Chiang Mai

Our great tiime at the cooking school - here is our pad thai creation.
see all photos »

Arriving in Chiang Mai, we fully booked ourselves for the day as we only had one day in this special city. We first were off to our Thai cooking class. We made a trip to the market with our teacher Wa Wah, to learn more about the ingredients used in Thai cooking. The most surprising items that we don’t really use or see at home are the green baby eggplants and the pea eggplants – used in the green curries. Our cooking experience was fantastic!! We made phat thai, green curry, chicken vegetable stir fry and sticky coconut rice with mango for dessert. What fun it was (especially when someone cleans up after you!)

Boojoo (our elephant)
see all photos »

In the afternoon, we made our way out of the city to a village tribe to have a short ride on an elephant. We were a little concerned about how the elephants were treated and our local guide explained a little more about the tribe and how the elephants have been a part of the culture here and we felt more comfortable. Scott also went to the barber across from our hotel. For about $3, he got his haircut and a 5 minute massage. Pretty good deal.

In the evening, we headed to the night bizarre – yet another market with various goods . We’re thinking we should be redecorating our entire home from Asia because you could do it so reasonably, but then we remind ourselves that this is really about the experience and not the material aspects.

Our trip to the market before the cooking class
see all photos »

Our last visit was to visit two temples as we made our way towards Laos. The last of the two was quite interesting as it was designed by an artist/painter. Many things representing heaven and hell and a stunning mural inside the temple with some intriguing paintings including the twin towers on 9/11 but then also includes in one section a picture of NEO from the Matrix movie. Couldn’t quite figure it all out.

Overall, we’ve enjoyed learning more about Buddhism as much of the population here is Buddhist.