No wonder the rice is sticky

I have to admit, I'm not the worlds greatest chef, but I couldn't wait for today's challenge.  In true master chef style we were embarking on a day of Thai cookery.  I had booked a day cooking course for Tony, Mum and myself with Siam Rice Thai Cookery School.

We were collected in the foyer at 8.45 by Pot, a young Thai man who I had thought just to be our driver.  After a couple more pickups we were off to the market to get a quick introduction to the fresh vegetables and herbs/spices we would be using later.  It was quite an eye opener as the market certainly was no Central Market.

The veggies all looked super fresh and were incredibly cheap.  He showed us the ones most well known for Thai cooking, some of which i knew and some Id never heard of (they have some weirdo looking mushrooms).  He also showed us fresh turmeric which is a bright yellow root vegetable - I got to demonstrate it by having it rubbed on my forearm (I still cant get it off after much scrubbing :-( ).

After finishing up at the market we were onto the school to start cooking.  The school was set up in a simple neighbourhood house, we prepared our food outside on a table right next to a set of wok burners.  We started the day by each choosing the dishes we wanted to make.  We made 7 different 'courses' and each course had a selection of 4 things to choose from.  The three of us each tried to pick different things so we had a better range of tastings.  By the time we made it outside to start we had already forgotten what we chose - lucky Pot had a good memory to make up for us.

We picked up our aprons and tools (cleaver and chopping block) and were ready to go.  First up were the soups.  Pot gave us our recipes on the go - I have trouble following one recipe let alone dishing out ingredients to a group of 7 people doing 4 different soups.  The ingredients were presented to us on a plate - each plate had the ingredients for us all to make our dishes.

We pretty much prepared two dishes at a time and then went over to the woks and cooked them up.  We then took them inside the house and ate them.  We rested for 10 minutes then it was another two dishes.  I asked Pot where he learned to cook and of course he learned it from his mother.  He then spent 4 months in an apprenticeship and then cooked in restaurants as a chef for four years before becoming involved in the cookery school.

Thai culture has a very strong emphasis on cooking and almost every social event involves food. 

To eat six-seven meals a day in Thailand is not unusual.  Like Thailand's language and culture, the Thai cooking is divided in to four main regions in the country: The northern part, the northeast (Isan and Isaan) the central parts and the south. A complete meal often includes the five different tastes: Sweet, Sour, salt, bitter and the famous, spicy (phet). Access to different types of food and influences from the neighboring country's, has given the food in the respective regions its special mark: Northern (Chiang Mai area) is heavily influenced by the Burmese and Chinese.

Pot taught us a little trick for reducing the oil content in food when cooking it - Tony and Mum are demonstrating it below.

In one of the breaks during the day we all had a mini lesson at carving vegetables.  Pot had seriously overestimated us if he thinks we were capable of copying him...haha

We certainly all agreed that the food that we made was the best we have eaten so far in Thailand.  The winners for the day was Tony's Pad Thai noodles and Mums Spring rolls.  Here are a couple of the dishes we made, clearly I cant show them all as we often gobbled them up without keeping a record  haha.  On reviewing the photos I note we have none of desert...hmm where did the sticky rice with mango and bananas in coconut milk go?

Chicken with cashew nuts

Chicken with holy basil

Hot and creamy soup

Green curry paste --->

Thai green curry

Pad Thai noodles

Spicy Pork Salad

The only downside to the whole day was the heat.  The hardest part was certainly only grinding up the ingredients for the curry paste.

our teacher at work

It was really humid, and poor Tony sweat so much through the day that his glasses kept falling off - once they landed in my curry paste!  We ended the day at around 4 pm, when we each received an apron, a cookbook of the recipes we made and a certificate!  Ive wanted to do a cooking class each time Ive been here and now I'm so glad that we did it!

The ying and yang of elephant riding

Today's adventure was one that we had all been looking forward to.  We were off to visit the elephants at the Maesa Elephant Camp.  A new guide today.  Mr Lewis Noi picked us up in the foyer dead on 8 30.  Mum and Dad had met him last time they were here and did some tours with him.  His wife came to meet us also and invited us back to their house for coffee after the trip.

I think it took about 5 minutes into the ride up to the camp to figure out why my parents were so keen n having him do our tours this time.  Lewis is absolutely a hoot.  He has this hilarious cackle of a laugh which was totally infectious.  Some people you meet leave a lasting imprint on you and I'm sure Lewis is one of those people.  He is pure joy.  On the way to the camp he had us entertained with both facts and funny stories about elephants.  We learned about the differences between Asiatic and Indian elephants, how long their pregnancies last, the lifespan of these elephants and what the role of a Mahout is.  En route to the camp is a spot on the side of the road that usually had monkeys hanging around there.  Of course Lewis had a story about them which he had difficulty getting out as he was laughing so much.

