cooking again

Thai Farm Cooking School

Menu:

yellow curry with chicken and rice

tom yam soup with shrimp

fried chicken with basil

pad thai

banana and coconut milk

 this is me at 9am

 This is a Thai equivalent of an A&P

 This is a Thai exercise set- using it was a workout.

 this is an example of my fine chopping skills

This is were I cook all Margaret's meals

This is 3rd lunch 

 This is when our guide explained to a Canadian man,
that she was not serious about buying her a beer at the market.
At the end, the guides boss came out and tourists and staff finished off 2 large bottles,
this made for an interesting ride home.

on the move again

This man is obviously not bothered by the highway traffic on his morning commute.

We are headed to Bangkok today and then on to India on the 30th.  

The Easter Bunny will have to look for us in Delhi.

Watch for Simon's airport posts.

really cooking

Simon and I took a Thai cooking course today on an organic farm just outside of Chiang Mai.  This post will have to be short as I am too full to type and I am hoping Simon will create a detailed post tomorrow.

It was cooler in the country than in the city, but we were actually grateful for the silly hats in the garden because the sun was brutal.  Simon thought that the fact that the hats were too small for our heads was proof that we have some defective fat-head gene, but I think we are just smart.

Simon claimed victory over me when his yellow curry looked and tasted better than mine, but I will only claim defeat if he manages to repeat the triumph back in Canada.

sightseeing

I searched the Internet for information on silk production in Chiang Mai and came up with two tourist traps: Thai Silk Village and Shinawatra Thai Silk.  I could have arranged with a travel agent to go to these facilities, but it  would be expensive and really touristy. I have pictures of real silk production from the last time I was here and wanted to take new digital photos on this trip.  After several weeks of red herrings I had a business card with the location of weaving demonstrations and a handwritten address for silk worm displays. 

Neither seemed to be real production facilities, so I turned to the Lonely Planet guide book where I found instructions to Bo Sang (the umbrella village) and San Kamphaeng where apparently "actual weaving is done in small factories down side streets".  Perfect.

I left the condo at 9:30 this morning and walked half way to the white Sǎwngthǎew stop as instructed in the book(about 20 min) before realizing that I didn't have my camera.  I had to tuk tuk (vehicle 1- 100 Bhat) home to get the camera and then tuk tuk to the Sǎwngthǎew stop where I caught a yellow (vehicle 2- 25 Bhat) truck to San Kamphaeng from a driver that spoke no English.   After about half an hour a nice Thai woman sitting across from me asked politely in perfect English what the hell I was doing on a yellow Sǎwngthǎew.   Good question- the guidebook specifically said white.  She listened to my story and promptly leaned out of the truck window to conference with the driver.  When she returned to her seat, she wrote a note explaining my search in Thai for me to show to non-English speakers.  With in a few minutes, our truck stopped and an arrangement was made with another yellow Sǎwngthǎew to take me (vehicle 3- 10 Bhat) back in the direction we had come from.

This is the note.  I think the is right-side-up, but am not sure.

I showed the new driver my note, got in, got off a few minutes later when instructed and walked in the direction indicated.  It quickly became obvious that I was not in the silk weaving centre of the universe, so I stopped to show my trusty note to a small group of ladies operating a laundry.  The boss kindly pulled a chair out on to the sidewalk and instructed me to sit and wait 5 minutes.  She did not explain what exactly I was waiting for, but I did not question her.  After deep reflection on why people book sightseeing trips from travel agents, a white Sǎwngthǎew pulled up and the laundry ladies stopped it and explained to the driver where I wanted to go (vehicle 4- 10 Baht).

This is the sign I saw when I turned the corner.  

So now I am on my third Sǎwngthǎew of the day.  Again, a passenger sitting across from me, this one wearing the hair spray and makeup of a professional lady, demanded to know where I was going in perfect English and I was obliged to explain myself. I was pleased to find we were driving through Bo Sang because the umbrella stalls are pretty and, according to the Lonely Planet, it is only 2 km from my destination.  I was less pleased when my new friend pushed the buzzer and told me to get off, turn the corner and take the next white Sǎwngthǎew. 

