Chiang Mai Uncovered: Sunday 30th March

I slept surprisingly well on the top bunk of the train. We were all quite impressed with train journey and with how quickly 14 hours passed. Chiang Mai was fast approaching now and we were all eager to see our next destination!

We checked in our bags and made our way to the Doi Suthep temple. It was huge and there were many steps to climb up to the main temple. Our tour guide provided us with the history and background of the temple which was very informative. On the way down, we counted the steps with as much concentration as we could manage in the sun - it was considered good luck to count the correct amount of steps! I counted 308 but there were actually 306 steps. Ah well!

For lunch, Anne and I explored the surrounding area and picked a cute looking tea room serving Thai food. It was very calm inside and beautifully decorated. An afternoon rest and Thai massage later, I was ready to have my Thai cooking class!

Christal, Mike, Anne and I were picked up from the hotel by our teacher and taken to a local food market to pick up and learn about our ingredients. She was a sweet Thai lady and her and her husband worked together. We were shown how to pick tofu and also how coconuts are put through a machine to have their cream and water separated. It was so fascinating! I could do with that machine in my home in London! Next, we were taken to the teacher's home, where she had set up cooking stations to teach large groups. We were given our ingredients and taken through step by step process on how to make all four dishes. We learnt to make Penang curry, cashew stir fried vegetables, pad Thai and papaya salad. It was so much fun! We also ate our creations for dinner. You can imagine how stuffed we were after four dishes! Our teacher also provided us each with a cookery book so that we could learn and practice many other Thai dishes.
It was such a great class and I would love to do a similar one in Laos and Vietnam too.

To walk off our dinner we strolled the Chaing Mai Sunday market and the night markets. There were many beautiful things. We then went to see a Muay Thai boxing fight! The boxers were tiny, but vey strong! They were also very young. The match was very interesting. I particularly liked the way that the opponents graciously wished each other well at the end of the match. Overall, a jam packed but absolutely delightful day!