When we set out today we thought that the weather was much milder.  However as we were in thick jungle the air seemed really close and therefore way more humid.  The camp is set in thick vegetation which must be lovely for the elephants.  It felt quite like a wildlife park rather than a tourist spot which was good to see.

As soon as we arrived we took off pronto to go and see the 'baby elephants'.  There were two that we could see right at the back of the camp.  Cute doesn't come close to describing them.  We got to get quite close to the one that was 7 month's old - close enough for Nate to feed him and his mommy some bananas and sugar cane (last time we were close to elephants Nate was much younger and was quite scared by them - certainly not this time).

Next up was bath time.  Clearly I don't watch enough Animal Planet or Discovery Chanel because I had no idea how much elephants love the water.  We watched them for about ten minutes and I was amazed at how they move in the water.  One of the younger ones, who seemed a little bit rascally, spent most of his time under water, sort of swimming on his side.  It still makes me smile when I think of the two bits of the elephant you could see sticking out of the water - the butt and the trunk.  The Mahouts get paired to the elephants and they will be together for life.  Its quickly obvious how much they care for these big creatures, I'm not sure if they're more like pets or children.

After the bath it was onto the show.  We've seen an elephant show before but I still really love watching them.  They're all different, some seem to have a cheeky personality and it certainly comes out when they're doing their various tricks.  They play soccer, they shoot hoops, some played harmonicas and they danced, well sort of.  The part though that I always find most intriguing is when they paint.  They seem to really concentrate on what they're painting which is unexpected.

The artwork!

When the show was finished we were off for the "highlight" of the trip.  We had debated doing an elephant ride pretty well since organising the holiday - remember the story about the elephants that went beserk over in phuket?.  Once we were here though the doubts left us and we all signed up and paid the extra $50 each.  From this point on I probably should have had someone else blog this as our experiences of the trip were quite different.  Nate for example thought it was fantastic. I on the other hand probably was the exact opposite.  We clambered up on to our elephant from a platform built up high enough so we were really only stepping onto the great beast.  It all started well as we ambled off on a clay and pebbled path up a slight slope.  We stopped at the side of the path and the Mahout then asked us if we were going to the Long neck Village (more about that after) which we were.  Now I realise this was the point of no return.  Had I said no, it would have been a lot different.

Now that he knew our destination, we were off up the mountain, not on the lovely smooth path we started on, but up a mountain path that was really more like a path of muddy footsteps.  The slope up was both steep and not really very predictable.  I think when I took a decent look down and realised a) how far up we were, and b) how precarious the path seemed I may have gone into panic mode.  This ride was to last an hour and I think it was only 10 minutes into it that I knew I didn't want to continue.

A few years ago I went on the Scooby Doo ride at Movie World and was terrified to the point of crying.  It was the same today - I think I started to hyperventilate and my mind went nuts.  I knew our elephant was 20 years old as I asked the Mahout about him when we took off.  Our elephant was hungry as he kept trying to grab branches on the way up the patch and the Mahout had to keep telling him off before he weakened and let him pull down a huge branch to snack on as we walked.  Of course I thought then that we had scored the most rebellious elephant in the camp and that he would suddenly just do his own thing and we would be thrown off down the mountain.  The more I thought about it and the more I looked down at the ground and had my feet swinging in mid air the more upset I got.  I grabbed Tony and hung on for dear life.  I could hear Nate saying this is sooo awesome, and my parents on the elephant behind us cackling at our elephant who seemed determined to scratch his butt on any bush that we went past.

Having a medical background didn't help either as I then started to wonder if our elephant had arthritis in his knees and would he buckle under our weight (google tells me that its 1 to 2 tonnes).  Lewis told us that elephants can talk to each other with the various noises they make - ours was pretty quiet mostly, but when he did make noise I swear he was saying get them off of me.  Anyways with in about 5 minutes I managed to calm myself (well stop crying at least) after reasoning with myself that they wouldn't do these trips if they were dangerous as insurance would be a killer, and that there was no other option anyways as nothing else but a helicopter would have been able to get to us and I was pretty damn sure there was no way to walk the path of mud and clay.  I spent the rest of the journey either looking up into the sky or squeezing my eyes tightly shut.

With about 10 minutes to go our Mahout stopped and got of the elephant asking for our camera to take some pictures.  I'm glad he did because the shots look great and do not give away the fact that I was totally traumatized.  I did manage to video a little bit of the journey although I predict that the footage wont be that great due to the shakiness of my hands.  I must say that Ive never felt as relieved as I was when we turned the last tight bend and stopped at a treetop platform to get off.

