Chiang Mai & Bangkok, Thailand: Oct 2 - 6

Chiang Mai: Oct 2 – 4

I cooked! Again! I think I’ve officially cooked more meals in Asia (10) than I have in the US! hee hee hee. We both took a Thai cooking course that lasted a whole day and included a trip to the market where our highly entertaining instructor, Rika, explained the differences between things like sauces and rice varieties. We saw an appetizing display of crispy fried grubs and bugs, but (unfortunately?) did not get a chance to try them. Charles was excited – me, not so much.

This one just looked insanely spicey...I did NOT try it (but neither did Charles)

Here are those cute grubby guys...

We had a really great group of people that included 3 Kiwis, 2 Swedes, 2 Germans and 2 Italians. After the market, we all took an open-air tuk-tuk ride out to the cooking school and organic farm where we toured the farm, tasting plants along the way, and then spent the rest of the day cooking at our individual cooking stations and trying to eat all four dishes we each cooked…plus salad and desert! So yummy…and I feel so fat.

Okay, so this was just funny...

Chiang Mai itself was an interesting place with entirely too much western food – and shockingly included several Mexican restaurants. There was a fun outdoor/indoor market with stalls hawking everything to cheap handmade trinkets, to wholesale clothes, to high-end antiques. Oh, and now I understand all the hoopla about massages. sigh. We didn't have a whole lot of time here, but it certainly seemed like a fun place to explore.

This is a shot of part of the old protective wall around the city...

Then we took a comfortable and really purple train down to Bangkok...

The cafe car was hilarious! We knew we would enjoy ourselves when the first thing we heard when we entered was, "would you like some whiskey?" We didn't partake in the whiskey, but I think all the servers did. They were having a grand ol' time singing karaoke. The place looked like it was from the seventies, was decorated with strands of lights and all the windows were open...such a hoot.

Bangkok: Oct 5-6

Bangkok was indeed a crazy place. So congested and insane mostly. Surprisingly, in our very long day of walking around we had a really hard time finding restaurants...and there wasn't much in the way of street food. I have to admit that after a long night of not sleeping on the train and arriving at 6am, I spent much of the day sweaty, hungry and cranky. But after we finally found food, I was able to relax into the place and enjoy it for what it was. But I think one day was enough.

um...thanks for the help...

Even Ronald can say, "sa wa dee ka!"

We didn't have nearly enough time to get a real feel for Thailand, but I bet with a little bit of searching you could find some real gems outside of the touristy areas of this country. The people are incredibly sweet and the country is beautiful. So much more to see than we had time for. I would like to get down to the Southern half some day and see the coastline. The Western coast is supposed to be stunning with a mix of beaches and cliffs that drop right down into the ocean. Another time, I guess.