losses and left without a single photo. Not happy.
We didn't go to the monkey display or the cobra farm. We did go to the orchid farm which was nice and dropped into the tiger park where you could spend 15 min with a tiger for 600 baht but we declined the offer since we had been to the Tiger park in Harbin,China so then it was off to see all the craft shop with genuine handmade items. I did like watching the how silk is made and the performance of the kashmir carpet salesman was good, the indifferent demonstration of how a silver tree of jewellery was also interesting but in the end Vanessa and I decided that would pay the driver Pas just to take us back to the hotel and we would pay him more. We ended up giving him double the agreed price and it was an excellent day out.
We booked a flight to Mae Hong Son for tomorrow.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
