Chiang Mai, the begining

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Who of you have experienced those "I'm-so friendly-bus-passengers-but-I'll-push-my-chair-back-so-that-my-head-is-in-your-lap!" BIG SMILE!!! Yes, I was the fortunate one who chose a seat with no one in front or behind me. Perfect I think, I can have space in front of me and I can recline my seat back! not quite. This lovely youngish man sits in front of me and is all chirpy and happy and asking questions and being all friendly citizen that I was quite chilled in thinking that he wasn't going to affect my "plan". WOW, I couldn't have been more wrong. About an hour into the trip he asks if its ok to recline his seat back, yes of course it is but as you can see I've got long legs and... Ouch, you're squashing my leg there. No worries, apologies all round (don't know why I apologised!!) and he moved his seat up a notch. I was lucky, I had a 2 seater to myself so I could swivel my legs around and try to make myself comfortable. This worked and I was starting to relax and get used to the noises of the bus in order to sleep when MR Leg Squasher turned his cellphone on and was playing Thai music. No earphones. Now I've listened to a lot of Thai music while being here and think it's fine, it's music but in a different language. But I also believe that when you're on a bus with people who are trying to sleep, the natural cosiderate thing to do would be to purchase yourself a pair of earphones and listen to your music that way... My opinion, use it don't use it. Scratch that, please use it! I have another bus trip on Saturday!

I arrived in Chiang Mai at 6:30am on Sunday morning and was able to check in to my hotel straight away. Freshened up and went for a walk around the area. It's really beautiful here. It's very different to Bangkok yet it still has a buzz about it. I really love the atmosphere and am therefore saddened when so many people around the world are cancelling their trips to Thailand when there are only problems in Bangkok. There are so many other places worth visiting and Chiang Mai is definitely one of them!
I arranged to join the tour to Doi Suthep Temple, which is the most famous temple of Chiang Mai and is located 1685m above the city and we also went to a hillside tribe which is close to the Temple and they sell silks and jewellery from the area.
What a tour. I was picked up after 1pm and off we went. Our first stop was the hilltop market and this was quite special. We drove for 20mins straight up this mountain and the view was absolutely incredible. It would just be recommended to take a lot of money with you as I just felt this urge, more so than anywhere else in Thailand, to support these people.
The Temple was brilliant, even after we'd climbed the 300+ steps to get there! It might not sound like much, but it was close to 40'C and there was intense humidity so we were lovely and hot and sweaty when we reached the top! This temple was beautiful. It covers quite a large area and is most areas are available for tourists to see. There was construction taking place in certain areas but it wasn't that noticeable and was definitely worth the visit! We could see that rain was imminent as it was getting dark quickly, and it was only 5pm! So we started to make our way back to the bus and I spotted peanuts in their shells (not sure of the name) which I have grown quite fond of here and then I saw deep fried bananas!! I had to have some! The last time I'd had the banana's was in Samui and they were great! So I'm making my purchases and just as I'm putting my purse away the heavens opened and it poured down! I had less than 10m's to cover and I was drenched... but it was so worth it!
I had read about the Sunday night market and had been planning to go after the tour but due to the rain I had given up on that idea. But, alas, at around 7pm the rain had cleared and off I went. In search of that something-something from Chiang Mai. Besides being ripped off trying to get there, the market was amazing! There was so much available and what made it better was that the temperature was a lot cooler due to the rain. This made a big difference while walking through throngs of people and there being lots of food and silk stalls to walk past. The food on offer was extreme, but due to my piggish ways and the delicious deep fried banana purchase I'd made earlier I just couldn't, but, I did settle on a mango and coconut smoothie! Delicious! Thought this was as good a time as any to go back to my room, I'd done my shopping and needed sleep!
Early night as I was up early this morning for my Cooking Course... Amazing!!!

I was picked up from my hotel and dropped off at the office in the city. There were about 14 other people on the course with me which was great, as it's always nice to do things like this in big groups! Once we were all together, and been handed our recipe books, we were taken to a market where we were going to shop for all the ingredients we needed for the days meals. This market was a typical market, it was traditional, the produce was fresh and ready to eat. Yes, there are flies, but this is Thailand and it's very hot so I don't know what else to expect. We were able to pick exactly what we wanted and the quantities. There were fresh prawns, snake head fish swimming around (we ate that today), there was a pasta stall with loads of fresh flat noodles, packaged noodles of every description and fresh tofu! It was incredible. We all piled back into the vehicles and headed to the venue.
It was just like the website which is always a relief. Well, it was actually better than the website. We all work in a square. In other words, the work stations are arranged in a square shape and everyone faced inwards. We all had our our gas stove, chopping board, awesome chefs knife, wok, apron and cloth ready and waiting for us. Aprons on, coffee drank and we headed into the "lecture room" type of venue. We all face the front where the demonstration takes place, but there's also a mirror located on the ceiling so we could all see exactly what was happening. We cooked 6 dishes today and each dish was demonstrates where after we would make it. They didn't ration our quantities either. It was substantial to say the least. We were able to eat our first dish straight away, almost like a starter. Our 2nd, 3rd and 4th dished were made and we ate them all together for our lunch. Rice is provided and then you're set. So we had steamed fish in banana leaf, a yello chicken curry and a cashew nut salad for lunch. Not too shabby. It was absloutely delicious! Honestly, even if you can't cook, it's very difficult to stuff this up as there is always an assistant near by to help you out and guide you along. There were obvious cooking novices in the group but the results they got with their meals didn't show it. I thought that was great as they wouldn't think that they'd wasted money that way. For those of us who got the hang of it and sort of knew what we were doing, they'd give us more space which was also nice. After lunch we had 2 more courses to go, one was a spicy prawn salad and the other, desert, bananas in coconut milk. It was delicious. The whole day was a complete overload of the senses that was so exhilirating and amazing. I love and appreciate food so was in foodie heaven.
I can't wait for the rest of the week, but on the other hand I would like it to drag on and last forever. Day 1 has been incredible! I just wish I could load the photo's,but my camera cable is sitting in my bag in Bangkok! Brilliant!
So tomorrow is Day 2 for me and I think I'm learning how to carve carrots and tomatoes into roses and dragons or something like that.
Can't wait, going to be dreaming of food!

Ciao Ciao Bye!!

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Comments

[Margi]

Future travel writer?
You have such a natural writing ability - everything flows easily and keeps the reader entranced and wanting more - your descriptions are so vivid that your experience becomes the reader's virtual travel experience - well done on all your blogging this far!!!!