Chiang Mai

Dave becomes a carrot carving master
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Left Luang Prabang on 9 November flying to Chiang Mai, Thailand by Lao Airlines.  Some would say this is a risky way to travel given their accident record but we survived.  The flight was only one hour long and we got food that was better than most we've had on BA so no complaints.

We'd already picked the Top North Hotel from Lonely Planet recommendations and so checked in there for what would be a six night stay.  Nice clean hotel with a pool on the eastern edge of the old city in the main backpacker district.

Ready, steady, cook...

Fi's tomato tulips weren't quite so good!
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Had a wander around town and checked out some cookery schools before picking one and booking in for two days tuition. We visited a couple of nice bars by the river and had good wanders through the Sunday market and the night bazaar but we (even Fi!) bought very little.

We booked the Baan Thai Cookery School which turned out to be fantastic.  On day one we started by doing some vegetable carving, creating marvels from cucumber, carrot, egg plant, tomato and spring onion!  Then it was straight into the cooking- each person making fried noodles, tom yam soup, sweet and sour vegetables, penang curry and sticky rice with mango.

Dave's result - looks good enough to eat!
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It was very well organised school with all the ingredients ready to be chopped up.  All the cooking utensils were clean and we didn't have to wash up after we'd finished.  The group sizes were small with seven of us on the first day and we had a really good laugh during the day preparing and eating all our creations.  There are some pictures of the day, in addition to the ones we took, on the Baan Thai website at http://www.cookinthai.com/photo/browse.php?folder=20071111 for 11 and 12 Nov.

Eating one of the four meals prepared that day. Tom Yam soup and sweet and sour vegetables.
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On day two we have a totally different group of six people.  First stop was the market to stock up with produce and pick up some tips from the experts on what things were and what to do with them.  That day we cooked rice noodles with chicken, cold chicken and coriander salad, thai green curry and waterchestnuts with coconut milk.

One of the key things on these courses is that you get to eat everything you make! This leads to meals at 11.30am, 2pm and 3.30pm- which should explain why we haven't got much to say about dinner restaurants in this entry!

"That's not a knife..."
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The remainder of our time in Chang Mai was spent wandering round and exploring the place, seeing markets and Wats, lounging by the pool soaking up sunshine and visiting some of the local restaurants.  Nothing too exciting here and the highlight for us was definitely the cooking course.

One day we took a tuk tuk out to the Tribal Museum on the outskirts of the city. It was really intersting, particularly as we had chosen not to do a hill tribe treck (widely offered in Chiang Mai) as we'd already done similar things in Laos and had heard some pretty conflicting reports on the benefit of such treks on the native populations. On the way back we attempted to get the tuk tuk to drop us at the edge of the old city but unfortunately got dropped far too far out - leading to a frustrating hour trying to figure out where we were, where to go etc (street signs, people to assist, tuk tuks and even anyone able to point out our position on a map seemed to be non-existent!). We eventually got our bearings and reached Wat Phra Singh in time to hear the beautiful buddhist chanting and ice creams sorted our frayed nerves!

Making green curry paste. No wonder so many westerners buy it in jars!
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Next stop is Vietnam and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) where we fly Thursday 15 Nov.