A few pics of our second hotel in the daylight:
It was really pretty, but SO HOT ALL THE TIME and totally filled with mosquitoes. Matt and I had managed to avoid them for the most part in Taiwan, but Thailand mosquitoes are vicious. We didn't dare leave the room without dousing ourselves in bug repellent, and as soon as we got back there was always a ritual of killing all the mosquitoes that had somehow gotten in while we were gone. But the ladies who ran the hotel were very nice, and they fed us breakfast every morning out on the beautiful patio by the pool! Anyway, we got up Monday morning and rented a scooter for the day from Tony's Big Bikes so that we could see as much of the city as we could.
I loved it! Unfortunately, Matt did not love it so much. I didn't realize how stressful it was for him to be driving in another country! It was crazy crowded, traffic laws are questionable, scooters are scary, and most of the time we had no idea where we were going. I was happy as a clam to enjoy the ride, but by the end of the day Matt was pretty worn out. Sorry honey! But it was so nice to have the scooter because we got to see so much of the city!
(We went to about 4 temples before I realized that these were not real people... -___- )
We rode around to as many temples as we could, and each one was different. My favorite part about the temples though was the reverence inside each one. We had read in our trusty guidebooks that the Thai people take respect for their temples very seriously, so we made sure to dress modestly. But it was interesting to watch as many tourists tried to enter the temples inappropriately dressed: the monks quickly and respectfully stopped them and directed them to a stand of robes or shawls that the tourists could use to make themselves more modest. It was really touching and added a very deep sense of reverence to my visit.
Halfway through our temple tour, we stopped for lunch at an Indian food place recommended by the trusty guidebook
Why Indian food? I really have no idea. I think I was just so surprised that Matt wanted to eat Indian that I didn't question it. The food was good and we took our obligatory cheersing pic
Which was definitely fake on my part because this was the strangest mango lasse I have ever had in my life. I couldn't drink it. I am 98% positive it was made with goats milk yogurt or something and I just could not hack it. So strange. We jumped back on the scooter for a quick ride around the city's central wall and moat.
When Chiang Mai was built in 1296, it was surrounded by a moat and this gorgeous brick wall, but over time the city expanded and spilled outside the small central wall. Now much of the wall is in disrepair and only parts of it are left, but it is still absolutely beautiful and surrounds the very oldest parts of the city.
At Jake's recommendation, Matt and I signed up for a half day Thai cooking class that night. We signed up for a class with the Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School at the recommendation of our hotel. The class let you pick two types of entrees to cook (stir fry, soup, salad, or dessert) then taught you how to make five courses and curry paste from scratch. We were super excited to learn how to make Thai stir fry and dessert, but then they couldn't find our hotel to pick us up and we were late. By the time we got there, the rest of our group had already decided on the two types of entrees they wanted to make: soup and salad. I may have been extremely upset. Who wants to learn how to make salad and soup?? They were crazy. I tried to see if we could change it, but it was too late. I thought about trying to switch to another group or come back another night when we could cook what we wanted to, I was that mad. Eventually Matt calmed me down and we stayed for the class.
We started out the class with a tour of the garden and a lesson on Thai herbs from our teacher, who told us to call him M.
This guy was hilarious. He was cracking jokes right and left and kept us laughing all night long. After the tour of the garden, he walked us all down to the market, where he taught us more about Thai ingredients.
Finally it was time to cook! 1st course: a little Thai lettuce wrap appetizer that we ate while cheersing the rest of our group and repeating "chokh di!" which means "good luck"in Thai.
Then the 2nd course: spring rolls
M kept telling us how terrible all of our spring rolls were, and he was right about most of them. I can confidently say that Matt and I were the best cooks in the group, and there were several times where I had to stop myself from ripping spatulas out of peoples' hands. M kept calling our spring rolls 'ugly babies' and when I yelled at him that mine was beautiful, his response was, "Oh yes, it's beautiful... but also ugly" hahahahaha
After our spring rolls were done, we moved on to the 3rd course: salads.
Matt's spicy chicken salad.
After the salads were done, we started making curry paste from scratch.
We all took turns pounding the pastes in real mortar and pestles and it was HARD! We made 4 kinds of pastes for 4 different kinds of curries.
Once the pastes were done, we started making the 4th and 5th courses: curry and soup.
As we made each dish, M would ask us how spicy we wanted our food by asking, "What's your sexy?" on a scale of 1 to 10. And then he would make fun of you if you said anything below 5. I got made fun of a lot hahahahahaha
My khao soi curry and coconut milk soup:
Matt's tom yum soup and massaman curry:
It was all really good, and by the end of the class, we were so completely stuffed that we couldn't even eat everything we had made. They also gave us each a recipe book with ALL of the recipes that they offer for the class, so I wasn't really mad anymore about not making stir fry and dessert since I knew that I could figure it out on my own now. And if I'm being completely honest, it turned out that it was a good thing our group picked soup and salad because we learned to cook things that we would have never chosen to cook on our own that were really good! Matt said that my glass noodle salad was his favorite food of the night, and I had to agree.
