Last days in Chiang Mai, Thailand

The last 4 days in Thailand were well spent trying to finish the list of things to see and do before I leave.

I rented a bicycle and Dakan showed me some of his favorite places. While riding around Chiang Mai, we passed this statute in his old neighborhood…. What's better than an elephant with wings?

Afterwards, we walked through the indoor market. Quite the sight. Every thing from herbs to shoes to watches, backpacks and pirated movies. You name it, it's here…. oh yeah, and viagra if you ask the places that sell cigarettes. 

Herbs and tea

We took a ride through China town.... colorful!

China town entrance

That evening the neighbor, Paul, joined us for dinner at a popular restaurant serving traditional foods from the Northern region of Thailand. They had great food as well as ambience. Sorry, but I'm going to get carried away with the ambience part here...... It was nothing short of amazing!

Happy Valentines Day!

After a little research, I finally took a cooking class. The Chiang Mai Thai Farm Cooking School has their own organic farm and teach classes right there! 

They picked me and the 8 others up at 8 am from our guesthouses and first drove to the market to show us where the rice, coconut milk, nuts, oil, ect. come from. Gone are the days that many Thai's make it themselves. There are now machines to do the work for you. See, he's feeding it from the top and it's coming out the bottom into the pink bucket.

The coco meat is used in cooking as well...

If you don't want to make your own curry paste, you can purchase that here too! Again, most city folk in Thailand don't have the time to do it themselves, but our class will learn to make our own.

There are various rices to choose from. We will be cooking Jasmine mixed w/ a little brown, and sticky rice for the Mango & Sticky Rice dessert. 

After our tour, we took a few more minutes to walk around on our own. The most interesting thing to me was all of the friend bugs....

I tried some fried larva, tasted like Bugle Chips...

Following the market, we headed to the farm where we will also do the cooking. But first a tour to see where many of the ingredients are grown and what they look like. 

Dining hut

Kafir Lime 

Lemongrass

Sweet Eggplant

Galangal

Thai Chili Peppers

Following the tour, we each made our curry of choice. 

I chose red... with lots of Thai chilis! 

Our teacher gave us instructions on steaming rice in a bamboo basket...

She also gave us the run down on sauces...

At the beginning of class we each chose 5 dishes from a long list. The first one made was soup. I had chosen Tom Kaa Gai (chicken in coconut milk). It turned out sooooo yummy! 

After eating this, we cooked two more..... Gai Phad Met Mamuang Him Mapaan (Chicken with cashew nuts), and Red curry with shrimp...

This is way too much food to eat in one afternoon and I brought a togo container so that nothing would go to waste ;) Next, was Pad Thai, a favorite of many!

Last but not least was dessert. Kao Nio Ma Muang (Mangos and sticky rice) for me :) HEAVEN

I can't wait to cook thai food back home! And grow some of the ingredients too :) 

This was my last day in Thailand and what a wonderful way to end a trip! A month went by quickly. Now that I know a little bit about the culture and environment, I would like to come back next year and explore a bit deeper. There is so much to see and learn......