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79: Town Walk, Monk Talk & Mekong Beach

February 9th, 2006

I walked around town a bit more today to see more of the local french-colonial style architecture, visit some more Temples and soak up the atmosphere – which you can pretty much take literally since this place has loads of it, it’s an amazing place to hang out for a few days.
I spoke to some Novice Monks for a good while and later chilled out on a Beach along the Mekong River in the afternoon and watched the sunset over the Mekong..
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78: Red Cross Indulgence

February 8th, 2006

08-Feb-2006

Today was the first full day in Luang Prabang after I arrived here by boat the evening before.

I checked into a different guest house and spend the best part of the afternoon at the Red Cross for some pampering…

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77: Trip to Luang Prabang, Laos

February 7th, 2006

Made it to Luang Prabang in Laos but no time to write more just now..

TBC later..

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76: Off to Laos

February 4th, 2006

At long last I’m off to Laos tomorrow.

I will travel overland for 3 days to get to Luang Prabang, the old capital of Laos in the northern part.
I will take a bus to the Thai-Laos Border near Chiang Khong where I will stay for one night. Next day I will cross the border and after getting my Laos Visa sorted hop on a boat to drive down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. The boat trip will take 2 days, stopping half way in a small village called Pak Beng along the river.

The whole trip will take me 3 days from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang so don’t expect any blog updates for a few days 😉

PS: Until I have a Laos SIM Card (if such a thing exists;-) I will switch back to my UK SIM since the Thai SIM Card probably won’t work over there… Of course I have no idea what the reception is like in Laos 😐

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75: Chaing Mai Flower Festival

February 4th, 2006

Parades, Parades, Parades 🙂

Glad I stayed on til today, the Flower Festival Parade was worth seeing.
Looked a bit like a Carnival Parade with lots of costumes, marching bands and flower cars ..
Many dancing girls in traditional or madeup costumes and big smiles on their faces walking & performing on the streets.

I’m surprised how many kids play instruments. They played marching music but also upbeat jazzy kinda tunes.

At the same time the stalls of the weekend market started early too (actually they were already there last night and again today and on Sunday I guess)

Check the pictures if you want to get an idea.. Not too great though (and probably the last time I play whit white balance settings;-) It was a nice enough day but doesn’t look like it on the pics *hmpf*

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74: Reassurance

February 4th, 2006

You definitely know you are not at home when you stand in the bathroom in the morning and an Elephant trumpets outside your Hotel while you a brushing your teeth… 😯

Chiang Mai Flower Festival had started…

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73: A Busy Day..

February 2nd, 2006

Today was a busy day and I’m exhausted!

My days achievement: I had a haircut 😀

OK I did a little bit more than that and I did do lot of walking!

Left Hotel around 9am, walked 50m down the road from the hotel and had a haircut.
Crossed the road to a cafe and had Breakfast (Yoghurt with Fruit & Musli).
Crossed the road again to an Internet Cafe afterwards and read a bit about Laos.
Walked back to Hotel, opened Balkony Door for some air, sun and bird songs then stretch out on bed to read my Travel Guide for a while.
Unpacked all my stuff hoping I could chuck out some things so to lighten the load before heading out to Laos. Struggle! Need to try again tomorrow.
Went out for a short walk (well, I was looking for a place to eat really) than had dinner (came across a Mexican! Exciting!)
Now write the blog and head back soon for an early night..

I should maybe take it a bit easier tomorrow 😉

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71: Not Baan but Smart Thai Cookery Class

February 1st, 2006

Maybe it helps having done the SmartCook Thai Cookery Class cos I seem to need it.

Completely got the days mixed up. Thought it was Thursday when it was only Tuesday and booked Baan Thai Cookery Course with the Friday Schedule in mind that had a few dishes which I was interested in.

Last night I eventually realised that it was Tuesday not Thursday and that I was going to do the Wednesday calss at Baan Thai. The dishes on that day were not what I was hoping to cook so I cancled and did a last minute sign up to the Smart Cook Thai Cookery Class who did have a better list of dishes to offer.

