Learning to cook Thai

Evy, Chad and Jo and I decided to sing up for a cooking course in Chiang Mai, we all loved cooking, and eating and thought it would be a great idea to learn how to prepare the wonderful food for our friends and family back home!

So our instructor, a feisty lady called Boom ("not boom boom!") picked us up to go shopping in the market for the fresh food we would need during the day.

She gave us lowdown on all the different types of chilli, rice, ginger etc etc.... hmmm yummy.

Rice - not as simple as u wld think!

We all picked the dishes we would cook and headed back to the cooking school.
We started with Tom Yum Goong a spicy prawn soup:

My version - it was delicious, although two days later when both Chad and I (the makers of this soup) fell violently ill, we could only pin it on this shrimp.

" You no eat shrimp in north of Thailand, the sea is so far" said one disgusted Thai woman.

*smack* is what ran through my ill and dazed head.

Me - oblivious to the shrimp busy poisoning my stomach!

Boom showing her skills!!


She had us in stitches of laughter with her statements.
"Boom so clever, so beautiful, why she still single... because Boom tough girl!"

She also picked on Chad, the lone American, saying Americans usually travelled in groups and usually spoke non-stop.


"Fran why are Americans like this?" she asked. "English language have 26 letters, how many in America?"
"I dunno," I shrugged, suggesting helpfully "Four?"

She  also did a wonderful Jamie Oliver impression:


"When you go on cooking show... you make only this face," she said, closing her eyes and slowly tasting a ball of sticky rice while moaning gently with her head tilted to one side. Suddenly she opens her eyes and says in delight: "Un - beeeee - leeev - abble."

Rolling Spring Rolls.

 Chad, Fran, Evy and Jo

My chicken cashew nut stirfry

 

The class enjoying our meal.

After falling ill I have developed a distaste for the smell and flavours of Thai food - which I hope disappears soon as I am only 2 weeks into my trip......

Chiang Mai

So, everyone raves about Chiang Mai, but I wasn't that crazy about it, I didn't spend too much time there and made the mistake of staying in the main tourist area. In Bangkok I did not, and the one day I went to check out Khao San road I was in a bad mood after ten minutes with all the hassling. Seriously, it is too much. Many countries popular with backpackers have these districts filled with tourism agencies, hostels, touts and in Thailand, bars with 20 attractive Thai girls in front to lure in the Farang. They should replicate this kind of street, put it on an island somewhere and make it a holiday destination in itself!

Ok that is a bit extreme, but the plastic packaged tourist version of the city was seriously working on my nerves.

The city does have about 300 temples, and we stumbled across one at dusk which was cool. It was the main temple Wat Chedi Luang which is about 600 years old.

 

Evy and I decided to go for an hour long foot massage.

As I lay there in bliss, the woman expertly massaging my feet in possibly the most amazing massage ever, I thought of how we would gush about it for days, vowing to return every day to the same place!

As I sleepily stood up (it was midnight when we were finished) Evy declares: "Oh my god that was the worst massage ever!" Shocked I listened to her one hour of torture, as the man pictured above did everything wrong while she had to watch my divine masseuse delivering her skilful massage.

These things do sometimes go wrong......

15 hour train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai

So... in the rush to leave Kanchanaburi I handed all my money to Jo and Maxine to buy the train tickets and agreed to meet at Hong Kong Noodle outside the train station at 8pm to eat and get ready for the train to leave at 1020pm.

Of course I did not know if anything had gone wrong and if they would even BE there, but as I walked into the restuarant, there sat Jo with our tickets. We happily swapped stories of our travels over the past few days and ordered oodles of Chinese food as we were practically starving by this point.

Chad and Maxine, who had struck up a romance (ie the last time I saw her she stumbled out of his room at 9am)  arrived together about 20 minutes later.

We discussed how all our various nationalities had heroes such as Jean Claude Van Damme from Belgium and I said South Africa had none. "What about Tarzan?" remarked Chad.... hmmmmm......

So we decided we needed snacks! We were not gonna party as we all wanted to chill on the train and read, but stocked up on chocolates, chips etc etc

Let me introduce you to the backpacker squat... the position most comfortable when waiting with a heavy backpack on ur shoulders.... (snacks in the packets)

The train

We booked into second class, nothing fancy, but clean and comfortable!

