Rama Guesthouse has waaaay better beds AND our own bathroom AND our room is only on the second floor AND I can wear my shoes, that bare foot business is killing me. Our first night was a very lovely sleep on a reasonable mattress. The extra 100 baht for hot water consisted of the desk lady, Lyn, giving us the handle to the hot water tap. The shower leaves a bit to be desired but warm water is all good. My hair is starting to look like straw though. 2 in 1 pantene - Psshhh.
Before we went to bed we wanted to check out the Night Bazaar. But first we decided to get hopelessly lost trying to find it. Some nice English speaking couple (American?) took us by the hand and navigated us out of the maze of alleys and then pointed us in the right direction once we were on a real street. Have I mentioned that the lay out of Chang Mai is insane. Basically a huge grid (good) interspersed with a hive of alleys and lanes with no clear naming or numbering system (bad).
We found the market and it was huge!, No, HUGE!. It just went on and on. There was lots of repeats in the million stalls but it was fascinating to see all of the stuff. I have now started shopping. There is no way I can wait until Bangkok, I will just have to carry an extra bag for the next while. Plus, after the whole 'no shopping' in Dar es Salaam situation, I am afraid to leave things to the end again. So I have a few gifts and a few things for myself. Not to much but stuff is so cheap. It is really hard to get my head around the baht conversion. First of all I keep saying Pesos and converting 1:10 like a peso. But I have two numbers in my head now that help, 500 baht is 20 bucks and 50 baht is 2 bucks. sounds simple but it took awhile to hit on that.
We couldn't find our way back (or even out of the market) so we just jumped in a tuk tuk and headed home for a very good sleep. My calves have almost recovered but my feet are not happy with me. I must wear walking shoes to walk - again, it sounds simple but it took several days for it to dawn on me.
The next morning we were up bright and early for our 8:30 pick up for cooking school. There are a million here but we went with the one that drives out to a farm for the day (don't tell Canada Customs that, we want to keep our shoes). Tellingly, it is called Thai Farm Cooking School. They picked us up in a truck and we crammed into the back, there were 11 of us.
I have to say, a really excellent group. 2 French couples, another woman from Victoria, a Swiss couple, an older German man and a young guy from California. Everyone else was on extended vacations, years for one of the French couples. They were all bouncing around Asia.
Any way, our class started at the market where we learned about rice (there must have been 30 different kinds) and coconut milk/cream and various sauces required for Thai cooking. We had about 20 minutes to wander around on our own and buy anything we wanted but fortunately, we didn't have to figure out what we needed for the class. I bought conditioner for my hair - priorities!
Then we were back in the truck and off to the farm.
Our cooking teacher was Tommy who was very amusing and his English was very good.
We got to pick what we wanted to make, Val and I chose different dishes so we could share. I picked Chicken Coconut soup, red curry, papaya salad, pad Thai and mangoes with sticky rice. Val picked Tom Yam soup (sweet and sour sort of), chicken with cashews, green curry, spring rolls and bananas in coconut milk. Our first order of business was to learn to make curry paste. Surprisingly easy if you are willing to spend 20-30 minutes pounding the mortar and pestle. There is a certain sense of pride when Tommy would wander by and say - good, you can stop.
Then we took our new curry paste and made it into chicken curry dishes with eggplant, pumpkin, onion, coconut milk and various leaves and other bits of flora. Once that was in a bowl, we were off and making soup. I have to say, I wasn't a big fan of the soup. I picked the coconut milk soup (I wish I remembered the real name) because we always order it at Siam Thai when Christine comes to visit from Halifax, but it wasn't really the same, they put tomato in it here. Papaya salad on the other hand is easy and super yummy. I'm not sure one can buy a green papaya in Victoria though.
Val was busy with her own dishes until we met at the outside table for lunch to eat our creations. It was amazing. And so much food.
