noodle quest 2006

so actualy after i posted on the blog i didn’t leave that night.  dan and i spent the evening fleeing the wrath of his psycho ex-girlfriend who was threatening to come over to his house to do what, exactly, wasn’t know but couldn’t have been good.  we went out and ate some noodles and walked around for a while.  i taught dan the art of hotel crashing whereby you walk into any 5-star hotel and sit in the plushest of lobby seats like you own the place for as long as you want.  using the bathroom and taking neccesary supples (pens, candy, toilet paper) are more upper-level add-ons that take a bit of time to learn.  the next day i left on the train bound for chiang mai at 6pm.  i bought a second class sleeper seat but all they had left was top bunks.  before the top bunk goes down the bottom bunk is two seats and mine was facing backward.  i felt very sad to say goodbye to dan so after tearily looking out the window at all of the things i was leaving, i decided i needed to find a seat where i could face forward into the things i was heading toward.this could happen only on the dining car.  i sat down at a seat and they started talking to the guy who was sitting at the next table facing the opposit way so essentially, towards me.  he seemed very jolly and i sat with him and a thai man named mr. wat.  the jolly guy’s name was jack london, a 58 year old brit who is married to a north-indian woman and they have lived in bangkok for the past 17 years.  he had a bought a bottle of samsung whiskey so i helped him out by having a few drinks which served as the sleeping pils i usually opt for on 10+ hour journeys.  this one being 14 hours deserved a coupel drinks.  jack had a lot of interesting stories and advice some useful, some interesting and some funny. got an invite to his house in bangkok for a traditional 11 dish indian meal which i will certanly cash in on when i am back in town. at around 10pm i walked back to my bed and teh thai man below me was already sleepign as was everyone else on the train except for a nice spaish couple next to me that were just married and traveling from barcelona to thailand for two weeks.  they had about 3 times as many bags as i did which i made fun of them for.  they in turn made fun of me for the tipsy way i had to climb the ladder to my tomb, ahem, bed.  unlike the train i took from hanoi to dalat, vietnam, the top bunk on this train has no window, so it felt a little bit like sleeping in a cat scan but luckily this was funny to me at the time.  i slept pretty poorly waking up every hour until the train arrved at around 7pm.  my friend gabe from dc has been living in chiang mai and he reccomended the julie guesthouse to me.  i got in a tuk tuk to go there but they weren’t open for another hour.  so i waited around and chatted with some british guy who liked the julie guesthouse so much he was there for a second visit. then they opened.  he ha dmade a reservation an di got the last room after that.  the room is totally lovely, a giant comfortabe bed, a little table and chair, private bathroom with hot water and a cool outdoor living room right outside all for 200baht or about $5.  after our guesthouse in hoi an, vietnam, definitely the nicest place i have stayed since traveling. 

sooooooooooo hungry and tired i wander down a side street to find soem cheap street eats.  i happen apon a noodle shop where i think i have ordered the regional special kaow soi, but actually it is more like a chinese soup with some flat noodles, roasted pork and green onions.  added the requisite chili powder, sugar and ground peanuts and had a smashing meal.  after my noodles i walked around for a bit and talked to tida (jess, as you now know) on yahoo chat with webcam for 2 hours.  it was so good to get caught up and find out what the hell has been going on with her.  then i walked aroudn lookign for a massage place that i couldn’t find and ended up going to a wat (temple) called wat som pow where i got a massage next to an old thai man and a middle-aged japanese lady who laughed like a hyena throughout her massage.  after my massage i met up with gabe who has been livign in chiang mai.  it was so fun to see him and what he has been doing.  we ate some food at a great restaurant called “the wok” and then i saw the guesthouse that he has rented a room at for the past month.  we watched some elvis dvd’s and then headed out to a bar that is held out of a minibus.  i drank gin ricky’s and he drank some weird whiskey that started with a “b.”  maybe it wasn’t whiskey.  they wer eplaying all old school cheesy 90’s reggae and we sang shamelessly along.  then we went to some thai bar where we saw the last sdong or two of a pretty bad thai rock band.  after that i talked to dan for a bit on the phone and then went to sleep.

