Chiang Mai Cookery School
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2010
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112
135
Trip End
Sep 23, 2011
Where I stayed
Finleys Cottage
What I did
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Saturday, May 28, 2011
We arrived in Chiang Mai for a week long pit stop in order to complete our visa's for China. Chiang Mai is not the greatest place to be stuck for a week, we'd rather been on a beach, but actually our hostel was the ideal place to do nothing and Chiang Mai had (just) enough on offer to take up a few days. It was part run by an English expat and a Thai lady that served proper english bacon and eggs, as well as homemade chip butty's. Thomas was also happy as there was an Xbox 360 with hundreds of games to keep him entertained.
Many come to Chiang Mai to do elephant trekking as there is the Elephant National Park but seeing as we had already done this in Laos we purely came here to do a cookery class.
Tourists are spoilt for choice for cookery classes, but we opted for Baan Thai Cookery School and had an amazing day. The day started at the local market where we had to buy our produce for the day. Our guide led us round, explaining all the different produce, and most importantly telling us alternative ingredients we would need if we were to make Thai food in our home countries.
Back at the cookery school we learnt to make 5 authentic thai dishes each. I chose Pad Thai Noodles, Seafood in Coconut Milk, Spring Rolls, Panaeng Thai Curry (making the red paste from scratch) and Sticky Mango Rice for dessert. Thomas made Chicken with Cashewnuts, Hot and Sour Soup, Spicy Papaya Salad, Green Curry and a dessert of Waterchestnuts in Coconut Milk. Basically between us we were able to make most of the menu options :D
This was a full on day from 9am till 4pm just cooking and eating. Right up our street! At the end of the class we were given a recipe book full so we can (attempt to) replicate these dishes at home!
As it was the end of our Thailand excursion we spent the following days relaxing and shopping - what else! We were pulled apart for Thai Massages and spent our time eating our way through the awesome Sunday Night Market, and shopping in the at the Night Bazzar. The best market we have encountered so far on our trip is the Sunday Evening Market. If you plan a trip to Chiang Mai try and make it on a Sunday as the market sprawls along several city blocks within the city walls, along footpaths, inside buildings, temple grounds and open squares - and best of all it is closed to motorised traffic. The place is buzzing and full of every handicraft you can imagine.
Chiang Mai has over 300 Buddhist Temples or "Wat" in Thai including Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, the city's most famous temple dating back to 1383 and Wat Chiang Man, the oldest temple in Chiang Mai, dating back to the 13th century. Chiang Mai is also the ideal place to get an adrenaline kick, Thai style. Tour operators everywhere offer deals on kayaking, biking, rafting, zorbing and even bungy jumping.
Lots of Love,
Hollie and Thomas x x x x
Travellers Tip:
If you are planning to travel to China from Southeast Asia then Chiang Mai is one of the best places to get your visa. The Chinese Consulate in Chiang Mai processes tourist visa's fairly quickly and it is also one of the cheapest places to get it done. It cost us £35 including the service fee, this is relatively cheap when you consider it cost £75 in Hong Kong! We done it through a travel agency (next to the Safe House Hotel) which saved us the hassle of travelling to the consulate, also with a agency the visa is normally processed quicker and there is less risk of you being denied. You can do it in Bangkok but it can take longer due to the amount of people/passports being processed, plus Bangkok is not the greatest place in Thailand to spend a week. Many people don't even realise that there is even a Chinese Consulate in Chiang Mai!!!
Comments
Looks great fun, I'll have to remember to invite myself when you get a place and you can try your new dishes out on me and Uncle Simon x