Thai Cooking Class in Chiang Mai

One of the greatest things about traveling to a foreign country is being able to experience both the culture and the food. While some of the food being sold in the markets and by the vendors was very foreign to us and we were not brave enough to sample it (e.g. gelled blood?) we enjoyed many of the Thai dishes. A popular tourist activity in Thailand, and very reasonably priced in Chiang Mai, is to take a cooking class. At 900 baht each ($30) for the full day, we had a full day of cooking, including a visit to the local market where our teacher, Lee Yu, taught us about the various vegetables, rice, noodles and spices used in Thai cooking. Lee Yu had a wonderful sense of humour and we enjoyed the company of 4 ladies from Australia.

We each had the opportunity to make 6 different dishes (plus a curry from scratch) so between us we sampled many of the dishes. We made:

Appetizer: spring rolls and papaya salad

Noodle: pad thai and pad see uw

Soup: tom yum and coconut milk soup

Stir fry: cashew nut with chicken, sweet and sour and stir-fried hot basil

Curry: red curry, panang and massaman

Dessert: sticky rice with mango and deep fried banana

And best of all, we got to eat it all. We look forward to trying out some of the recipes when we're home. On the down-side, we won't have someone doing all the prep and clean up for us when we do this at home :)

Chiang Mai Sunday Market

January 3:
I have a memory that almost brings me to tears each time I think about it; a memory that makes me realize how many blessings we have and how very fortunate we are. A memory that makes my heart ache for so many who don’t enjoy our privileges, our freedoms, our rights.

The Chiang Mai Sunday Night Market was, overall, a wonderful experience. There were hundreds of vendors, each selling their wares for almost ridiculously low prices. The night was warm, the quality of the merchandise was good, and the vendors were friendly. There were no hassles and many “sawadeekaws” (hellos) and “copkoonkaw’s” (thank-yous).It was a shopper’s and a food taster’s paradise.

The oddity in this paradise was the number of blind people we saw singing in the streets for money. While it was difficult to know their age, many appeared to be in their 40s. Some sat hunched under a blanket, a microphone to their lips; others wandered slowly down the streets using their cane and the crowd of people to guide them along. Some with voices so beautiful one initially wondered if they were lip-syncing to recorded songs. All were blind, some with visible disfigurements.

I was curious and asked what this was about. The story goes that as young children these people were promising singers. Because of this, some had acid purposefully thrown on their eyes to make them blind. As blind children they were fully dependent on their perpetrators. They earned money by singing and begging; money that benefited the very monsters who crippled them.

Imagine as a young child not only losing your eyesight, but losing everything familiar. Imagine as an adult continuing to be dependent, needing to sing and beg for money on the streets. One can only wonder what their life has been like; it is hard to imagine that they have enjoyed any of the privileges, freedoms, rights or dignity that we take so much for granted. And all because they were born with a beautiful voice in a country unlike Canada.

While I saw many smiles at the Chiang Mai market none came from the blind singers; I wondered if they ever have anything to smile for. My heart weeps for them.

Christmas Season in Bangkok

Pictures taken Dec 29 - 31

One would not expect to see Christmas decorations in a country that is 95% Buddhist. Yet, not only did we see many decorations, we saw displays that would rival the best in Canada’s largest centers. Bangkok has tens, if not hundreds of malls, and our entertainment one evening was to visit some of those malls to see the various displays. Many people had the same idea as us, as hundreds of Thai people vied for the best spots for their photos.

While the Thai people love Christmas, it is because they love celebrations. For them it is very much the commercial aspect, not the religious one that they celebrate. There were no nativity scenes to be found, and in a recent internet post on this subject, when questioned who Jesus was, one Thai thought he was the father of Santa Claus.

We rode ancient bikes in Ancient City

The Ancient City in Bangkok (admission 300 baht) is a large open-air museum covering more than eighty hectares. There are 109 scaled-down facsimiles of many of Thailand’s most famous monuments, including many of the Wats and even a floating market. The property itself is shaped like Thailand, and with the ancient bikes we used for our transportation to do our sight-seeing, combined with the heat of the day, we felt like we had biked all of Thailand when we were done. A truly great experience.

A few photos of some of the replications:

New Years in Bangkok

Jan 1:

Most of us have watched Dick Clark welcome in the New Year in New York’s Time Square. I have often watched the celebration wondering what it would be like to be among the hordes of people braving the cold to watch the ball drop, signaling the beginning of a brand new year. Our experience this year in Bangkok was likely the closest we’ll have to welcoming in the New Year in a similar, yet very different, way.

