Chiang Mai: Cooking, Massage and Trekking

I arrived in Chiang Mai and was delightfully greeted by a Thai family that was kind enough to take me in for about 10 days. Nice to get off the backpacker circuit and learn a true lesson in Thai culture!

Sunday morning, I was ready for my first shot at Thai cooking. I booked a course through Ban Tahi Cookery School and they were fabulous! Dressed in a cute little apron and a matching headscarf, I made 5 different authentic Thai dishes (including my favourite curry!) Bonus, I got to eat them all too! I also tried my hand at vegetable carving - the art of creating beautiful flowers and leaves out of the simplest vegetables. I was really impressed with the sight of my plate. That evening, my host grandmother gave me a private lesson in Thai cooking. The food was delicious!

Monday morning was the start of "school". I enrolled in a Level I Thai Massage course. Wow, it sure is much more physical that I expected! But I think by Friday I'd gotten the hang of it. Now its just practice, practice, practice. Any volunteers?

Some highlights of my week in Chiang Mai:

* The Night Bazaar: do I really need to buy more stuff? The answer is yes!

* I met up with one of my high school teachers who was visiting Chiang Mai for a week or two. Crazy, we were both here at the same time! Jane, it was a pleasure seeing you in Thailand and practicing "real" English! ;)

* Svenson Ice Cream - yummy!

* A Herbal Steam Sauna at Spa Mantra. Our school offered us a free steam at their sister spa. It was so refreshing to be cleansed by the Thai herbs and wonderful to be pampered!

* A visit to Lamphun to see the Thai relatives.

* Sending home an 8kg package. My gawd it was expensive!

My last few days in Chiang Mai I went trekking around the Maewang River. I met a great group of people from around the world and we had a blast for 3 days. Hiking, swimming in waterfalls, riding elephants and camping in bamboo huts. A really special part of the trip was our first night in Karen Village. The children in the village came to meet us and sang Thai songs around the fire. They had such beautiful smiles and bright faces! In return, we tried to teach them English songs, but the best we came up with was Yellow Submarine!

My favourite part of the trip was rafting down the Maewang River. Me and 2 guys from Brazil chose a raft guide named "Crazy Man". Eduardo and Pedro were the first to try their hands at pushing the bamboo raft along the water with long bamboo poles. Its WAY harder than it looks! We managed to crash the raft several times! At the end of the journey we were soaked - several crashes, splashing from Crazy Man and a competitive water fight with the local children who were playing in the river!

Back to Chiang Mai in a pick-up truck - I held onto the back in true Thai style!

Today I left Chiang Mai and am staying in the border town of Chiang Khong. I've met up with Duncan, an English guy from my trek, and tomorrow we will be heading into Laos together.

Want to see more pics? Check out:
Duncan's Blog

Baan Thai Cookery School

---

---