After a few days resting and recovering from being sick, we moved from the hostel to a lovely guest house (even if we did think we were going to be relieved of all our belongings on the way there). It was down the smallest, winding backstreets with no street lights and a building site next door! We were so relieved when we got to our room, lovely, clean, cool, WINDOWS 👍🏼 and being on the top floor we had the most amazing view of the mountains, that we could sit in the sun and admire.
That night we headed out for some food and the hubby wanted to watch a football match (so habits can't be broken no matter how hard you try 😂) we were also waiting on some amazing news from home as our friends were finding out if they are due to have a little prince or princess in July! It's a princess and we can't wait to meet her when we get home. 💕
We had heard that Chiang Mai had some interesting markets including a Saturday and Sunday walking street. Basically a pop up market across a huge area of Chiang Mai on Saturday and Sunday evenings. So off we went to the Sunday market. People weren't wrong when the said how vast they are, with so many little side streets and hidden gems. We walked... and walked... and walked. Then walked some more. As well as spending regular intervals stood still for 10 minutes at a time because it gets so congested with the huge crowds. We ate meat on sticks (I couldn't tell you what meat it was even if I wanted too!) we ate watermelon, I bought my first braid bracelet of the trip and we found a spot to people watch and take it all in for a while. On our way out of the markets we were pounced on by 3 Thai teens in school uniform, a boy and two girls. They were interviewing tourists for a school project so asked us a list of questions then gave us a postcard each as a thank you for our time.
You may be glad to know that we finally made it to our cooking class.
We were picked up for the class at about 9:15 in a little mini bus, we collected about 8 others then headed to the market where a few more people met us. Our teacher introduced himself as 'snooker', a very camp and very funny mid 20 Thai man. He told us all about the fresh ingredients available at the markets, talked us through all the ingredients we would be using to cook, and what substitutes we could use for them at home. They also make 'sets' at the market, fresh and dry, which is a pre made pack of ingredients, with all the correct amounts, for all different kinds of dishes. We collected all our ingredients and headed off in the bus to the cooking location. The places was amazing. Lovely big wooden table for us all to eat at and a cooking station for each person. We each got to choose an appetiser, a soup, a noodle dish, a curry paste and a curry dish. We got to eat everything we made and we were sent away with a portion of mango and sticky rice! Snooker was incredible, he had such a good sense of humour and had us laughing all day with his quirkiness and little jokes. Whenever someone asked "how much do I use?" He would reply "with emotion" with a giggle.
And his scale for spice went as follows-
Mild
Medium
White girl spicy
Thai girl spicy
Turns out not a single member of our group was brace enough to go Thai girl spicy.
The day seemed to fly by, it was so much fun but over so quickly. But I'm guessing that will be a common theme to this trip!
The next few days where just exploring, wandering the streets, taking in the sights and sounds, enquiring about a few trips at travel agents and enjoying the sun. This city is beautiful but now I'm ready to head out of the hustle and bustle for a little while.
Any one in Chiang Mai wanting to do a cooking class, there are literally hundreds, but I would highly recommend Zabb E Lee Thai cooking school. 👍🏼
