 |
| Lantern ready to fly near Chiang Mai Sunday market |
Originally we were going to take an overnight train to Chiang Mai, but we tried getting them 3 days before and it was sold out, so we had to order a flight on Air Asia, the low-cost airline. The flight isn't that much more expensive than the train at all, but we did have to get another night in the hotel, which was an additional expensive we hadn't expected.
We took the morning to rest up and get some things prepared for more parts of our trip, and then took the train to the airport. In case we weren't clear enough before, there is zero reason to take a taxi to the airport. It is expensive and takes a really long time since traffic is horrible, and public transportation in Bangkok is marvelous. Check out our tips on the backpacker's practical info page
We arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday evening and got to our hotel, Rainforest Boutique, which is really cute, but it's kinda in Harlem, Chiang Mai. We haven't heard any gun shots, so we think we're OK. They hotel has a nice service where you can rent bikes here for pretty cheap, and the first hour is free, so we grabbed a couple of bikes to go to the 7-Eleven to get some stuff.
We had originally intended on going to the night market, but for some inexplicable reason we were exhausted, so we had a really delicious and inexpensive meal at the hotel and decided to get a couple of massages. We were both hurting a bit from carrying our bags on our backs for so long, so it sounded like a great idea, and for 300 Baht (under $10) it's hard to say no.
The ladies who did our massage were a bit late, and incredibly apologetic - and adorable like everyone in this marvelous country. They gave us some traditional massage clothes to wear and got started. I wanted to explain that I didn't want the massage to be too hard, but of course they didn't understand, so I said "No" and then sign languaged rough squeezing with sound effects. It was funny, but they understood.
The massages were great, even if they hurt a bit, until we got towards the end when Rony's masseuse felt his shoulders, and for the next 30 minutes she kept saying "no good, no good" and making "tsk tsk" sounds. It was really funny. Well, not so much for Rony.
After a gigantic breakfast (though we didn't eat much since we knew we'd be eating a lot at the school), we were picked up at 9 am by the cooking school. Most of the people taking the classes were American, but there were a bunch from all around, and one Israeli guy.
We call him The Annoying Israeli.
And he didn't know we were also Israeli.
We made sure of it.
We walked into the school and were given a menu from which to choose which 5 dishes that we wanted to make, divided into soups, curries, desserts, etc., and of course we both chose different ones so we could taste the most, and were given a really nice cookbook with all of the school's recipes to take home with us.
Side note: I couldn't remember how to say dishes in English. I had to ask Rony for help. To which he just replied, "If you need any more help in English, just let me know."
Back to school. The food was amazing, classes were fun, and all the teachers spoke great English. After choosing which dishes we'd like to make, we all went to the market together and got an explanation about everything and picked up what we'd need.
Basically, every time we made a new dish, we were divided into separate cooking areas to make whatever we chose, and then we would meet after each dish to eat them.
All in all, today was a wonderful day. We got back to the hotel to watch bootleg TV and are now about to head out to the famous Sunday market. Talk to you soon!
You can see pics from today here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=568258&id=906005363&l=cdcee0fa2f
Sorry they aren't labeled yet, we need to head out to meet some of our new friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love comments! Just saying. :-)