Once at the destination we were at a little village which is famous for the "Long necks" who live here.  There are a number of different tribes, including the Kayan people, that share this location and were moved from an area in Burma to display what life for them is like there.  They live in this village and grow rice and sell handicrafts to the tourists.  I read a blog where this was described as a 'human zoo', but the reality is that these people were seeking refuge from their hometowns and they receive health care and support here, and finally they're actually quite happy there.

We had a look around for about 20 minutes and the most striking thing about this place is that the girls are all gorgeous.  They get their first ring place on their neck at about 7 years of age, and when they're complete the neck jewellery weighs 5lb.

Once the official tour part was over we our minivan with Lewis and headed back to their main office and small bed and breakfast place for a drink.  Once back in the town, we were greeted by Lewis's wife Durian (yes named after the stinky fruit that her mother craved during her pregnancy) and got to enjoy her very warm Thai hospitality.  We were served waffles and mangosteen fruit, surprisingly the fruit vanished before the waffles (that's how great these fruit are).

Their "small"  77 room bed and breakfast place was absolutely charming.  The newer section at the rear was 12 beautiful rooms with TV, airconditioning, swimming pool, en suite and free Internet access.  They offer a room with breakfast for 700 baht a night ($21 a night).  Yep that cheap.  Its in a pretty good spot with a supermarket just around the corner.  When we come back here we will have no hesitation in staying here because of the price and how wonderful Lewis and his wife are.  Their bed and breakfast is called Riverside House.

 

Lewis

For dinner tonight we decided to go local.  Dad wasnt feeling too well so the rest of us ventured out to find some yumy  thai food.  We're right near the night markets here so it wasnt too difficult.  A couple of Pad Thai noodles and some rice dishes and we were done for about 160 baht ($5.50).

No market trip is complete without shopping, Nate spotted Yoda from about 100 metres so we couldnt miss the opportunity...

Sawasdee Beautiful Thailand

Another very ugly start this morning, 4 am to be exact, but I didn't care because we were heading off to Thailand!!  A nervous start to the day though as our pickup that was scheduled for 4 30 am really needed to be there otherwise we were going to be late for our plane.  No worries though as when we staggered downstairs he was there waiting for us smiling and happy as if it were a much more sensible time of day.  We kind of figured that there wouldn't be many people at the airport as it was so early.  So wrong indeed.  The LCCT is a thriving little beehive of activity even at 5 in the morning.  We booked our luggage on courtesy of web check in earlier and headed off to Starbucks to start the day.

We arrived in Chiang Mai on time at 840 am and were greeted at Immigration with the Thai smiles - they must have known how excited we were to be there as its certainly not usual to get that amount of warmth from the immigration officers. 

Chiang Mai was built in 1296 as a walled city surrounded by a moat. The old city was roughly 1.5km square. Whilst a good portion of the original city wall has collapsed the four corner bastions are still intact along with various other sections. The original moat is still in use to this day.  The wall was built to keep the Burmese invaders out.

Our pickup for the Centara Duangtawan Hotel was right there waiting for us which is always a relief. 
Check in was painless and one of our rooms was ready which was fantastic considering it was only 930 in the morning.  We headed upstairs and made use of the complimentary breakfast of sorts.  Once our second room was ready we made use of it to have a little bit of a snooze and get ready for the evening.

For our first night in Chiang Mai Mum had booked us a tuk tuk tour of the city.  Our tour guide was Siphon, a young guy who has only recently left the monk hood.  He told us that he entered service at age 10 and finished at 28, after becoming an instructor of sorts.  We took off in convoy to see the city, past the remaining segments of wall that surrounds the old city and onwards.  Our first stop was Wat Chedi Luang, a 600 year old temple that had seen better days.  It had been badly damaged in the 16th century during an earthquake.

You can see from the picture that part of the top section is totally missing.  In its former glory it had a row of elephants all the way around it, 28 to be exact.  On one corner you can still see some of the original elephants.

They have built a new temple on the grounds too.  I guess they need it as they have over 100 monks living on the compound and over 500 study here.  The new building is very gold - the detail on it is amazing.  Our guide is in the front of the pic below.

Naga's feature very heavily here - they're apparently very significant in Buddhism as they would rise up to protect Buddha.  The northern ones are a little unique also in that if you look at them very carefully at the gold one, the statues are actually two serpents - one eating the other.  They are always at the entrances to the buildings, again protecting people who enter.

Nate was able to ring the bells like the Monks do.  He had to make a wish and then hit the big brass bell.  I think maybe he made a few wishes as for a few seconds we had a bell symphony happening.  Back on board the tuk tuks and we were off again.  Nate got to ride side saddle up front next to the driver on our tuk tuk so he was stoked.

Next stop was another temple.  This one was similar, but in the back of the temple grounds was a big reclining Buddha.  Not as big as Wat Po in Bangkok (we will go see him next week), but still substantial.

