Thailand Trip Post 2

December 30, 2014

              Our plans for this day included booking an elephant park tour, making reservations for a cooking class, and wandering around getting to know the city. We managed to accomplish all three soon after we woke up. Our guesthouse was very colorful. The outside walls and porch/balcony floors were bright orange. Our room was done in purple with blue curtains and white bedsheets. We got up and looked through the collection of brochures at the front desk. We got a reservation for a cooking class this evening and for an elephant park called Happy Home the next morning. Two goals accomplished in less than an hour, good job, us!

              We wandered around the rest of the day. We found a coffee shop called Coffee Lovers near our guesthouse. They made good Thai Milk Tea and had a friendly atmosphere. Then we hit several wats or temples. Some we found my accident and some on purpose. Here`s a photographic list:

We found this little sugar glider in one of the temple markets.

Wat Muen Ngen Kong

Buddha inside Wat Muen Ngen Kong

Wall murals inside Wat Muen Ngen Kong

There were dogs around most of the temples. This guy is resting out of the hot sun.

These guys lined the stairs into every temple we saw. Wat Muen Ngen Kong

Wat Muen Ngen Kong

Wat Tung Yu

Wat Phantao

Wat Chediluang is one of the most famous temples in Chiang Mai.

They were decorated for the New Year's Celebrations, inside and out.

These zodiac streamers filled the inside of Wat Chediluang.

We also saw the Three Kings Monument and the Lanna Folklife Museum. The Lanna people are the native people of Northern Thailand and their art has influenced much of the art and structures in Buddhist temples, at least in Thailand. It was a good coincidence that we stumbled upon this museum early in our stay, as we were able to pick out some of the specific art bits we saw throughout our stay.

Three Kings Monument

Lunch was eaten at a market being held on the grounds of one of the temples we visited. I ate a coconut waffle and Victoria had pork dumplings. Both were delicious. We sat next to a group of French speaking tourists. After some more wandering, and the purchase of a pretty purple silk scarf, we headed back to our guesthouse to await pick up to our cooking class.

The cooking class was great! There was a bit of a mix up with our pick up. They didn`t get the email with our address, but a phone call and interpretation from our guesthouse manager/owner (I never got a straight answer on that) cleared it up. We got in the covered back of a pick-up truck with benches on each side. That seemed to be the main type of transportation around, along with tuk-tuks and taxis. The main trucks in Chiang Mai are red and easy to spot in traffic.

Our group consisted of four French people, 3 men and a woman who seemed to be the main interpreter to English. When complimented on her English, she said she had worked in Connecticut for 6 months as an au pair. There were also two couples, one of which was one their honeymoon, and one other woman whose sister was sick and had stayed at the hotel. Our instructor, Ann, was very nice. She spoke English and a bit of French. The honeymoon woman, Becca, taught 3^rd grade content learning and does a semester long unit on Japan. Victoria and I had an interesting conversation about teaching and culture and teaching culture with her.

They took us to a produce market first and taught us about the vegetables and spices we would be using that evening. Then we went to the place, which consisted of a large table with bench seats, and a kitchen area with a standing prep table and 10 burners with workstations. We did most of our own cutting (they handled the meat preparation) and all of our own cooking. We cooked the soups first, then took a break to eat them. Then went back and made the noodle dishes, followed by another break to eat, drink beer, and talk. Then we made our curries from scratch, and our appetizers, either fried or fresh spring rolls, before sitting down for the last time and enjoying the final products of our labor. Victoria and I made spring rolls and were complemented on our rolling/wrapping abilities. It was similar to making sushi rolls, which we have had some practice doing!

At the market

We were given the ingredients, and chopped them up ourselves. Here's the stuff for the soup.

Here is Victoria cooking her soup.

Mmhmmmm!

Spring rolls and beer!

Green curry and rice

I didn`t entirely burn my tongue only because I had “baby food” according to Ann. There was only one of us, Phil, that had acceptable levels of spice in his food. He was labeled “Hot Guy” by Ann. We went back to our guesthouse, and on the way, the truck passed the Tha Phae Gate, which is the center of the New Year celebrations. We saw them let off some of the famous floating lanterns near the gate.