Cooking with Dumbo

Cooking School Goals

Chiang Mai Cooking School. that was all I was thinking when I chose Bangkok as a destination on the Round the World ticket.

Its a scary thought but I've been wanting to do a Thai Cooking Class for years. I've just never put Thailand at the top of the list of places to visit before. But with an around the world ticket and a city to stop in within Asia, Bangkok won out this time. So for the past few months I've been thinking of how do I complete this goal.

Chiang Mai is just 1 hour away from Bangkok. And well things weren't looking too good for it as a destination considering a recent plane crash with a budget airline in Chiang Mai. But I persisted by going with Air Asia and not the 1-2-Go. Otherwise known as 1-2-Explode. Couldn't help but go, considering the flight ticket cost me only 1700 baht or 60 Australian dollars inclusive of taxes. Yeah, gotta love the purchasing power here.

Anyway after arriving in Chiang Mai at 8pm the first goal was to get orientated. And what better way then to go to the night markets. As had been done in Bangkok on arrival. Still didn't buy anything. But found how much I was going to enjoy Chang Mai. It cost me 30 baht for Thai Red Curry with Chicken in a food court at the markets. Wow. $1.25 Australian. How cool is that. So needless to say I ate myself silly in Chiang Mai. Now I say food court, not food stand. By this time I was happy to eat at this level of place. A halfway point. If I couldn't see unsafe handling practises then it was okay.

The first day of exploring I spent walking around the old town around. Going from Temple to Temple. Unlike Bangkok I actually found great local hospitality. This time in the form of an off duty Police Sargent who came to my assistance when I looked to the map. He then proceeded to give me a place and guidance on the expected street lights, and when to turn for directions. Funny thing is he saw me about an hour later looking to the map again as he passed by in a tuk-tuk. He got out of the tuk-tuk and gave me more guidance. Never got that sort of hospitality in Bangkok from on the street. By the end of day 2 I was Templed out. No more Thai Temples for me for this trip.



Day 3 I had booked the cooking school. It was cool. The day consisted of cooking 6 dishes, and a few little things like visiting the markets, an explanation of the different local vegetables and curries. I have now the ability to cook a Thai dish or 2 from scratch. And I even experienced flaming up the wok as you can see from the below pictures. For those wishing to experience 'Chad's Thai Dinners' then you'll have to ask nicely. You can see too that I can do either a non spicy Pad Thai, and 'fire in the hole' Penang Curry.

Trekking Thailand

Day 4 and 5. I was trekking. Yep me trekking. I was with not much more than a small backpack and walking stick. It was belting down monsoonal rain in the afternoon, and worst of all I felt dirty from the mud everywhere. Yuck! My preciously clean office hands were covered in dirt. Of course I had the obligatory slip over on the walk. But everyone did considering we were climbing up and down to our overnight stay in the hill tribe. The accommodation was a traditional building with not much more than a toilet. The shower was basic and cold water. The kitchen well that was interesting, I had to forgo my rule of no dodgy prepared food. I am still alive. Of course there was no power though so luckily I had purchased a torch in advance.

Within the 2 days though wow what a time I had. I rode Dumbo, or well actually I nicknamed him Donkey. Donkey was a big elephant. A patient stubborn one he was. He just stood there as every other elephant over took him when it came to the waterhole break. I think he was still pissed off that neither I nor the French guy sharing the ride had bought him bananas. Should have bought the bananas. We had a very snubbed trunk coming up at us every so often.


On the second day of the trip we white water rafted, and then Bamboo rafted down the river. I even got to be co driver with the big stick. Double bonus points. Shame I haven't got a photo of it to prove it.