Right next to the reclining Buddha is this guy below -

He looks like a Buddha but actually isn't.  His story is quite funny.  Apparently he was a hit with the ladies.  He was showered with gifts and lots of food as he was always laughing and joking around.  The chubbier he got the more popular he got, so then he prayed and prayed to Buddha to look like him.  His wish was granted and he became known as the Happy Buddha.

Back in the tuk tuks again and we were off around the streets.  The sun had pretty much set now so the atmosphere had really changed.  We went down this side street and saw another little temple (oh yeah there are more than 300 registered temples here).  Siphon told us that most of the temples were built after warring with the Burmese.  The Thais felt badly about the war so built many temples to pray for forgiveness and to avoid being condemned to hell.  This one has a very old statue of Buddha in it, but is housed in a building that is still being completed.  Apparently the statue had been out in the middle of the street for many years but the locals felt bad that Buddha was always getting wet so built him a house.

We walked a little further up the street and discovered the Three Kings Monument.  "The city of Chiang Mai, officially called Nopaburi Srinakornping Chiang Mai, was constructed and established as the capital city of the Lanna Thai Kingdom in 1296 by King Mangrai the Great in consultation with his two close friends, King Ramkamhaeng of Sukhothai and King Ngammuang of Phayao. Depicting the three kings in a friendly stance, this is one of Chiang Mai's most important monuments."

The next two stops were to two markets. The first was called Warowat market and is perhaps the largest and most central one here.  They sell lots of food and any number of bits and pieces.  Oh yes they sell bugs too.  Crunchy crickets.

Just down the road from that was Ton Lamyai which is a flower market.  The smell was beautiful, quite a contrast to the smells of the first market we saw.  Lots of the flowers here are used at temples or shrines and they also make up 'gift buckets' that people can purchase to give to Monks.

Another short tuk tuk ride and we were at Muang Noi market which is known for its fruit and vegetables.  By this stage we were absolutely buggered, in fact I happened to turn around in our tuk tuk to see Nate falling asleep in the front of the one behind us.  So, we really couldn't be bothered in stopping that last time, but did anyways.  Lucky we did, as we fell in love with a new fruit we hadn't tried before.  No not Durian, the King fruit that stinks so badly that its banned in most hotels, but the Queen of fruits - Mangosteeen.  I wish I could accurately describe the taste as they were yummo.  The best I can do is that they're grapeish.  Once you rip open the hard outer husk, the inner flesh is white and very sweet.  Theres a cool little trick to them that if you look at the bottom of the fruit you can see how many segments will be inside us.  Siphon told us that after  doing his magic on us and accurately predicting the inner contents of each fruit.  As you can see fruit is very cheap - a couple of kilos of little bananas are about a dollar, as are a kilo of mangosteen.  The durian are similarly prices, although 40 years ago they were much rarer and would sell for $20 to $30 for a piece!.  Siphon had much delight in telling us that it sent many a man broke if his pregnant wife were to crave it back then!

The tour then ended after a short trip back to the hotel over the river Ping.  It was certainly a great way to see the city and considering the length of our day it was 2 hours very well spent.

Alarm clocks on holidays are evil

Today we left Cambodia to stay overnight in Kuala Lumpur. To get our flight we had to get a 5 am wake up call.  We couldn't cope with an alarm clock so had organised a wake up call - it wasn't any better!

We had to fly Air Asia over to KL lcct (low cost terminal).  The flight was really short - only 1 hr 40 minutes.  The most amazing thing about the flight though was that we took off 15 minutes early.  The flight was mostly empty and we all boarded on time.  The LCCT was like the old Adelaide airport except much bigger.  There was no sky bridge - its off the plane and then a hike into the terminal.  Our plane parked pretty close but it was still a 15 minute walk inside.  However it was really mild in KL - probably because it was still early.

We organised ourselves an airport taxi bus to take us to our hotel which was about 30 minutes from the airport.  I had booked the Pullman Putrajaya Hotel which is pretty well half way between KL and the airport.  Id have to say that this was easily the biggest hotel we have ever stayed in.  It has an interesting design to reflect the true multicultural nature of Malaysia.  There are 4 wings to the hotel.  Each one looks different as it was built to acknowledge a different culture.  There was a Chinese theme, an Indian theme, a Malay theme and English theme.

The downsides to this hotel were the price of the food - we had a simple lunch in the restaurant which cost $80usd, and the whole place felt very odd and not at all like you were in Malaysia.  Hard to really describe except for maybe being very impersonal.  Rather than having to take a loan to pay for dinner we opted to to take their free shuttle bus to the local shopping centre and eat there.  Was a good move as we got to buy some bits and pieces we had been missing, IE some acidophilus tablets to help settle our ailing tummies.