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Cooking class
View of the gardens After I left the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and the excitement of the tigers, I headed to Northern Thailand. I have to say, Chiang Mai is probably my favorite (non-beach) place so far. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous and there is tons to do. “Old” Chiang Mai is actually surrounded by a moat which is really cool. Lots of good food, both Thai and Western. I had tons of great Mexican there and didn’t realize how bad I had missed it.
Of course, with all this great food around, I HAD to take a cooking class. I found this really nice one that was actually held on a farm outside of the city. This farm produced all organic produce for use by the family, the cooking school, and of course for sale in local markets if the crops yielded enough. The farm was owned by the family of the “chef” of our class and he told us that his family used to grow and sell rice on the land, but with the increase in tourist visits to the area they changed their crops and built the cooking school. The class was great! Secretly, I wanted to test my own
Cooking School
storms rolling in Thai cooking against that of the locals and I was 1 for 1. I still like my Tom Yum soup much better than the one we made in class, but the green curry we made blew my pathetic excuse for Thai curry out of the water. We took a tour of the local market-including fried insects and pig’s heads for sale- and wandered through the farm to harvest the remainder of the ingredients we would use in class. We picked fresh lemon grass, ginger, basil, galangal, chilies and more. It was really cool to see the ingredients I use so often at home picked right from the garden. The class was great, and the teacher was really nice and taught us a lot about local Thai ways as well. We got a recipe book to keep, so get ready for some awesome food when I get home!!!
For my next adventure, I decided to go on a micro flight. What this is exactly is a teenie tiny little “plane” for two people. It actually is kinda like a hang glider with a lawn mower engine. Needless to say it was scary but the scenery was great. The day was
a bit cloudy, so we couldn’t go too high. I think we made it to about 500 feet. It was so fun. I think I might take up hang gliding when I get home. My friend took a video so when he gets back he’s going to put something together with music- he’s a very talented videographer and can do all that cool stuff. But pics must do for now. You can see the website of the place at:
http://www.skyadventures.info/
After all this excitement, I took a relaxing motorcycle tour through Northern Thailand. It turned out that the owner of the guest house where I was staying offered his services as a guide on a three day motorcycle tour in the countryside surrounding Chiang Mai. Really rural and no tourists, nobody speaks English- that kind of thing. Unfortunately, he wanted more money for his services than I could afford. So me and this German guy decided to go on our own. I know, a little crazy, but still it was really exciting. We bought a book that the owner had put together with a map and all kinds of tips and off we went. We spent three days driving
Cooking School
Pea Eggplant from the organic garden, used in some curries. Its quite good. across North Thailand, to the east of Chiang Mai. We stopped in Nan, Pua, Doi Phu Kha National Park, Bo Klua, Chiang Kham and Phayao along the way, averaging about 325 kilometers a day. The roads were really curvy and hilly and there was no traffic for the majority of the time. Between looking at the beautiful scenery and enjoying the curves of the road on the bike, it was a great time. Another hobby I’m thinking of taking up at home! Too bad the pictures don’t do it justice.
Anyway, there were still so many other things I wanted to do in Chiang Mai but I was running out of time on my Thai visa. I didn’t want to use another extension because I want to go back through southern Thailand on my way back to Kuala Lumpur when I fly home (whenever the hell that is supposed to be!). So I packed my bags and headed to Laos.
I will surely miss Thailand!!!
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Kathleen
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Yum!
I want some of that Thai Green Curry when you get back!!!! It is my favorite! Your pictures are amazing.