Bangkok #2 and Chiang Mai
Trip Start
Jun 24, 2004
1
5
Trip End
Jul 28, 2004
Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
The next day we hopped on a Tuk-Tuk to the Weekend Market and shopped even more. The weekend market is a 5-square block area of food stalls, Levi's dealers, so-called 'antique' shops, and pet stores. The place is packed with travelers and locals looking for anything you can imagine. The pet stores were the most interesting; including all kinds of fish, snakes, spiders, lizards, parrots, squirrels, marmots, turtles, etc... After a full day of bargaining and pushing our way through the crowds we went back to the hotel, Royal Hotel, Ellie got a 2 hour traditional Thai massage (Heaven! a bit like having yoga done TO you!) and we got ready to catch a plane the next day headed for Chiang Mai.
We spent 6 nights in Chiang Mai starting with a day at a Thai cooking school. We got picked up by a truck in the morning which took us 15 kilometers out of town to the beautiful home of the chef who owns the cooking school. Once there, fifteen of us were herded into a classroom for a couple of hours. We spent the morning learning about a large number of Thai ingredients used in the dishes that we'd prepare over the remainder of the day and the following days. After the lesson on Thai ingredients we went out to the outdoor kitchen area and started to cook. The instructor would prepare the dish for all of us, explaining the process as she cooked. Once she was finished with the dish we went to our own individual cooking areas and made the dish for ourselves. Each time we finished each our dishes we ate them. At the end of the day we were stuffed because we made six dishes throughout the day and ate all of them. The first day me made Thai Hot and Sour Prawn Soup, Green Curry with Chicken, Thai Style Fish Cakes, Thai Fried Noodles, Minced Pork Northern Style, and Water Chestnuts with Sugar Syrup and Coconut Milk.
Ellie got sick on the first day in Chiang Mai and was pretty much out of commission. She thought she could make it through the cooking class, but ended up spending the first cooking day on a couch sleeping. She had bad muscle aches and regular stomach cramps.
The next day we walked around Chiang Mai taking in the sites; a couple of Wats, stopping every couple blocks for Ellie to rest from the stomach cramps. So, we headed back to the hotel where Ellie slept and Ron read a book.
On the third day in Chiang Mai we decided it was time for Ellie to get checked out. We visited a clinic that was recommeded to us by a couple of Kiwis that got sick earlier that week. The clinic was very nice and efficient. We quickly found out that Ellie got an intestinal virus from something she ate or drank. She got four prescriptions (for varous other things, like insomnia and some Tylenol) and a check-up for $9 and we were on our way. After we got back to the hotel we discovered one of the prescriptions Ellie was prescribed was the same exact medicine we've been carrying around the entire trip. Our doctors gave us a prescription for travelers' sickness before we left and we had it in our packs the whole time, go figure. It was nice knowing that the clinic doctor had done a good job diagnosing!
We then took a tuk-tuk out to the Chiang Mai School for the Deaf. It was another great experience, although different from the one in Cambodia. There were 400+ students at this school! Most of the staff there only spoke Thai, but we were lucky enough to be given a tour by the English instructor. She said that they use SEE (Signed Exact English) with the kids, because ASL really has no grammar...right? Ellie explained that it does indeed have it's own grammar, etc. she was quite interested. However when we actually went into a classroom, it didn't seem that the kids used SEE at all, more like an entirely different language, but with many similarities to ASL. In looking back, perhaps the teacher meant that she uses SEE with the kids to teach them English? At any rate, she took us to an art class, where we briefly chatted and compared our different numbering system (VERY similar) and then to a ceramics class. The kids were about 14-16 years old, and enjoyed chatting with us once again. There are more specific details about the interaction that Ellie will have to explain in ASL face to face...too hard to try and explain via journal to both ASL users and non-ASL users! At the end of our visit we bought a ceramic pot that was made in the ceramics class. This will be auctioned off at the SaVRID fundraiser in August. The staff was so interested in our visit, they brought out their Assistant Principal, and a photographer, and had us sigh a little book about our experience. Once again it was a fantastic experience! We went out for a nice dinner at Le Grand Lanna, a beautiful teak Thai restrauant. We didn't realize how nice until we pulled up...in a tuk-tuk blaring "Born to be Wild"! Dinner was excellent.
Now that Ellie was on the healing track we took another cooking class on our fourth day in Chiang Mai. This day started out with heading to a local market where each of the 22 people in the class was given an ingredient to buy that would be used in that days' dishes. After a quick lesson on what to look for in each of our ingredients, we wandered on our own to find the perfect Thai Banana (Ron's ingredient) and some long green herb that we can't remember the name of (Ellie's ingredient). After the market we headed back to the same home as before and started in on our six dishes. On this day we made Yellow Curry with Chicken, Steamed Fish in Banana Leaves, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Fried Big Noodles with Sweet Soy Sauce, Spicy Prawn Salad Northeastern Style, and Bananas in Coconut Milk.
On our last day in Chiang Mai, before taking a van to Pai, we headed out to the jungle for an elephant show and ride, ox-cart ride, and a bamboo raft trip down the river. The elephant show consisted of them kicking around soccer balls, shooting hoops, pulling sugar cane out of little girls hands in the audience,painting a picture, and showing other feats of strength. Even though the show was a bit cheesy, it was entertaining and it appeared the elephants at this camp were treated humanely. The elephant ride was great and the 1-hour trek through the jungle was beautiful. After a very bumpy ox-cart ride we jumped on a bamboo raft and floated down a smooth river for about an hour before catching a van back to town. On the way home we stopped at a place to see how they make paper from Elephant dung...very informative. The day was lovely- relaxing, and we got to see a bit of the Thai countryside.
Next, we're headed to Pai, a tiny city in the Northwest corner of Thailand.
Cheers for now ~ Ron and Ellie