It was great! We were a small group of only 4 people. Two from the UK and one French-Canadian Girl. We had great fun doing the cooking, the teacher was very nice woman of 30 and the lots of us got on quite well to the extend that at times we forgot to prepare the food but kept chatting along 🙂

Overall the class was much more personal than the last one I did at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School, partly because we were a smaller group but also because we had just one person teaching and the location was much more appealing too.

Sompons Class was at his big House outside of Chiang Mai whereas SmartCook was just around the corner from my GuestHouse in a nice traditional TeakWood House. We prepared and ate the food in the open-air front room of the house but cooked the dishes after preparation in a little room to the side of the main house where they had individual Woks setup for everyone.

The Day included a choice of following dishes (My choice marked with *):

1. Fried Noodles Thai Style (Pad Thai) or
Thai Spring Rolls (Pho Pia Thod) with Sweet Chilli Dip.*
_MG_4074

2. Hot & Sour Chicken Soup (Tom Yam Kai) or
Chicken in Coconut Milk (Tom Kaa Kai) *
_MG_4084

3. Spicy Glassnoodle Salad (Yam Woon Sen) or
Papaya Salad with Crab (Som Tam) *
_MG_4073


4. Fried Cashewnuts with Chicken (Kai Pat Med Ma Maung) *
_MG_4087
or Sweet & Sour Chicken Thai Style (Pat Priaw Waan)

5. Red, Green or Yellow Thai Curry or
Panang Curry with Chicken*
_MG_4091

6. Mangoes with Sweet Sticky Rice
(bother no photo either.. couldn’t wait buthad to eat it right away.. VERY VERY NICE 🙂

Recipies to follow..

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70: Baan Thai Cooking Course

January 31st, 2006

Booked another cooking course for tomorrow at Baan Thai Cooking School.
They are supposed to be very good as well and are pretty much opposite my Guesthouse so easy to get to.

More after I have done the class..

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68: The Italian Experience

January 31st, 2006

Some experience I though I should log here since it was unexpected and a “First” as far as Italian Restaurant Experiences are concerned ..

I’m surprised how well I’m doing with the local food (knock on wood!) and I have almost exclusively eaten Thai Food since I arrived here almost 7 weeks ago. However once in a while I do have a craving for some western food and give in… Overal I have probably eaten non-thai food about 5 times now, Italian Food being the usual choice. It seems to be the easiest or rather the most successful option as far as finding a “genuine” Cuisine. Many Thai Restaurants offer Western Food a la Steak, Chips, Pizzas, Pastas and various other versions of regular European Food. I was never very convinced about those items on their menu though so never opted for them.

What I have chosen was (much to my shame but I have to admit it) McD at some point (I was desperate for food ok?;-) but other than that it was Italian Restaurants. Italian Restaurants seem to be run by genuinely Italian people (though not sure if the cooks are;-) and sofar pizzas were quite nice.

The other day I had one of those cravings again and went to Stefano’s, a Italian Restaurant tucked away in a little side road off Tha Pae Gate just outside Chiang Mai’s Old Town. I knew what I wanted so ordered Spaghetti Carbonara, Bruscetta and some Red Wine without looking at the menu too much (I know, very predictable but that’s me:-).

The Wine was good and had the usual effect of putting me asleep after one large Glas;-)
The Bruscetta was fab, very nice indeed.
The Spaghetti – well… that’s the unexpected part. It’s the first time EVER I had Scrambled Egg Carbonara in an Italian Restaurant!

We have managed this more than once at home being useless (or too impatiant due to starvation) and pour the Egg/Cream mix over the pasta too soon when it’s still steaming hot (at some point we also still had the heat one which didn’t help;-)

I didn’t bother saying anything and to be honest it was quite funny, I was in disbelieve though that this would happen to an Italian Cook;-) Either way the Food tasted ok but Scambled Egg Spaghetti Carbonara from an Italian Restaurant was worth a blog entry so here it is 🙂

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