Okay, I think my blog posts are getting longer...I just have so much to tell you!
I guess you will just have to buckle your seat belts for this one...
After the little pause in blogging, its time to get back to Thailand. Now we are in Chiang Mai, the Northern Provence of Thailand. Its quite different, more city-like and less touristy.
We arrived to a hotel called Bodhi Serene which was along a bustling road with markets, tuk-tuks and shops. This was the kind of Thailand I had been dreaming off, I had been craving the busy city you hear off, and here it was.
Our hotel made us feel so welcome by giving us afternoon tea beneath the shade of the midday sun.
We went on a walk-a-about around the city, to some of the little markets who sold fruit and vegetables by the bucket load at seriously cheap prices...if only food could be this at home...
And whilst we were walking back to the hotel, I found THEE BEST CHICKEN (Well I think it was chicken. No one speaks english so you eat what you are given!) I have ever tasted. Beautifully marinated, tender and all for 30p...I'm still craving it. It may not look pretty, but I promise you, it was perfection.
We headed off to the Night Bazaar which is famous in Chiang Mai for being the nightly market that is a kilometer long. It has all you want from Thailand, cheap fakes, culture and amazingly cheap food. But that is all at the end, so lets get on with what happened the next day...
We were woken up early to start our day at the Thai Orchid Cookery School. I was hesitant about spending a day cooking Thai food, would it actually be fun or a waste of time? I was very wrong because not only do they teach you how to cook traditional Thai food, but the teachers are wonderful and you get to spend time with such interesting tourists like ourselves.
They showed us how to cook so many dishes, including spring rolls and satay chicken for starters. I may or may not have burnt the wok on my first go of the spring rolls...
The you get to try your hand at beautiful chicken in coconut milk soup (my favourite) and hot and sour prawn soup. There are some parts of Thai soup that are not meant to be eaten, but are just there for flavour during cooking...so it was pretty helpful to know that for the rest of the trip.
Not only did they teach us how to cook in an easy way, they showed around the markets. They showed us the tropical fruits they eat, the different styles of food and all the tips and tricks of the market.
They also showed us the disgusting eggs which are buried under the ground or something, and come up like this. They keep for longer than normal eggs, and tastes identical to normal eggs...but they didn't convince me to buy them.
The stalls are all fresh food as well, with this woman killing the fish right in front of us...which was interesting to see...
They let us have our own little stroll around to buy some produce.
But I think the smell of dead fish had slighly put me off some meals...
We headed back to the workshop to make my desired dish - curry. We grinded the yellow and green curry paste from scratch which gave us sore arms.
Then we got to cookin' Thai style...
We had a lovely lunch with pad thai, chicken with cashew nuts and fried big noodles for starter, followed by our creamy, delicious curries with rice.
Finally, we got to my favourite part - dessert. This included steamed banana cake, thai pancakes and mango with sticky rice.
I must admit, Thai food isn't what you could call 'easy on the eye'...its messy but the flavours and spices that burst in your mouth make it some of the best food I have ever tasted. It is so easy as well, with a lot of the base ingredients being the same for many of the meals.
We met four people on our cooking class. A Canadian mother and daughter, with the mother turning seventy next month. They have travelled the world on holidays together over the years, and have many stories to tell with wisdom about life as well. They have such knowledge about different countries and cultures. They were joyous and full of laughter, I couldn't get enough of them.
We also had a Columbian man and French woman who were a couple travelling Asia together over a nine month period. They seemed to have visited everywhere, with their adventures coming to a close in a month. They were both a little more quiet, and not much chatter, but still lovely to meet.
Let me now get back to the Night Bazaar I mentioned earlier. Not that we weren't stuffed already. we had to get ourselves a little bit more.
Each night we enjoyed our pick of delicious food. This included corn on the cob, pad thai, mango with sticky rice, rotee and Andrew's favourite meal of all time - chicken fried rice. I know it doesn't sound like your typical dish to be excited about, but the flavour of the perfectly cooked rice left you satisfied, but running back for more the next night.
This was all enjoyed with my favourite drink (there seems to be a lot of favourites in this blog - whoops!) - Thai ice tea. Condensed milk with tea and ice never felt so good!
I nabbed myself a few goodies on my travels up and down the kilometer of stalls each night as well. One thing I haven't got pictured but I have fallen in love with is a elephant china teapot Andrew bought for me. A cute ring holder which was a tiny elephant with a massive trunk, some soaps to keep me fresh, tigerbalm which was a lifesaver for the bug bites and finally, a notebook for all my musings.
The Night Bazaar was amazing. I loved the buzz of tourists and locals all crammed together, and it helps when you have a tall fiancee as less people tend to annoy you - there are perks for everything!!
Ahh Thailand, can I not just have one more plate of food goodness?
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