Report 11.2: Northern Thailand

We landed in Chang Mai early in the morning, like 8 or something. Once there it was off to find our hostel which was no problem, we stowed our gear on a shelf there and had breakfast as we waited for our cooking school to pick us up. In about an hour an old van pulled up a few yards down the road and the husband of our cooking instructer came in right on time. We were off to A Lot of Thai cooking school for the day.

Yui, pronounced like the nickname of a U-turn, was our instructer, she and her husband and young child sid run the school right from their house. We cooked on the back porch of her house and were taken to a market just down the street. The day was fantastic. We cooked three dishes, ate all of them, then went to the market to learn all about how to pick good ingredients, and then came back and cooked three more dishes. Our favorite was Pad Thai. It is noodles and a bunch of other stuff thrown into a Wok and cooked up nice. Everything is very precise, you put in the garlic first, for five seconds, then the next thing, and the next. The order being very important. And all of our dishes turned out great. Except of course for Alicia’s soup that resembled dish water. I bought an apron from the school so that is what I will wear while I cook amazing Thai food for all of you.

Then we got to see Thai Boxing. Some think that is kinda brutal because you can kick and knee your opponent as well as punch the crap out of him or her. But it was actually pretty entertaining and not very bad. Actually, each match was fought very well and the sportsmanship was incredible. The best match by far was between a huge white guy and this tiny Thai guy that fights just for the money and barely trains. We learned that this man does not train at all from a Scottish guy in front of us that seemed to be friends with the waitress who told him about this. Anyway, the little guy was just beating on the big dude the whole time, until he went after the big guy with all he had, I mean he just tore into him. The big guy hunkered down and took every blow. Then before you could blink, he came out with a huge punch that knocked the little guy out cold. I mean out cold. It was crazy.

The next day we decided to ritz it up a little bit and spent some money to get a great tour including elephant rides, an elephant show, a rafting ride, and a tour of a long neck hill tribe. We got picked up at like seven in the morning, went to the best elephant reservation in Chang Mai. We got to watch a really cool elephant show to see the work that they used to do for real and see some neat tricks like putting their riders hat back on when it falls off. Then we got to take a long ride on them. Than had a really nice lunch. Most of the people eating beside us where families on vacation, not cheap backpackers, so it was a change from the company we usually keep. Than we took a long bamboo water rafting trip. While going our paddler let me drive for a while, but when Jen and Alicia took the paddle he jumped to the boat beside us. He was a really funny guy. Then after the long neck village (where the ladies have those brass rings around their necks) we were back in the hostel for the night.

The next two days are a little blurry. In these two days we traveled from Chang Mai to Sukothai, to Phitsonalok, to Ayuthaya, and back to Bangkok. A few highlights for you, Sukothai-very cool. It is an ancient capital of Thailand and was filled with ruins. We spent an afternoon here riding bicycles throughout the old city. It was also here that we had some really good cheap local food, always a highlight for me. More great eating was had in Phitsonalok. I ate more satay then I should have. There was this really good chicken and beef satay that was huge. Biggest satay I have ever had. I got Julio, Jen and Alicia to all try it as well. However I got to eat most of Alicia’s after a local guy said she would get fat from it. I don’t think she appreciated many of my comments after that. The train to Ayuthaya found us back in the presence of cheap travelers. In third class. At one point all four of us were touching all of the other four as we squeezed into our seats. After a while though we moved around and found the empty seats around us. Back in Bangkok, we went to one more night market and got Julio some McDonald’s as he does not enjoy cheap local food as much as I do. The next morning had Cambodia written all over it…