Day: The Ninth

I think I've said already, but one of the main motivations for me to travel is food. I love Thai food. When Lee says "shall we buy something for dinner?" my usual first thought is "is there a Thai place close by?" It wasn't too hard a decision to make to go to a Thai cooking class. In fact it was one of the main reasons why I wanted to skip upping anchor and heading off after two days here. We went to a cooking school that is on a farm outside Chiang Mai, that lets you select five dishes from a list of fifteen and then gets all the ingredients ready for you to just whip a Thai culinary masterpiece up. And boy did we whip. April and I both said afterwards that what we ate was every bit the equal of anything we had ever bought. Bloody yummy. It's amazing what you can produce when someone puts down exactly the right ingredients, proportions, and talks you thru, step by step, exactly how to cook it..... Actually, no, come to think about it, its not really that amazing.... Anyway, part of the course cost included a book with the "how to" but in it. Highlight of the day was NOT having to do the class with the bunch of young, loud, arrogant american backpackers we travelled out to the farm with. Was it just a coincidence that all the Americans ended up in the same kitchen? One of them kindly took time out from his yapping about the cheap hotels in Laos that he had stayed in (much better and cheaper than Chiang Mai apparently) to impart unto april that her camera was crap compared to his. Oh god, I'm sure I just offended someone there.

So anyway, expect some top notch Thai kai when I get home.

Speaking of food, April wanted to relax and read in her room that night so I went to the Belgian Beer Bar (well you do, when you are in Thailand, right?). While there a guy sitting at the next table recognised my accent. He was from the US but he had lived in chch for six months in 2001. Now he had a business taking gap year kids to countries where they worked on aid projects. On the way back to our hotel I stopped in at a bar almost next door that was playing some good music; ska and rocksteady with a bit of reggae a well. They even played a Katchafire song when they heard I was from NZ. A six piece with a brass section. Lots of music from my youth, Specials, Madness, Selector, UB40. I guess I stood out. There was only three of us there.

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