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Published: February 23rd 2008
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A Temple
I think I got his facial expression down. After saying goodbye to Jessi at the Beijing Airport, I had a day to kill in Beijing before flying south to Guangzhou to meet up with Katie and catch our flight to Bangkok. Thankfully, we both made it to Guangzhou safe and sound. One flight delay and 16 gate changes later, we were on our way to Thailand. With a full day of travel behind us, we checked into our hostel in Bangkok for the night. We totally got the Boom Boom Room honeymoon suite. There were mirrors on 3 walls and the ceiling and there was some sexy netting at the head of the bed. The netting didn’t set the mood as much as it served as a death trap for the largest cockroach I have ever seen. I established myself as the one that wears the pants by squashing it while Katie screamed and squealed.
The next morning, we headed to the train station and secured overnight train tickets to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. I was immediately impressed by how easy everything was in Thailand. The economy thrives on tourism, so everyone spoke English and was eager to help us get anything we needed.
The Boom Boom Room
Our first night in Thailand It was such a change from China where everything is a challenge. We spent the day doing a little bit of exploring, which isn’t very easy when you have your bags with you. We camped out at the train station for dinner where there was an incredible variety of food including (I kid you not) a Dunkin’ Donuts.
The overnight train was designed much better than the Chinese night trains. Chinese trains have compartments of 6 bunks each (3 high) that run perpendicular to the sides of the train. You are essentially forced to lie down as soon as you are on the train because there is no room to sit up or sit elsewhere. The Thai train had two bunks that ran parallel to the sides of the train. The bottom bunk started out as two seats and then converted into a bed. Clever!
We arrived in Chiang Mai nice and rested. Our hostel sent a car to pick us up and we were soon unpacking at the Ben Guesthouse. Chiang Mai is known for it’s trekking, so we booked a 2 day/1 night trek through the jungle for a few days later. We spent the first
few days walking around the city, drinking pineapple smoothies, getting foot massages and adjusting to the sunshine and warm weather.
One night, we decided to check out the local night market. We were assuming a few streets lined with stalls, like you find throughout Asia. To our surprise, it was an entire complex with everything from clothing, to home décor, to knock off goods. It was so overwhelming that we decided to go grab a drink. As we tried to find our way out of the labyrinthine market, we stumbled upon a strip of bars and eateries. They were all having a special on mojitos that night, so Katie and I decided to taste test and decide which place made the best ones. We found our winner at the last bar of the night. The owners and bar staff were hilarious! They let us shake up our own drinks and they taught us some Thai. What a great night!
Two days later, we went on our trek (to be explained in detail in the following post).
The next day, we took a Thai cooking class. It was great! Cooking is so easy when you don’t have to
do any of the prep or clean up! We stared with a trip to the local market to buy fresh goods for the 6 dishes that we were going to cook (and eat) that day. We then headed to the cooking school. In keeping with the Thai custom, we removes our shoes at the door and we were given the option of borrowing their house slippers or cooking barefoot (I think it goes without saying that I opted to be Shoeless Cori). The kitchen itself a big open-air room with tables for dining, prep tables for chopping, and a bunch of woks for cooking. The operation was seamless. They were always one step ahead of us, setting up what we needed for each dish, and they were right behind us cleaning up our mess.
Dish #1 was pad thai. Pad thai is the quintessential Thai dish. It is fried noodles with egg and occasionally tofu or meat. I soon found that all of the dishes were extremely easy to prepare: simple ingredients, quick cook time, etc. The trickiest part was the timing. Everything happened so fast. I used to make fun of chefs on TV for putting everything in a
separate ramekin. I thought it was excessive and showy, but for Thai cooking, it was essential. Everything was chopped so fine that it cooked up really quick and you were tossing in the next ingredient. If you didn’t have the bean sprouts ready and waiting to be thrown in, you would burn your meat! Thankfully, I have been cooking with a wok for a while, so I could handle the constant motion required.
Dish, the Second was sweet and sour soup with shrimp. All I could think of the entire time was the movie The Birdcage, where Hank Azaria’s character makes “sweet and sour peasant soup”. It certainly didn’t help that I, too, was running around barefoot. People must have thought that I was nuts as I sat there giggling to myself. The third dish was a curry. I opted for yellow curry, which is milder than green or red. After devouring my delicious product, I was really starting to get full. The fourth dish was a dessert: bananas in coconut milk. The sweet, sweet creamy coconut milk made the banana stand out as more sour and sharp in contrast. The British man in our group exclaimed, “I didn’t
Riding on a night train...
(sing it like Leaving On a Jet Plane...) know a banana could do that!”
After dessert, we still had chicken and cashews and spring rolls to go. Years of origami prepared me well for rolling up the spring rolls. They were kind enough to give us doggy bags for the last two dishes, since we were packed from eating all day. In China, the popular “to-go” container is a paper cup about the size of a container or cottage cheese. In Thailand, everything is in bags. They inflate them so that all of the street food looks like a goldfish coming home from the pet store. We each got a cookbook to take home, so if anyone is feeling adventurous and in the mood for Thai food when I get home, just let me know!
We left Chiang Mai the next day to head south. The plan was to meet up with the rest of the group in Bangkok between the 6th and 9th of February, so we decided to get a little bit of island time in before the reunion. Our next destination: Koh Chang.
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Sarah
non-member comment
Lunch
So I typically read these while I eat. It is like the noon soap opera that way. Here I am sitting thinking of what I want to eat and here you are making great food. I once wanted Mexican now I am thinking Thai. We surprisingly have a great little modern Thai place here in Missouri. Sign me up for the Cori V. Cook Class! I feel a welcome home party with dancing a cooking!!!