From Sukhothai, we took another 5 hour bus journey up to Chiang Mai, a very charming city that is the base for hill tribe trekking, Thai cooking, and Thai massage schools and more besides.
Our first day, Sarah and Caroline went to an exhausting 2 hour Ashtanga Yoga class - while Gary toured some sights (more Wats). Sarah and Caroline both suffered from various aches the next day since it had been a while since the last Yoga session. We spent the rest of the day walking the city until our little feet were exhausted, and settled down for a fabulous early dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant for Meze. Fully revitalized, we hit the Sunday Walking Market which is an extensive weekly night market - so we all stocked up on cheap linen shirts and jewellery.
One of the real highlights of our stay in Chiang Mai was the Thai Cookery Class. We chose a one day class which was held on an organic farm in the countryside outside the city. Firstly, they took us to the market where they told us about Thai herbs and rice and sauces etc. On sale in the market were such delicases as fried Beetles, Grasshoppers and Worms - Gary bravely ate a Worm - he said it tasted of "Fried". Then they took us out to the farm and showed us the herbs growing and told us what each was used for. Then we set to work cooking! You could each choose different dishes, so between the three of us we learned a number of different dishes including: red, yellow and green chicken curry, Tom Yam soup, Pad Thai, Spring rolls, Mango with sticky rice, and bananas in coconut (and others too). we had a leisurely lunch enjoying what we had each cooked, followed by afternoon cooking. We were in a great group of about 8 people and enjoyed hearing travel tales from all the other travelers about places they had been and where they were going next. They gave us a cookery book so that we can re-create the dishes back home, however, without the lovely people to do all the shopping, prepare the ingredients, and clean up after us, I think it will be quite a bit more hard work!
