November 22, 2007. Chiang Mai, Thailand.

(notes from my journal)

Today, we had an amazing cooking class with Yui at A Lot Of Thai. We were picked up at 9 AM by Yui’s husband Kwan, in a matador (remember those?) and taken to their house. It’s a traditional style house and actually reminded me of homes in Jalgaon. The class was held outside in their compound. They had fans and shade to keep the heat out.

In the morning, We cooked Pad Thai, Green Curry and Tom Yum Soup. During what would normally be lunch time, we took a break from cooking and eating to visit the local market and look at the various Thai vegetables and fruits (Heena and I skipped the meat section due to the smell). At the market, Yui showed us her favorite place to get iced coffee and we got one for ourselves too (shared it since we were quite stuffed and had an afternoon of eating ahead of us). It was delicious and probably the best we’ve had ever.

After we got back, we cooked some more: Sticky rice with mango, cashew nut tofu, spring rolls. We had a lot of fun all day long. Thai cooking is easy, uses fresh simple ingredients and you can whip up excellent dishes in almost no time!

In the evening, we went to the local market and Heena did some shopping, while I pretended to enjoy and followed her around mostly like a zombie, nodding yes and no (mostly based on my mood) to her questions of whether something was good or bad. Honestly, I do not think it matters what my answer is since she gets whatever she likes anyway. At least I kept myself amused that way – I’d deliberately say yes to an ugly item to see if she rejects it, and vice-versa. It’s a game! Later, we went to the night market (a.k.a “bhangaar” market) and walked about and got bored really quickly, so we came back.

On the way, we saw a lot of festivities for Loy Krathong and we stopped on the bridge to watch the locals burst fire-crackers. I tried to take some shots, but the lighting was too low and we wanted to enjoy the place instead of trying to play with the camera. I really regretting not having invested in a tripod before we left. Initially, I had thought I’d take part with the locals, but my throat had started aching. I felt a cold/sore throat coming. Those are never good…

We had skipped dinner today. After a day of eating, who wants to eat dinner! We relaxed in the hotel and just talked about the day and how much fun it was…

This post is a part of the Thailand, Laos and Cambodia 2007 itinerary