Reading - bliss

View from the train

 

It was a tiring journey, I couldn't sleep despite taking a sleeping pill. Seems when lying down feeling the movement  of the train I imagine it derailing - and actually had a nightmare to this extent. It was also really hot! Everyone else was fine however. We had to wander around a bit to find accomodation, eventually settled at TK's guesthouse. Nice, clean, but at least one of us were kept up by an all night disco which had the whole room vibrating!!

Exploring the Canals in old Bangkok

Evy and I woke up bright and early and decided to treat ourselves to a breakfast at the Oriental Hotel on the riverside which was amazing!!!! Rather expensive though at 400 Baht an omelet!!!

Using the river ferry is a fast and easy way to get up and down and avoid the traffic, the skytrain connects to the central pier at Saphin Taksin and the ferry takes you all the way up where you can connect to the main tourist areas. Maps of the river and the city are all over the place from the airport to guesthouses. It does always seem to be an adventure somehow whenever you try and get somewhere as the language barrier gets in the way.

Breakfasters at the Oriental.

In a tuk-tuk








We took a tour of the canals in a long-tail boat, easily found from the main stations, and got to see people living in a more traditional setting, making their living off the river where their houses balance precariously on the edge. Often gorgeous homes lie alongside those falling into the river. People ply their trade from floating markets, feed the fish or chill out on the stoop. This is a different Bangkok!

Handing the driver the beer we bought him

Potted plants and plants of any description really are huge in Bangkok and adorn every living space and tumble over balconies, cover walls and even proliferate alongside the river!!! It is gorgeous and I wished I could find such lovely plants at home!

Monks feeding the fish

Wat Arun from the river

Sunset.

Bangkok oddity: Panda TV

If you are ever bored in Bangkok, which should not happen - switch over to Panda Live, a channel dedicated to following the antics of a young Panda, sometimes just sleeping, and osmetimes the action really heats up and she plays with her toys - too adorable!

Bangkok's best sights Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew

I had left out the big uns in Bangkok for Evy's arrival, so she could at least see some of the main sights in her one day before we set off for Chiang Mai!
The most popular first stop for tourists is the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew temple which houses the Emerald Buddha.
Having wandered around Wat Po - also very impressive with the giant reclining Buddha - a few days earlier I quickly got bored not knowing what exactly I was looking at so suggested we hire a guide this time. We found a charismatic lady for around 400 Baht (200 each).

All the guidebooks warn you to cover your arms and legs - and I in my time-losing daze (see earlier post) had completely forgotten. So had to pull my skirt down to my knees and borrow the following T-shirts at the temple.

Sexy!!!

The tour was wonderful, and we learned about the different kings, styles of architecture and she told us some impressive stories contained in a gorgeous mural running along the entire breadth of some of the walls - an epic Thai fable.

Half-human half-snakes/chickens you name it, 20-armed demon Kings and monkey Kings..... "It is like Harry Potter" said our guide, giggling!

It made the experience much more interesting!

A miniature Angkor Wat

 

The barefoot monkey king with his mouth open (like a woman according to our guide) and a demon king.

Sprinkling water on myself with a lotus flower for good luck outside the temple

The Emerald Buddha - the most revered Buddhist icon in the country!! 

Giant Bonsai outside the Grand Palace - a former royal residence now mainly used for funerals and and coronations.

The whole complex is magnificent, interwoven with glittering cut glass, perfectly manicured gardens and a rich history! Definitely a must-see!

Losing Time

So when I was planning this holiday I mentioned it to my dear Belgian friend Evy who I met in SA. Turns out she was also in dire need of some time away and we co-ordinated our trip with her arriving in Bangkok about a week after me. For some reason I planned to come back from Kanchanaburi and meet her in the afternoon on the 9 November.

While in Kanchanaburi she emailed me and said she was arriving at 725am on the 10th, I was super confused, but had already bought a bus ticket back to Bangkok for 12pm on the 9th so thought all would be ok.

At breakfast, I was telling Jolise about this little confusion and she stares at me blankly for a moment before announcing: "Today is the 10th." I giggled nervously.... "er no, it can't be". "Yes," she said firmly, "it is".

Panic set in... it was 830am, Evy would have arrived and I was nowhere to be found, my phone's battery had died the night before and there was no way to get hold of her. Friendship Hell here I come!!!

Luckily I managed to call Richard in Bangkok whose phone number was on the email giving her directions to her place in the hope she would call him.

I arrived four hours after her, distraught and sweaty, to find Evy sleeping in the lobby and promptly burst into tears. All completely ridiculous of course as she can totally look after herself - but I felt like a real ass!!!

Evy and I exploring Bangkok