Thailand - Doing a course or two

Friday 24th April
Brent here...Today we had to pack our rucksacks for our flight to Kuala Lumpur. It had got an easier task than the first time we had attempted it. We took them down to the lobby to store them. On coming through the doors we were surprised to see a film crew preparing to film what looked like a pop video. A very pretty chinese girl was gyrating around to a sugar sweet pop song while a young lad gyrated around her. Was very surreal. Katie and Colin came down to meet us for breakfast and were equally bemused.

After breakfast we walked up to the Komtar shopping centre where we caught the tourist bus around the city and decided to stay on for a whole circuit- this was very circuitous making the city appear bigger than it actually was. The air conditioning was a blessed relief though. On the second trip around we got off at the Blue Mansion. This was closed till two so we looked around for somewhere to while away the hour. Just opposite was an art college and we cheekily walked in and asked at the reception if there were any exhibits that we might see. Some of the students had put up their work, I guess ready for assessments and the guy at reception said we'd be welcome to have a look: this was very interesting: some of the students had designed buidings, others had done paintings. The level was equivalent to post 16 at home and we felt there were some very talented students there. We thenhad a cold drink in a nearby cafe, before our visit. The Blue Mansion had been built by a rich chinese merchant named Fan Yat Tze ( not quite right spelling ). it was a Unesco World Heritage supported building and had been given money to return it to its original condition. As the name implied it was painted a stunning indigo blue and built in the ancient Chinese style to conform to the principles of Fen Shui. It had featured in the film Indochine with Catherine Deneuve. You could only be shown around the house with a guided tour. We all gathered together in the entrance hall and were greeted by a very eloquent young chinese man who spoke with what could only be described as an Oxford accent. He turned out to be quite a character and was definitely in touch with his more feminine side. He was very informative and went into great detail about the owner of the house and his background commenting on his many wives and mistresses. he was also very well informed about the interior decor and the principles on which it had been constructed. The entrance hall was huge, with seating areas on each side. This area was for business and the master of the house would sit on one side with his guests on the other, speaking across the huge room. A beautiful screen separated the family area from this work area. Here the ground floor rooms were designed around 3 central courtyards. These were one of the most interesting aspects of the house: they allowed rainwater to be channelled in via a series of pipes from the gutters. At times of heavy rain this would accumulate to flood the entire courtyard forming a small pond – the surplus draining away from the house via other pipes. All fascinating stuff.

After our visit we hopped on the tourist bus and headed back to collect our bags. Managed to get in a skype call to Dad to wish him a happy birthday before getting our taxi to the airport. We arrived very early and while I was in the loo Brent got chatting to Woo: he was a really lovely guy and we whiled away the 2 hour wait very pleasantly. Woo had lots in common with us in terms of his views on things and we are keen to stay in touch. As we headed for boarding the plane he disappeared into the toilet and we presumed he got on the plane. When we landed at KL we were both concerned not to see him to say goodbye. We are a bit worried that something happened to him as they were calling for one passenger before take off. This passenger's name didnt sound like Woo but s/he never did get on the plane! All very strange. We['ve emailed Woo and hope to hear from him soon. Next stop Kuala Lumpur!

Saturday 25th April
We had booked into another Tune Hotel as it was conventiently situated at the airport and we were able to take a short walk from the terminal to our room. Sounds great eh? However we didn't have the good night's sleep we'd hoped for: our room overlooked a courtyard, with seating for guests. All night there were people talking loudly and at one point very late on there seemed to be an argument going on between 2 asian guys... what a shame! Stiill we were up early and back to the terminal to get our flight to Chiang Mai. All went smoothly and we got a taxi to Eagle House, where we were staying. After a bit of a hiccup over air con not working, we settled into our room before heading out to the Saturday walking street: a fantastic night market, where i picked up a couple of nice tops for under £2 each... wow!
The atmosphere was terrific, with musicians playing and hawkers selling lovely food. We chose Pat Thai, and were impressed with our ability to walk along eating it with chopsticks!


Sunday 26th April
This morning we had a wander round town and got some prices for cooking, massage and treks. We really liked the German / Thai couple who even offered us a reduction if we chose to do all 3 with them. We continued up to the local museum, stopping en route at a very nice coffee shop. Looking around the museum took quite some time as it was enormous and the detail of the history of Chiang Mai was actually too much for us!! There were some very interesting parts though and I particularly liked the upstairs rooms where models of local tradespeople had been set up eg. tin smiths. It showed how life had changed in a very down to earth way. Also on this floor there was a photographic exhibition, which made us realise that some of our photos are very good! After a nice cold drink we headed back towards our guest house for a rest before heading out again. We asked about their courses and for some reason decided to do the cookiig with them tomorrow and also booked a trek with them, even though it was more expensive...what are we like?? Later on we went to the Sunday night market. Like yesterday's market this was ginormous!! I was hoping to find a sarong, ready for our trek, but had no luck! This market had more art work than the last one, but there were some lovely clothes too.

Monday 27th April
Today we did a day of Thai cooking. We were very pleased to discover that we had the teacher to ourselves, which meant lots of attention! He was another character, who spoke English like a cross between a Dalek and a Japanese POW camp leader!!! This proved quite difficult at times – a/ the speed he spoke made it hard to understand and b/ it was hard to take him seriously. However he really knew his stuff! We each chose 5 dishes and then all went to the market to buy the necessary ingredients. En route Mr ? pointed out lots of the ingredients growing along the streets: kaffir lime leaves sweet basil trees, coriander, mangoes and bananas among them. Eagle House 2 had a 'kitchen' area set up, with 3 gas burners...all very basic, but adequate. Mr ? demonstrated how to chop the various vegetables and we then prepared them all. We both chose a curry and this was the first dish we prepared, and probably our favourite. It was interesting to learn how to make coconut milk and cream and then to use it to cook the curry. Of course eating it was the best part! Here are the dishes we prepared and ate!
Linda:
Green curry, chicken with cashew nuts, chicken coconut soup, stir fried mixed vegetables and glass noodle salad
Brent:
Yellow curry, chicken with ginger, Pad Thai noodles, sticky rice with mango and steamed fish with lime...just fantastic. We loved the fish, but were so full we couldn't eat it all. After we'd bagged up most of it the local family were pleased to tuck into what was left!! One of many tips we picked up was how to add the egg to the noodles...but i'd best not give it away. We really enjoyed our day and tonight we enjoyed a few jugs of the local ale in the Chiang Mai saloon bar: pretty close to an English pub, with footie and music!!

Tuesday 28th April...Massage day!
Off in a tuc tuc before 9am we met our teacher for the day, Jane and had a good chat before the other 2 course members arrived: Daniela and Emily. We then had an exhausting day learning just a tenth of the moves involved in Thai massage. Jane was lovely and we learned a lot. At lunchtime we ate with D and E and couldn't believe it when Daniela said she lived in Nottingham, in Mapperley. I mentioned the Maze and she said Gaz Peacham sent her regular info on the gigs there!!! Small world eh? She goes back next week, and I asked her to pop in and see him!!! In the afternoon we all struggled a bit in the heat. Both Brent and I dropped off during the head massage...lovely!Ate our left over food of fish with lime then went and had a coluple of pints and watched a bit of footie at the saloon bar. We are getting used to the feel of the plalce now and quite enjoy the walk down to the internet cafe and the bar: we pass lots of pretty Thai girls offering Thai massage, as well as a food market full of gorgeous fresh ruit in little plastic packs, as well as whole. Fresh fist swim in big tubs ready to be chosen and chillies and herbs abound.The atmospbere is lovely.. there's no pressure selling just a lot of smiles and bows.