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Published: June 30th 2011
Day 5, 6 & 7
Woke up late after getting in to our hotel at 11pm. Paula and Brent had a dentist appointment at 9am.
Caught a seongtiaw (ute with seats in the back) to the train station to pick up our tickets for Bangkok and Chumpoon next week. Stopped at an electronics store on the way back and Paula bought me a new Samsung mobile phone for 488 baht. A man must be contactable at all times even on holiday.
The rains came bucketing down – Scott & Brent took a tuk tuk home from Phantip plaza, but a minor problem with the throttle – (it came off!) meant a transfer to a songeteow. They stopped off for a quick purchase of an umbrella for 100 bt. We all reunited unexpectedly at the 7-11 near home, sheltering from the rain!
For dinner we eeni-meenie-minee-mowed out of the Nancy Chandler’s guide to Chiang Mai and chose a Vietnamese Buffet style for 89 bt, ($3) problem was though that you had to cook your own and we’re not Vietnamese!!!
Our next day in Chiang Mai was a day spent with Yui at her A Lot of Thai Cooking School. But more on
this part of the blog later by the Food Guri himself!!
To my way of thinking too much food is never enough especially when it’s fresh home cooked Thai food. Yui our cooking teacher had assisted Gordon Ramsey with interpretation of traditional Thai cooking on a trip he made to Thailand a couple of years ago. She was a vivacious and enthusiastic teacher, who imparted her deep knowledge of her native cuisine with a love and respect of the freshest ingredients and wonderfully exotic herbs and spices that tantalized your senses with brilliant colours, sweet aromas and tastes that made you want to eat your way through the rest of this country. She even picked us up in an old Kombi, what a woman. After teaching us pad thai and pad se ew we moved on to tom yum gung, then came curries with a red and green. Next it was trip to the market which was an eye opener. So many fruits, vegetables, spices and unknown ingredients it made your head spin trying to look at it all at once. After the markets it was a stir fry of chicken and cashew nuts. Spring rolls and to finish off
desert was sticky coconut rice with mango. I was fuller than a fat ladies sock, but I reckon I could have kept eating if she had wanted to teach us more dishes.
In the evening – we took the kids to Dareks for dinner and Scott feeling full of the Thai Cooking experience only wanted the lager to complete the evening. Only problem was - they weren’t selling beer today!! Something to do with the Election!! (try saying that when you’re a Thai) So figure that one! Needless to say- Scott wasn’t happy and toddled home. Chels followed after her feast and Brent and I kicked on for some massage therapy 200bt ($6.50 and pedicures 150 bt ($4.80). Brent was all but relaxed and wiped out after his and so he headed home. But for me…. There was more exploring to be done yet!
Much of our stay in CM consisted of eating and more eating and more eating! I did the usual market gauntlet in search of chicken feet in spicy or sweet sauce and anything remotely offal like! I tried some Tongue (not sure whose tongue or what type of beast it was off) sliced up with some
spicy sauce and it was quite chewy but yum!
There was no escaping the Sunday Market in Chiang Mai which kicks off from Thai Pai Gate at around 4.00 pm, and the man upstairs was looking after us and stopped the rain!. It oozes with charm and authenticity of all hand made wares that one could imagine or never thought of imagining. There were carved thongs, funky denim wallets and notebooks and bags made out of recycled denim, dogs clothes, hippy clothes, paintings, jewellery more jewellery and more jewellery and Chels & I stopped by them all! Streets and streets of wooden artefacts and the Thai Silk in all varieties. The food stalls were just amazing, amazing, amazing – we were wishing we weren’t so full from having just been to the Shabushi Japanese Sushi train Restaurant and stuffing our bellies to the brim for 290 bt! We did manage the favourite Banana Roti Pancake with chocolate sauce and drizzled with sweet & condensed milk and cooked in about 250 grams of butter or lard, but simply awesome and quite addictive! Weight Watchers needs to fit this into their points plan and their sure to gain more members!! And a
mango fruit shake quenched the thirst. I forgot to mention that there were fried crickets, silk worms, small beetles and larger critters that were available by the bag full. I couldn’t resist the dare from Chels to try one so I opted for the smaller of the critter variety and actually ate a fried grasshopper – was rather crunchy & a little chewy, but lacked a bit of flavour. The experience certainly didn’t see me buying a bag full!!
With sore and sorry legs and sticky and grimey, clammy skin, we staggered home for respite! Don’t tell Scott, but once showered and refreshed – I went back for more of the same until closing!
Our last day in Chiang Mai, consisted of packing up, breakie at the usual Ratanas then a few further steps to the Dentist to have my Crown fitted and Brents mouthguard sorted’, so he still has a few stumps representing teeth when he’s 15.
2.30 pm and Next we were bound for Pai – 4 hours of winding hairpin bends on a comfortable, slightly cramped mini bus headed North to a town called Pai. We had a chuckle on the journey – glad that we
didn’t have “Eake” or his “Van”, taking on the journey for us. Along route we passed a truck that misjudged his load and ended up on the embankment – we wondered if there was such thing as NRMA to get him out of his situation!! More on Pai in our next blog.....
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