A bright new Thai cooking talent is discovered in Northern Thailand
I arrived back into the Thai capital very chilled out after my time in the beaches. I only stayed two days in Bangkok. I really had some errands to do before hitting the traveling trail again. Firstly I needed to pick up my passport with it’s newly acquired Laos visa. That took all of five minutes once the travel agent with which I had left my passport with found which damn drawer they had put my passport in. Next it was off to another travel agent (the lax attitude of previous agent meant I wouldn’t be using them again). I booked an evening bus trip to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Lastly I had to find the Thai Airways office to change my flight dates from Thailand to Vietnam and to arrange some more flights back into Thailand from Saigon. You see, I can’t get enough of this place.
Once that was done I really had nothing to do except sit in the sidewalk cafes and watch the world go by. For those that don’t know, Khao San Road is the place to kick back. It is the backpacker ghetto in Bangkok. Full of stalls selling everything from dodgy foodstuffs (fried locusts for anyone?) to knock off surfing clothing and fake Rolex watches. It is crawling with Farangs (non-Thai people), either just arrived carrying huge backpacks in the sweltering heat, or nursing monster hangovers with their newly acquired Thai “girlfriends” and considerably lighter wallets. But like I said, it’s a great place to kill a couple of hours sipping an ice cold drink. Yes I said cool drink, travelling does make you lay off the beer a bit especially during the day. Sad, isn’t it?
My theory is that everything on Khao San Road is about 25% more expensive just because that’s where all the foreigners are and they stupidly pay the inflated prices. My hair had become quite long and was looking a bit ridiculous so with time to kill I decided to wander a few block away from the busy street to find a Thai hairdresser. I soon found a gents barber shop which looked like it had been preserved from the 1950’s but with Asian hairdressers all dressed in those old style barber’s uniforms and the customers all sat on a bench along wall waiting for their turn. I took a seat waiting in the queue. Once my turn came around the guy I got could speak no English, of course. He sat me down and powdered up my neck ready for some serious styling. Luckily a guy a couple of chairs down was having his hair shaved in the style of a Buddhist monk (completely shaved) and I pointed saying, “Same same but different, number 3,” holding up three fingers. Anyway he got my message and I got my hair shaved as I wanted it, but the experience was well worth the 50 Baht (80p) it cost for the haircut. It was just nice to get a feel for how things are done in the real Bangkok.
Eventually it came time to leave so after again storing one bag at my guesthouse, at 6:30pm I took my rucksack around the corner to wait, with a bunch of other backpackers, for the VIP bus to arrive. The bus arrived on time and we all piled on but then none of the bus drivers seemed particularly keen to get going so we left well after 7:30pm.
The overnight bus ride to Northern Thailand went pleasantly enough. It’s really just your average bus ride in Thailand. You are shown a Hollywood movie with Thai subtitles which you can’t hear. You listen to your walkman trying to. The interior lights are put out around 11pm so you can’t read your book. There are overhead lights for each seat which don’t work. At about 1am the bus pulls into a roadside shop with tables and chairs on the sidewalk so the bus drivers can eat something. When the bus gets going again you snatch a few 20 minute naps until it gets light. The only difference with the bus ride to Chiang Mai was the air conditioning on the bus was not working so we didn’t have the legendary Icelandic air conditioning and no use for the two blankets that are handed out to each passenger.
We arrived at the outskirts of Chiang Mai about 6:30am. This particular bus company had a slick operation and we were met by girls who told us that there were Songthaews to take us to a guesthouse (belonging to the bus company) in the centre on town where we were given complimentary coffee and tea. The guesthouse was nice enough and cheap, there was actually a choice of two and I chose to stay in the one a bit further out which had a swimming pool. But the main purpose of this bus company was to sell trekking trips to all these potential customers which the same company had newly delivered. Well I hadn’t come to Chiang Mai to sign up for any trekking, I was all trekked out after Everest Base Camp. So I got let off the hook there, I didn’t even have to listen to the sales pitch which everyone was receiving whilst drinking their coffee.
I had come to Chiang Mai to do some Thai Cooking courses. I love to cook and I love Thai food so this seemed the perfect place. After checking into my hotel I headed off to explore the old town. Chiang Mai was originally contained within four fortified city walls. Obviously the growth of the city means it is now a lot bigger than the original square but the remains of the old city can be found along with the moat which encircled the old town. Close to Tha Phae Gate, one of many gates that there used to be into the town, I found the Chiang Mai Cooking School. They run 5 one-day courses and you decide how many to take. I signed up for one thinking I will make a decision at the end of each day whether to return the next day.
I spent the next four entertaining days taking these cooking courses. “Trainee” chefs are taken bright and early, 10am is bright and early in Thailand, 10km out of the centre of Chiang Mai to a house where the cooking classes are held. Each course starts with an activity such as learning Thai ingredients, visiting a local produce market and making curry pastes. Then we are instructed how to prepare and cook each of the six dishes scheduled to be cooked on that particular day. Everyone has their own cooking station where we are then able to attempt to make our own meals.
You get to eat all the food you make, one dish is eaten immediately as a morning “snack”, three dishes are eaten for lunch. A lighter dish such as salad is eaten in the afternoon along with a dessert. There is also heaps of exotic Thai fruit to try at the end of the day. Well, I was in my element and loved every minute of the courses. All the favorite Thai dishes are made like green curry, hot and sour soup and stir fry chicken with cashew nuts. They really are simple to make and are of “restaurant standard”. They tasted delicious but you will have to take my word for it (they haven’t worked out a way of putting taste and smell on the internet, but I am assured they are working on it).
The ladies running the classes know their stuff and have fun doing their work. On one day Sompon, the owner of the cooking school took one of the classes. Sompon is supposedly legendary having spent some time in the UK before opening his cooking school. Apparently in 2001 the UKStyle TV channel in England ran a series called the “The Thai Way”. I hadn’t seen the series, I wish I had. Shaz and Aron, a New Zealand couple returning home from the UK had and they were in awe of the guy.
Alas, like all good travellers I had to move on. It was tempting to dither in Chiang Mai a while. The guesthouse I was staying in was cheap and had a pool. This is a welcome bonus for us grubby backpackers especially in the blistering Thailand heat. But I still wanted to spend some time in Laos before having to head back into Thailand to be in Bangkok for May 9.
Steve and Gareth, two nice English travellers staying in the same hotel, Shaz and Aron and myself are busing up to the Thai/Laos border on Saturday, April 27. There we hope to cross into Laos and take a slow boat down the Mekong River. Telephones and internet are reportedly not that reliable in Laos so you guys might have to wait until I get back to Bangkok before the next exciting installment.
