The windy road to Doi Suthep, cooking school and flat lemonade

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After a pretty snoozy day yesterday, and a late rise this morning, it was definately time to do stuff! And Sofia was the lady to make that happen, so we booked a Thai cooking course - called 'Pad Thai', an afternoon course, so we had to be back by 5ish.

In the Lonely Planet, Doi Suthep (a temple on the top of Suthep mountain) was highly recommended as a must-see, and the mode of transport recommended is motorbike, and I was hardly going to argue!

Turns out the term "motorbike" actually means a 125cc scooter (that is totally hot), with matching lego-style helmets! And the thing's an auto (what a waste), but it was heaps of fun flying up the mountain (at 35kms/hr) after I got used to the handling in the centre of Changmai (a nicer way of saying near-death experience).

Doi Suthep itself is a 307 step climb to the base of a temple arranged in a large square, perched on the top of the mountain, with incredible 360 degree views of Changmai - but it can better be explained in photo form - these are on Beck's camera, so will upload these later..

Back down the hill and another battle through traffic and we were ready to tackle the cooking course!
We joined a British couple and a few Germans and headed about 30 mins south of Changmai to meet a tiny Thai lady called 'Meow' (like a cat, she explained, only in Thailand!!).

The cooking course was sensational, we cooked all the Thai staples - Green curry, sticky rice dessert, stir fry and Pad Thai, and we were both pretty impressed by our own cooking (especially Beck)!! I was feeling a bit sick on the way back though, and it turned out to be a looooong night!

I can quite confidently say that you don't need to chew Pad Thai very much to eat and enjoy it.....and it's a heap spicier the second time round, and it doesn't smell or taste nearly as good. I know that's quite a lot of detail but it was pretty traumatic, and I need to do it justice (I think 'projectile' was Beck's word of choice). Oh, and did I mention it was coupled with a blood nose? It ended up being quite a colourful display.

I've been sick and thrown up before, but never have I felt like I did that night and the entire next day. Lemonade was my friend. Ruined (flat) lemonade was the diet for the next 24 hours and I think Sofia had to order another shipment from Bangkok.

So this is where we had to stall the adventure for a couple of days...

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