We were stuffed and only ate half of the food we had. Tommy announced that we had an hour to wander about before we would start making the next round. OHHHH, we had forgotten about the rest of it. It was blazing hot by this time so we mostly just sat around with the others and drank lemon grass tea. I tried to bird watch a bit but no self respecting bird is out in 35+ degree weather at 2 in the afternoon.
Next round, I made pad Thai, again super easy.
Val made spring rolls, not as easy but very worth the effort.
Then we sat down for the next meal. We shared one spring roll and had one bite each of the pad Thai. We did eat all of the mango with sticky rice but none of the banana in coconut milk which was actually quite awful, note to self, do not boil a banana for 15 minutes and expect it to still be tasty. All of our left overs (sans banana) went into baggies and sent home with us. We got back to the guest house at about 4 pm.
One of the french couples, Fred and Sophie, were keen to get together later. Gabe, the young guy was hitting on Aylin and clearly wanted a second crack at it and I guess Aylin wasn't adverse, because all of a sudden at the last minute before the major players got out of the truck, an impromptu plan was formed to get together for beer later. (ed note: turns out both had partners back home so I don't think any romance was intended but I didn't learn that until later)
Back at the guesthouse, we were pretty bagged but managed to not fall asleep. Eventually, we ate our food right out of the plastic bags (only 5 hours unrefrigerated so better than usual) with chopsticks. It was all still delish.
Then we gussied up (changed our tank tops) and headed out for the evening. A quick stop at a market to buy a string of pearls (really), bank machine and then off to the pub. Most everyone showed up (the Swiss couple were the only no-shows). A couple of beer and crazy travel stories. I am convinced that India is a must do. After a while we moved on to another bar, the So Good Bar, where we were the only customers. We stayed until about midnight and the party disbanded. We got lots of good advise about Chang Mai and Thailand in general.
Tomorrow we hang out with elephants. More on that later. Joanne
 |
| Lyn of Rama Guesthouse |
Before we went to bed we wanted to check out the Night Bazaar. But first we decided to get hopelessly lost trying to find it. Some nice English speaking couple (American?) took us by the hand and navigated us out of the maze of alleys and then pointed us in the right direction once we were on a real street. Have I mentioned that the lay out of Chang Mai is insane. Basically a huge grid (good) interspersed with a hive of alleys and lanes with no clear naming or numbering system (bad).
We found the market and it was huge!, No, HUGE!. It just went on and on. There was lots of repeats in the million stalls but it was fascinating to see all of the stuff. I have now started shopping. There is no way I can wait until Bangkok, I will just have to carry an extra bag for the next while. Plus, after the whole 'no shopping' in Dar es Salaam situation, I am afraid to leave things to the end again. So I have a few gifts and a few things for myself. Not to much but stuff is so cheap. It is really hard to get my head around the baht conversion. First of all I keep saying Pesos and converting 1:10 like a peso. But I have two numbers in my head now that help, 500 baht is 20 bucks and 50 baht is 2 bucks. sounds simple but it took awhile to hit on that.
We couldn't find our way back (or even out of the market) so we just jumped in a tuk tuk and headed home for a very good sleep. My calves have almost recovered but my feet are not happy with me. I must wear walking shoes to walk - again, it sounds simple but it took several days for it to dawn on me.
The next morning we were up bright and early for our 8:30 pick up for cooking school. There are a million here but we went with the one that drives out to a farm for the day (don't tell Canada Customs that, we want to keep our shoes). Tellingly, it is called Thai Farm Cooking School. They picked us up in a truck and we crammed into the back, there were 11 of us.
 |
| in the back of the truck |
I have to say, a really excellent group. 2 French couples, another woman from Victoria, a Swiss couple, an older German man and a young guy from California. Everyone else was on extended vacations, years for one of the French couples. They were all bouncing around Asia.
 |
| Aylin (from Victoria) and Gabe (from California) |
Any way, our class started at the market where we learned about rice (there must have been 30 different kinds) and coconut milk/cream and various sauces required for Thai cooking. We had about 20 minutes to wander around on our own and buy anything we wanted but fortunately, we didn't have to figure out what we needed for the class. I bought conditioner for my hair - priorities!
