A menu of relaxing

Soft repose from metro crazy
For indulgence, being lazy
Backpack-strapped and on a schedule
Leaves no time for minutes dull

August 7, 2008

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

Chiang Mai is one of the nicest cities on earth. It very much has a backpacker feel to it that is laid back and calm, and doesn't feel all too touristy.


It was a shame we didn't have more time to spend her, since hill tribe trekking and rock climbing would have been pretty fun. And it's a pretty neat, historical city -- some of the original wall that surrounded the city still remains, even.


Our one day in Chiang Mai was very long and filled -- we certainly made the most of it. Arriving at 7 am by bus meant that nothing was open so (gosh darn) we headed to Starbucks to wash up after our overnight ride (read: indulge in a coffee that cost almost $3). Every bone in my coffee-deprived body was singing with joy and thanksgiving as I swallowed each wonderfully bitter, sensually hot, tongue-enveloping mouthful. SO GOOD.


We then strapped on our backpacks and walked until we found a guesthouse (which actually took quite a while), but we managed to ply a great deal: hot water AND satellite TV AND two beds for $12. Luxurious.

We finally got a taste of real Thai cuisine at lunch, at a local restaurant that specializes in Chiang Mai gastronimic fare. I had a wonderfully scrumptious local pork and ginger curry which, while doing nothing from my already vegetable- and fibre-low diet, was amazingly tasty. It's easy to see why Thailand is so popular with foodies. The curry was pretty firy (they refer to levels of hot as "spicy" for tourists, versus "Thai spicy" for locals), but it was such a good tongue burn...

Wandering around Chiang Mai after lunch and checking out a few more wats (surprise...that's all there is to do in Thailand) made it clear that this is a sleepy, quaint, laid-back, relaxed town. The nice thing about the wats here, were that the style was different than what we'd seen in Bangkok since they featured Lanna architecture, a Thai style influenced by the Burmese. One of them, in fact, was made entirely of teak. And another was decorated in mural paintings on the inside which were in great condition, and while we were there, an art class was sketching the murals.



After grabbing fresh fruit shakes for 10 baht (33 cents!) -- mine was pineapple -- we headed to our Thai cooking class. This has really been a highlight of the trip so far. The cooking school was a friendly family-run business, and our teacher was a bubbly girl named Boom.


We started out with a market tour, getting to know how to buy Thai herbs, fruits, vegetables, spices and other ingredients like fish, snacks, and meat.


We started out our culinary experience by eating the fresh fruit and snacks we had purchased in the market -- and the big winner of this experience was the Thai longan, which was different from the stuff we get at home. When peeled, the flesh actually came apart in sections, and it was sweeter and much more flavourful that regular longan -- it was almost like a cross between litchee and longan. So yummy...


The cooking itself was amazingly fun. We started off making deep fried bananas for dessert which we left frying while we made a red steamed curry with fish. The curry was steamed inside a banana leaf bowl which I made myself (and thus was a lot lopsided).


For our appetizer, we made green papaya salad -- and teh greatest thing about this was since it was being made to taste, I was able to get it exactly how I like it, with flavours well-balanced and working together so harmoniously one would have Chopin had made this salad (the touch of dissonance being the fire of the chilis). In fact, I ended up going virtuousically overboard on the spiciness. We learned that green chilis and small chilis are hotter than red or larger ones. And as I was advised to add 2 or 3 chilis to my salad, of course, I put in 4 green ones to get it Thai spicy. And then when I was martar and pestling the crap out of my salad, and was advised not to smash for too long because it mushes the chilis and makes it too hot, of course, I smashed it even more.

And then of course I added an extra chili at the end.


When I sat down to eat my salad, my mouth was BURNING like Detriot. But it tasted very good. It was just really^100 hot.

The final dish that we cooked was a cashew chicken stir fry. Not insanely complicated, but it did contain cloud ears (mook nge for all the hakka ngin out there), and I probably improved my wok skills too, so that was really useful.


All the food turned out to be delicious, and though I was beyond stuffed, I ate all four servings that I had cooked -- and when they brought the friend bananas out, I ate mine, and then ate some of Taulee's because she couldn't finish hers.


Taulee and I had massage appointments for right after the class, and I was so full that I was worried that the joint manipulation of the massage would make me vomit. Luckily, it didn't, and this massage was even better than the previous one (not to mention cheaper, and for double the amount of time). It was super indulgent: they started us off with pandan tea which taste like a dessert cake in tea form, and I liked it so much that I'm bringing some home. And then we settled in for some bone-breaking, joint-dislocating, muscle-pounding, painful goodness. The masseuse was great, and I got to experience many more manoeuvres than last time (including a butt massage which, while mildly disconcerting, was strangely enjoyable), with her stepping and leaning, and kneeling on me.

Most relaxing, indulgent, luxurious day ever. Which was good, because we were preparing for the next leg of our journey, which would include two days in transit as we somehow would get ourselves across the border, into Laos, and down to Luang Prabang.