around the world in 180 days

We took lessons today at the best Thai cookery school. It said so on our aprons. We were picked up from our hotel this morning around 9:30 and rode in the back of a pickup truck to a nearby fruit and vegetable market. Our guide, driver, teacher and the owner of the school showed us around, pointing out different vegetables we’d be using later in the day and giving us a little info about them. He also showed us the different kinds of rice (there were 20 in the market we visited) and kinds of noodles. It was interesting, but it seemed like it was cooking class hour at the market, as almost everyone there was foreign, in a group and being led around. I’m sure the locals know how to avoid the tour groups.

After the market, we rode in the back of the pickup again to the owner’s home, in what amounted to suburban Chaing Mai. This is where the magic began; the magic being the school transforming me, who has been known to eat nothing so as to avoid cooking, into someone who enjoyed cooking. The secret is taking all of the crappy parts out of cooking, like prep work, clean-up and the like, and just leaving the fun stuff, like playing with fire. Between the two of us, Anna and I made 11 different dishes, including green curry chicken, pad thai noodles and tom yam soup. The best dish we made was cashew chicken, which was the best cashew chicken I’ve ever had. Of course, we really just mixed the ingredients we were given in the proper order and the prep cooks did the rest, but we got a feel for it.

It was great fun. At one point, when we were making stir-fried dishes, we got to choose between plain cooking and adventure cooking, which meant choosing between having a huge fireball erupt from our wok or not. It was an easy decision for me and the fireball was particularly satisfying, as it added to the flavor of the food. We ate everything we cooked and it was too much food, but it was delicious.

I think we’re going to do an overnight, organized trek to hill-tribe villages. They’re kind of one of the big things to do in Chaing Mai, like the cooking courses and the night market, but they sound like a lot of fun. Trekking is sort of an exaggeration with these; you do about 5 or 6 hours total between the two days, but they keep you busy with elephant rides, whitewater rafting, visiting markets and I can’t even remember what else. The trips go for about $50 a head, but for two days and including food and lodging, that ain’t bad.

We’re spoiled with these cheap Asian prices. Thailand seemed expensive after Nepal and we’re flying to Germany in less than a week. Thailand is dirt cheap compared to Europe. We’ve worked out the numbers though, and especially with the cheap flights home, we’ll be fine. It’ll just take a bit of adjustment.

I’m looking forward to Europe, though, very much. I’ve never been there and there’s a lot of history to see and experience. It’ll be another huge transition, though, but with luck, we’ll be able to drink the water from the faucets and worry less about these damn stomach bugs. The bacteria should be more familiar, I would think. We’re flying to Munich on Monday, and are planning on staying east of Germany, visiting Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Warsaw and the like. We’ll be back in the western world, but we’ll be as far east as you can possibly be. I’m hoping to tour a ex-Soviet prison.

Tags: Chaing Mai, Thailand, Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 8:51 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.