The similarity between Bangkok and New York were the hordes of people, all moving to try and get somewhere, closer to something I think, but their destination mostly remained a mystery. I have never been in a crowd so big before, a crowd where if you didn’t hang on tightly to your group by forming a human chain, you would quickly be separated. A crowd that moved slowly along, and you just had to move along with it; there was little choice to do anything different. A crowd that was calm and polite, smiling and I’m sure saying “sorry” in their own language, as we inadvertently jostled each other.

There was entertainment on the big screen – a group of young Thai musicians performing somewhere amongst the very large crowd. And there was speaking in Thai – we weren’t sure what was being said but the speaker was met with lots of cheers. And then the countdown began – the large crowd counting down from thirty in Thai, their voices getting louder as the numbers got smaller. And then the New Year was welcomed in – Sawatdee Pii Mai (HelloYear New). There was lots of cheering but no kissing; public displays of affection are taboo in the Thailand culture. And there were fireworks and “oohs” and “aahs” sound the same in any language.

I’m not sure what is easier to bear – the freezing cold of New York’s Time Square or the humid heat of Central Bangkok. And while we missed hearing Auld Lang Singe, this was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we were glad we had.


We had New Year’s dinner at Ge Passo – an Italian restaurant in Ryan and Meagen’s neighborhood.

Suan Lum Night Market and the Fish Spa

Dec 30:

I learned to water-ski when I was twenty years old. I had tried the year prior, but my attempts were half-hearted as I had an irrational fear that fish would bite my toes if I happened to fall in the lake. Now, I am much older, half way around the world, and what do I do but submerge my feet in a tank of tiny little fish whose sole purpose is to bite toes and feet.

On our visit to Suan Lum Night Market in Bangkok I had two unique experiences. I tasted authentic Thai ice-cream; certainly different from North American ice-cream, but just as delicious. The second unique experience was going to a fish spa – an oversized glassed-in fish tank that people put their feet into. For only 150 Baht, for fifteen minutes one can have fish eat away all their dead skin cells, supposedly leaving their feet feeling healthy and rejuvenated. We decided we would see if this actually worked.

We were ushered into the building, shown to our seats and instructed to clean our feet. We prepared ourselves for this experience; I took a deep breath, drew on my inner courage, submerged my feet and immediately screamed. This was definitely NOT fun. While it wasn’t painful I also wouldn’t call it pleasurable. It was mostly just weird – it felt like what it was – hundreds of tiny little fish nibbling on my feet.

Eventually my whimpering and facial grimacing stopped, my heart rate slowed to a more normal pace, and my muscles relaxed somewhat. I say somewhat because my toes continued to be clenched together – I was not letting those little suckers get between my toes. Having other tourists come in to experience the same fun we were having helped to distract us. At ten minutes into our experience we were old hats at the fish spa business, advising the newcomers that they too would get used to the weird feelings. I was even told I looked relaxed – it truly is amazing how deceiving perceptions can be.

As for the two unique experiences at the Bangkok Night Market I can say with confidence I will definitely try authentic Thai ice-cream again.

Mom at the fish spa from Ryan Detwiller on Vimeo.

Wat Arun and Wat Pho

Day two and we set out on our adventure without our local tour guides (Ryan and Meagen). But we were armed with our directions, and with the key phrases we need to know such as:
Sawadeekaaw - hello / good-bye
Copkoonkaaw - thank-you
Ka - yup (to show you agree but also to end for politeness)
My ow (as in ouch) - don't want
Hong nam - bathroom
And most important: Yen agat soy nung (where we were staying - Yen agat is the name of the road; soy means street/road; and nung is number one)

After taxi and sky-train rides, we took river transportation to navigate to two of the large temples; taking the public ferry (cost of 13 baht) to Tha Tien and then a water taxi (3 baht) to Wat Arun. The traffic on the river was almost as busy as the traffic on the roads.

Wat Arun (admission 20 baht) is a smaller, but older Wat (temple). It’s most prominent characteristic is the 82 meter high prang (tower). It also has ornate floral mosaics made from broken, multi-hued Chinese porcelain, a common temple ornamentation in the early Ratanakosin period.

Wat Pho (admission 50 baht) has the largest reclining Buddha and the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand. It is also the country’s earliest center for public education. The Reclining Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high and illustrates the passing of the Buddha into nirvana (i.e. the Buddha’s death). The figure is modeled out of plaster around a brick core and finished in gold leaf.

There are over 1000 Buddha images at Wat Pho. Wat Pho is also the national headquarters for the teaching and preservation of traditional Thai medicine, including Thai massage, so Candace and I had to give this a try. We’re not quite sure why a foot massage (60 minutes) included not only a massage of the feet and legs, but also the neck and shoulders, but we certainly weren’t complaining – it felt wonderful.