 |
| Fish at the market - waiting for a new home! (well, I didn't want to be the one to tell them different) |
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| So many types of rice |
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| Veggies |
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| Sauces by the dozens, unfortunately all with Thai labels so I didn't buy any |
Then we were back in the truck and off to the farm.
 |
| Our class, suiting up, aprons all round |
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| Tour of the garden |
Our cooking teacher was Tommy who was very amusing and his English was very good.
 |
| Tommy whose only problem with English was that he couldn't pronouce 'juice', he said jew-iss. |
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| Our rice and clean up lady, we were never introduced so I don't know her name |
We got to pick what we wanted to make, Val and I chose different dishes so we could share. I picked Chicken Coconut soup, red curry, papaya salad, pad Thai and mangoes with sticky rice. Val picked Tom Yam soup (sweet and sour sort of), chicken with cashews, green curry, spring rolls and bananas in coconut milk. Our first order of business was to learn to make curry paste. Surprisingly easy if you are willing to spend 20-30 minutes pounding the mortar and pestle. There is a certain sense of pride when Tommy would wander by and say - good, you can stop.
 |
| My red curry paste - in progress |
 |
| Class at their stations |
Then we took our new curry paste and made it into chicken curry dishes with eggplant, pumpkin, onion, coconut milk and various leaves and other bits of flora. Once that was in a bowl, we were off and making soup. I have to say, I wasn't a big fan of the soup. I picked the coconut milk soup (I wish I remembered the real name) because we always order it at Siam Thai when Christine comes to visit from Halifax, but it wasn't really the same, they put tomato in it here. Papaya salad on the other hand is easy and super yummy. I'm not sure one can buy a green papaya in Victoria though.
Val was busy with her own dishes until we met at the outside table for lunch to eat our creations. It was amazing. And so much food.
 |
| My first course, this doesn't even include Val's dishes. So much to eat |
We were stuffed and only ate half of the food we had. Tommy announced that we had an hour to wander about before we would start making the next round. OHHHH, we had forgotten about the rest of it. It was blazing hot by this time so we mostly just sat around with the others and drank lemon grass tea. I tried to bird watch a bit but no self respecting bird is out in 35+ degree weather at 2 in the afternoon.
Next round, I made pad Thai, again super easy.
 |
| My Pad Thai. One of the best we had in Thailand, if I may say so myself. |
Val made spring rolls, not as easy but very worth the effort.
 |
| Val cooking the spring roll stuffing. |
One of the french couples, Fred and Sophie, were keen to get together later. Gabe, the young guy was hitting on Aylin and clearly wanted a second crack at it and I guess Aylin wasn't adverse, because all of a sudden at the last minute before the major players got out of the truck, an impromptu plan was formed to get together for beer later. (ed note: turns out both had partners back home so I don't think any romance was intended but I didn't learn that until later)
 |
| View on the ride home |
Back at the guesthouse, we were pretty bagged but managed to not fall asleep. Eventually, we ate our food right out of the plastic bags (only 5 hours unrefrigerated so better than usual) with chopsticks. It was all still delish.
 |
| Yummy |
 |
| Yup, definitely yummy |
Then we gussied up (changed our tank tops) and headed out for the evening. A quick stop at a market to buy a string of pearls (really), bank machine and then off to the pub. Most everyone showed up (the Swiss couple were the only no-shows). A couple of beer and crazy travel stories. I am convinced that India is a must do. After a while we moved on to another bar, the So Good Bar, where we were the only customers. We stayed until about midnight and the party disbanded. We got lots of good advise about Chang Mai and Thailand in general.
Tomorrow we hang out with elephants. More on that later. Joanne
1 comment:
So we all excpect good Thai meal on your return, no excuses.Glenna {mom} says to say hello and is very envious. We are in Ucluelet today to pack and garbage run. Love and miss you both Dennis
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