day 4 - in to the kitchen

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i am now in bangkok and it is completely different to Chiang mai but ill get on to that in awhile. i had a nice big entry two days ago and when i went to put it on, the internet crashed and i lost nearly 1 hrs typing, so it makes this entry hard to write.

we headed out for paddy's day anyway and it wasn't that much of a night. the Irish pub was full of Australians, English and Americans all thinking that Guinness tastes great. it was funny to see women knocking back big pints of Guinness, obviously not knowing what it can do the next day! of course Michelle the lady that she is, only drank glasses!

we got up the next day and went to a Thai cookery class. it was good craic and we were joined by an American, a English girl and a Canadian girl. first we went to the market to get our fresh ingredients and it was quite a shock. lets just say if our local tesco looked like this health and safety would close it down. it was held in what looked like and old disused warehouse and it smelled of wet dog. the meat was out on the tables and there were plenty of flies. it works for them anyway so it didn't put us off that much! our cooking instructor showed us all the different spices and veg that they use in their food. we then headed back to the cookery school and all sat around a table Thai style (on the floor). we all got to pick a different meal and a different curry to make from scratch. Michelle picked pad thai which turns out to be very easy to make and quite nice. we sat down then and ate that before we started making all the other dishes. when making the curry i got the job of beating all the spices with a pestal and mortar. the instructor warned me to keep my hand over so that nothing comes out and into your eye. i did this but of course something did manage to make its way into my eye and it was some chilly. for starters we were using the hottest chilly (they call them killers here). by god did it hurt. i can only say that i now know what its like to be pepper sprayed. a bit of cooking oil and and some water and 5 minutes later i was back in action. (my initial reaction was that i was gonna loose my eye sight it was that sore). we all made our curries and you got to choose how hot you wanted it by picking between 1 and 5 chilies. locals use 5 so i went for 4 and Michelle had 2. we then cooked up 5 portions of the 5 different courses and sat down and made pigs of ourselves(well i did anyway). after that we sat around for a while a talked a bit about what we do back home and what we thought of Chiang Mai. we then got a lift back to our accommodation and caught up on some sleep as we were up early every day and we had had (1 or 2!) drinks the night before.

that evening we headed to the night bazaar and got another big feed for about 6 euro for the two of us. after that we got a foot and leg massage and i think they got a great laugh out of my hairy legs. i thought i had weird feet but michelle assures me it was the hairy legs. it was kinda cool and our legs felt a whole lot better afterwards considering the amount of walking we had done over the last few days.

leaving chiang mai kinda felt like the end of a holiday even though we were starting another. we got the night train to bangkok (15 hrs) and it was a great experience. the window was wide open and you could stick your body out never mind your head.

now im in an internet cafe in our hotel in bangkok. when we arrived a man asked us did we want a taxi. i said yes and he started to help us with our bags. he ended up taking us to a tuk-tuk (crazy moped with three wheels and a roof) i told him i didn't want one but he persisted and insisted. i got angry and michelle was full sure yer man was in for it from me. i had to get quite thick with him and grab my bag back. at this stage he backed away knowing i wasn't in the mood. we are now 3 hours here and i have to stay off the streets because these guys are so in your face(i think sleep will sort us out). any way thats all for now. michelle says hello to all at home and says to give Ally a big kiss from her. talk to ye soon.

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