Chiang Mai, Thailand

Jasmine and I departed early morning on Monday and flew north to Chiang Mai on Bangkok airways. We took full advantage of the lounge which had free coffee, tea, chocolate muffins, popcorn, and wifi (all the essentials really). However, I managed to get into a little spat with the flight attendant before takeoff. We were seated in the emergency exit aisle which apparently meant I couldn't have a neck pillow (clearly blocking the exit). The flight attendant and I practically got into a tug of war over the pillow. He won, but I can no longer with a clear conscience recommend the airline to others.

Chiang Mai is a lovely city. We felt our general malaise of being in Bangkok lift as soon as we landed. At our hostel, the living place, we found our friend Anna who was just hanging out with the orangutans in Malaysia for two weeks. 

I think the best way to describe CM is that it's Florida for the more adventurous retirees. We entered many restaurants filled with 60-70 year old Europeans and Americans having the best time. Their strong presence in the old city westernized the place. The other main group populating the city (other than actual Thais of course) were backpackers uniformly dressed in baggy elephant pants with hair in various stages of dreads. Jaz felt more comfortable with the latter group, while Anna and I felt quite at home with the older crowd. 

After exploring the temples and parks in the city on the first day, we separated for different activities during the day. 

Jasmine: I decided to visit the Doi Thep temple on the mountain just west of the city.  To get there, I sat in the back of an open taxi with 8 other people while we drove up a very steep and snaking road, and then climbed the 300 some steps to the temple. Needless to say the views were absolutely stunning.

Katie & Anna: we went to scenic Asia cooking school for a full day lesson. We are accomplished Thai chefs at this point. Our (as Anna calls her) cooking captain was hilarious. The motto of the day: you cut yourself, burn yourself, or food doesn't taste good just keep smiling because we are taking your photo!

We decided to do the cooking school at the farm. So first things first we got to explore the farm! It wouldn't be an authentic experience without the hats.

We made spring rolls! Very easy to do in the end. You can make your spring roll like "a skinny baby, medium baby, or fat baby." Every time someone broke their spring roll the CC yelled, "oh no. You make your baby cry!" Anna and my spring rolls passed muster, but others caused the question "why your baby so ugly!?"

The progress of our curries. From left to right the top is green, mannamar, the. Red. Final product is bottom right!

How it gets from a to b you ask. Anna's hard work of course:

The best part of the class was learning what is actually in all the food we are eating. Also helpful tips like do not eat the large pieces of lemongrass floating in the soup. Jasmine didn't take the course, as a result she can't take the heat:

We had a great time. On Wednesday, we headed northwest to Pai, but more on that later.