Again, I did as I was instructed.  I have included a picture of the sign that indicated that I had was only 6 km closer to my destination than when I started. 

(vehicle 5- 10 Baht) The soldier, the monk and the two school boys on the next Sǎwngthǎew were not curious about me in the least and did not seem to care where I was going.  I finally arrived-San Kamphaeng, where I found...NOTHING.  So, I presented my note once again, this time to a nice lady in a motorcycle repair shop.  She looked at me like I was crazy, arranged for me to take a side-car motorcycle taxi thingy (vehicle 6- 10 Baht), handed me a hand drawn map and recommended that I stay in tourist areas. 

  

This next leg of the trip was the most expensive because the senior selected to take me did not have a permit to drive on the highway and I made him miss lunch. Grandpa delivered me safely to the tourist traps Thai Silk Village and Shinawatra Thai Silk Factory Store (both within the Chiang Mai city limits) before flagging a white Sǎwngthǎew (vehicle 7- 20 Baht) to deliver me back to the city centre. I arrived back at the condo (by tuk tuk (vehicle 8- 50 Baht)) at 3:30 this afternoon with some nice photos of silk production and a new found appreciation for organized sightseeing tours.

 

hunting & collecting

I went to the Sunday market alone this evening to hunt for food.  Simon true to form would not leave the apartment.  

This market vendor had a plate of bamboo baskets each with 2 live birds in it.  She was charging people a fee for releasing the birds.  I didn't get close enough to see how much she was charging or talk to her because I was afraid she would charge me for taking her photo.  I really wanted to tell her that if she didn't trap the birds in the first place, she wouldn't have to release them.

This is one of the food stall areas of the market where I found dinner.

Simon obviously did not have a say in the menu, so I bought any item that interested me: an omelet cooked in banana leaf, skewers of funky mushroom slices and skewers of chicken, a serving of noodle soup, two packages of sticky rice cooked in banana leaf, a chocolate waffle and a chocolate banana roti.
 

The blue turned out well in the picture, but the photo does not do the green justice.  

Simon tried everything I brought home, except the sticky rice.  In his defense, one of the rice balls was electric blue and the other was neon green.   To clarify- both were excellent.  The two desert options were the only dishes to get the thumbs up from his highness.  Perhaps he should attend the hunt himself in the future. 

routine report

Once again we are not posting regularly because there is
generally nothing to report.  Simon is doing school work
and I have been painting a little.  Or perhaps I should say I have been doing really little paintings.


 

Simon has an alarm clock that he curses.  It sits outside our balcony and looks in at him.  It makes one hell of a noise and is remarkably effective.  I think you can find them in Canada- I will have to look in to it when we return.  I think it did not come this morning because it wanted to give him a Saturday off.

a really BIG day

So we went to an elephant rescue park for the day (despite Simon's objections) where we met a few babies and a lot of beautiful older ladies.  The girl on the left is quite disabled as the result of two logging camp accidents and her best friend on the right was blinded because of maltreatment in a logging camp.  Now they spend every minute together and help look after one another.

This is the oldest lady in the park at about 80 years old. I was told that she wears a flower in her ear "For beauty" when I was stupid enough to ask.

The old lady was a messy eater because she had to hold your hand still when she took the food from you- I think maybe because she was a little blind.  The picture above shows my hand covered with brown elephant slobber.  I could have posted a picture of my super sparkly left leg after one of the 150 rescued street dogs licked it clean.

This 5 month old is the newest addition to the park.  His mother is disabled from stepping on a landmine and cannot care for him completely.  He is leaning up against his nanny- a 70 year old local busybody who loves babies.   She kept hanging out around the enclosure after he was born until they let her in.  She has helped to care for the little guy ever since.  

Simon bathing one of the girls.