Yang can cook and so can Brendon

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We are currently staying at the Top North Guest House in Chiang Mai.
Our current room just $16 a day (David, Matt & Jedd would probably say that's expensive for here). But we got the worst room in the hotel.

We had a look at other rooms which are much nicer (& the same price), but the hotel is now full & we can't change. It's full of mosquitoes, the tap & plug in the bathroom are broken, the shower is cold (although that's not uncommon - I don't enjoy washing my hair in water that takes my breath away) and there is a pipe on the third floor that drips & pours to the ground outside our room, keeping us awake all night! Last night we slept with ear plugs!

Apart from that we are still having a ball.

Today was wonderful! We woke up, did our own workouts (tomorrow we'll do yoga as they offer it here), skipped breakfast & waited for our 9am pick up. We decided to do the Pad Thai cooking course & this was for more beginners - friends recommended the Chiang Mai one, but that was both more expensive and assumed you had some Thai cooking knowledge. For a beginner Thai cook like Brendon & a near beginner like myself this was perfect. It was amazing!!! Today we cooked (both of us separately) Pad Thai (yum), spring rolls (actually nice, but I'm not into deep-fried), Tom Yung soup with Prawns, Chicken & cashew (yum). Thai green curry & 2 desserts - all just delicious! we will also be skipping dinner as we then got to eat all our meals we made!

We also went to a Thai Kickboxing match. There was meant to be a kiwi in the title fight - or so the advertising showed, but there was in fact an American instead. Same same but oh so different. If you do want to watch Muay Thai in Thailand, do so in Chiang Mai, its about a 10th of the price as in Bangkok. Also ensure you go to the Kwillia boxing ring - not the staged fight for tourists. Ours was very real - in the best fight of the night, one of the competitors was thrown headfirst out of the ring. It was right in front of us and the look of terror on his face as he came straight down and nearly landed on his head was scary enough for most of the crowd to scream. OK well just us girls and some of the Lady Boys who worked out the surrounding bars. They were just as exciting to watch as the match - is it a he or a she? They were also great supporters of particular fighters. Anyway, the only thing that stopped this guy from breaking his neck were some fast moving burly tourists in the front row who grabbed him just before his head smashed on the ground. It really gave me the shivers. We met a kiwi at the match - and his Canadian girlfriend. He had picked us out as kiwis when we walked in - he saw us refuse the beer at the local bar, & go for waters. That, plus our dress and demeanour gave us away. Turns out that all kiwis are too tight to pay premium prices for alcohol.

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