We love Thai food, Thai temples, and Thai everything!
I loved it! Unfortunately, Matt did not love it so much. I didn't realize how stressful it was for him to be driving in another country! It was crazy crowded, traffic laws are questionable, scooters are scary, and most of the time we had no idea where we were going. I was happy as a clam to enjoy the ride, but by the end of the day Matt was pretty worn out. Sorry honey! But it was so nice to have the scooter because we got to see so much of the city!
We rode around to as many temples as we could, and each one was different. My favorite part about the temples though was the reverence inside each one. We had read in our trusty guidebooks that the Thai people take respect for their temples very seriously, so we made sure to dress modestly. But it was interesting to watch as many tourists tried to enter the temples inappropriately dressed: the monks quickly and respectfully stopped them and directed them to a stand of robes or shawls that the tourists could use to make themselves more modest. It was really touching and added a very deep sense of reverence to my visit.
Halfway through our temple tour, we stopped for lunch at an Indian food place recommended by the trusty guidebook
Why Indian food? I really have no idea. I think I was just so surprised that Matt wanted to eat Indian that I didn't question it. The food was good and we took our obligatory cheersing pic
Which was definitely fake on my part because this was the strangest mango lasse I have ever had in my life. I couldn't drink it. I am 98% positive it was made with goats milk yogurt or something and I just could not hack it. So strange. We jumped back on the scooter for a quick ride around the city's central wall and moat.
When Chiang Mai was built in 1296, it was surrounded by a moat and this gorgeous brick wall, but over time the city expanded and spilled outside the small central wall. Now much of the wall is in disrepair and only parts of it are left, but it is still absolutely beautiful and surrounds the very oldest parts of the city.
At Jake's recommendation, Matt and I signed up for a half day Thai cooking class that night. We signed up for a class with the Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School at the recommendation of our hotel. The class let you pick two types of entrees to cook (stir fry, soup, salad, or dessert) then taught you how to make five courses and curry paste from scratch. We were super excited to learn how to make Thai stir fry and dessert, but then they couldn't find our hotel to pick us up and we were late. By the time we got there, the rest of our group had already decided on the two types of entrees they wanted to make: soup and salad. I may have been extremely upset. Who wants to learn how to make salad and soup?? They were crazy. I tried to see if we could change it, but it was too late. I thought about trying to switch to another group or come back another night when we could cook what we wanted to, I was that mad. Eventually Matt calmed me down and we stayed for the class.
We started out the class with a tour of the garden and a lesson on Thai herbs from our teacher, who told us to call him M.
This guy was hilarious. He was cracking jokes right and left and kept us laughing all night long. After the tour of the garden, he walked us all down to the market, where he taught us more about Thai ingredients.
Finally it was time to cook! 1st course: a little Thai lettuce wrap appetizer that we ate while cheersing the rest of our group and repeating "chokh di!" which means "good luck"in Thai.
Then the 2nd course: spring rolls
M kept telling us how terrible all of our spring rolls were, and he was right about most of them. I can confidently say that Matt and I were the best cooks in the group, and there were several times where I had to stop myself from ripping spatulas out of peoples' hands. M kept calling our spring rolls 'ugly babies' and when I yelled at him that mine was beautiful, his response was, "Oh yes, it's beautiful... but also ugly" hahahahaha
After our spring rolls were done, we moved on to the 3rd course: salads.
Matt takes cooking very seriously.
My glass noodle salad and spring roll
After the salads were done, we started making curry paste from scratch.
We all took turns pounding the pastes in real mortar and pestles and it was HARD! We made 4 kinds of pastes for 4 different kinds of curries.
Once the pastes were done, we started making the 4th and 5th courses: curry and soup.
As we made each dish, M would ask us how spicy we wanted our food by asking, "What's your sexy?" on a scale of 1 to 10. And then he would make fun of you if you said anything below 5. I got made fun of a lot hahahahahaha
My khao soi curry and coconut milk soup:
Matt's tom yum soup and massaman curry:
It was all really good, and by the end of the class, we were so completely stuffed that we couldn't even eat everything we had made. They also gave us each a recipe book with ALL of the recipes that they offer for the class, so I wasn't really mad anymore about not making stir fry and dessert since I knew that I could figure it out on my own now. And if I'm being completely honest, it turned out that it was a good thing our group picked soup and salad because we learned to cook things that we would have never chosen to cook on our own that were really good! Matt said that my glass noodle salad was his favorite food of the night, and I had to agree.
We love Thai food, Thai temples, and Thai everything!
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