the next day i woke up at around 2pm (did i really drink so much?) but was glad to have gotten the rest because i hadn’t really slept much on the train the night before.  i went to gabe’s guesthouse and said goodye as he was heading to bangkok to write an article about the world tattoo festival that is happening this weekend.  then i went and found some real kaow soi which was bangin. 

kaow soi are medium width yellow noodles in a creamy spicy curry with crunchy noodles ontop.  you add lime and some other stuff and it is magic in your mouth.  i am so full rigth now but just writng about it is making me feel ilke i could potentially eat again right now.  then i went to some bookshops and bought another vonnegut book.  i am very nervous about running out of vonnegut books to read.  i should probably only read one a year but it is minorly torturous not to buy one if i see it.  then i went in and out of some stores and used teh internet for a while.  i met a nice israeli guy who had heard about my massage school and said everyone he knows who went there said it is absolutely amazing which made me SO FREAKING EXCITED as if i wasn’t already.  then he reccomnded a small food place with onyl two tables and i ate some garlicky kale there and hung out with the two rasta guys who worked there listening to reggae music and havnig some samsung for a bit after i ate.  two plates of food, a drink, and some water for 30baht (about 75 cents).  can’t complain.  then i called a cooking school i had heard abotu called “a lot of thai” but they were on vacation.  the woman reccomnded another school to me called “the smart cook” and i booked a course with them for today.

this morning they picked me up at julie guesthouse at around 9:30 and took me to the school by moto which was really unnecesary as it was super close.  there were about 9 other people in the class.  we drank some tea and then went to the market to buy vegetables.  already i was in seventh heaven benig immersed ni piles of green with a little bamboo basket on my arm, learnign about spices and sticking my hands and arms into bins of different rice.  woah.  then we went back to the school and prepared chicken in coconut milk soup.  we sat around two big tables with beautiful wooden chopping blocks and huge butcher knives.  the school was in a gorgeous teak house and was very tastefull decorated.  we chopped and prepaed there and then went into the kitchen where we each had our own cooking station and tools! a pot was already boiling on each burner with coconut milk in it and we threw in teh ingredients and made bad ass soup.  then we went to the dining room and ate.  next we made spring rolls which first took place ni the kitchen where we stir fried the ingredients and then we did the rolling at the tables in the dining room.  we ate a bit then prepared thai papaya salad mashing up everytining together with mortars and pestals which is my new absolute favorite duo, after the prongs of the fork, of course.  next we made sweet and sour chicken with vegetables.  eat again on the beautiful table with cusions on the floor.  after this we took a little break where i wakled around the block trying nto to be so full.  then we made our own curry paste! i was so happy i wanted to smack my teacher Mim across the face and then start crying from joy (oddly, the name of dan’s psycho ex-girlfriend).  i chose to make a paneang curry paste.  we mashed together 12 ingredients that started out as vegetables and herbs and turned to dust under the power of the butcher knife and mortar and pestal.  then when it was nice and pasty we took it into the kitchen and added coconut millk, kaffir lime leaves and red chilis in addition to chicken and vegeatbles.  this dish was REALLY good.  as if we could eat anymore they brought out pumpkin in hot swet milk which was really good.  i took a picture of every plate i created which i will upload tomorrow.  check out the school website and see pictures of me and my classmates!

now you understand why i am so stuffed.  my teacher Mim said that my massage school is the most reputable one in teh area and that all of the professionals go there to master their skills.  i am freak out excited.  today is friday afternoon and i meet my group on sunday morning to head to the school.  YIPPY!

 dan is going to meet me here in chiang mai when my course ends and we are going to spend a few days doing all of the things i won’t have time to do (biking, hot springs, eating kaow soi 30 times a day) before sunday.  then back to bangkok and off to cambodia again!

 it really feels like the trip is ending and i am sad and in disbelief.  at the halfway point a month or two ago i was feeling excited abotu goign home.  now it sounds okay- not too painful or anything, but i could DEFINITELY keep goinf for a while.  i wish i had more time to spend with dan and i would very much like to go back to vietnam and see my friend linh who just opened a bar which was his dream.  i would also really liek to see burma and malaysia and indonesia and east timor. 

when is there ever enough time? 

This entry was posted on Friday, February 10th, 2006 at 6:12 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.