Happy Birthday, to myself
Yesterday was my 23rd birthday on the 23rd of July. (Doesn’t that hold some significance?) Celebrating your birthday while travelling is interesting – because none of your close friends are around, you end up hanging out with a slightly more unusual crowd.
During the day my mom treated me to a Thai cooking class. The course began with a visit to the local market for fresh ingrediants. Once we started cooking, I couldn’t believe how easy all of the dishes were. I was even more amazed when I ate the food that I had actually cooked it.
I learned how to make a few dishes: Cashew chicken, Red Curry, Fish cakes, Tom Yum soup, and a spicy Thai salad. All of the items seemed so easy to make – once you have all of the ingrediants prepared. Hopefully I will remember how to make some of them when I get home.
In the evening a few of us attended a Muai Thai boxing match. We saw a total of 10 fights, with the boxers ranging in age from maybe 13 up to he mid 20s. The boxing was quite viscious, a lot of kicking, punching, and elbowing. I had numerous bets going on at the same time (whenever I had the boxer in blue shorts I would shout “you’re my boy blue!”) which made the evening exciting. The highlight bout was between a local Thai and a boxer from Finland. At first I though the Finn was going to leave with no teeth, but he showed quite a bit of skill and ended up winning the fight.
It looks like a great martial art. Maybe i’ll look into learning the sport once I get to Hanoi. It would at least be a good way to get in shape.
Neil
Tags: Thailand
Neil
July 29th, 2004 at 9:24 am
Neil! happy birthday man. Sounds like you’ve been having a good time over there. Those pictures you’ve been taking are really good. In the words of Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused. . . . “just keep l-i-v-i-n.”
July 29th, 2004 at 11:31 am
love the cooking thing. let’s eat and happy birthday!