The next stop on my South East Asia trip was Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. The flight from Bangkok got in pretty late (though I'm glad I flew and didn't take the train as I later heard that the train broke down that day and took almost a full day to reach Chiang Mai). It was a case of dumping bags in the room and setting off to explore the city without wasting any time.
South East Asia loves a good night market, and Chiang Mai is no exception. They have a massive tourist night market on every night, but if you're lucky enough to be there on a weekend (which I was) they have a 'local' market too which I preferred. I went straight to the local night market which was in a great location with plenty of live music and locals around. I did a tiny bit of shopping - purchasing my second of five pairs of harem pants - and then landed at the insect stand. Eating insects has always spurred an element of curiosity in me, with my inner foodie wondering what they'd taste like. On the advice of the locals I opted for fried grasshoppers, as apparently these were among the tastiests and the worms could ooze in your mouth which didn't sound particularly pleasant. The woman at the stall didn't let me take just one grasshopper - I had to buy a 100g bag with about 50 of the things. My Thai friend and I stopped at an awesome little chillout bar near the market playing live music and ordered a couple of glasses of wine - clearly wine is the natural accompaniment to fried bugs. The grasshoppers themselves weren't actually unpleasant. Pulling off the legs of something before you eat it is a bit odd but they actually tasted ok - I can't really think of anything to compare it to but they were savoury and a bit crunchy.
The next day was one of my favourite days of the trip - packed full of activities. In the morning I booked on to a jungle ziplining adventure with Jungle Flight - I highly recommend them. The safety standards were excellent (despite the limited English of some of the staff), the price was reasonable (including a great post ziplining lunch), you get a free tshirt, its in a great part of the rainforest with amazingly scenic views and is generally great fun. Jumping off a 40m platform was a bit daunting but the rest of it was exhilirating and, despite the intense heat that day, I loved it -and it also gave me the opportunity for some extreme selfies.
I got back to my hotel with 10 mins to spare and then jumped on to a mini bus to Doi Suthep mountain and Wat Phra That temple. This is pretty far out of town (about 15km) so its best to do on an organised tour rather than on your own (though the local buses to go there) and definitely worth doing. This temple is home to many stories - such as the Legend of the White Elephant and the story of the protective five headed Nagas. There are over 300 steps to reach the temple so I'm glad we went at dusk when it wasn't as hot. The inside of the temple was a spiritual experience. I learned a lot more about buddhism - the significance of the positions of the buddha, the traditions observed by people, how they prayed, and a lot about their beliefs. We then got to receive a blessing by a monk, who chanted and poured water over us and then tied a white string on our left wrist. It was really serene in the temple and quite a humbling experience.
From there it was straight to a typical khantoke dinner. There are a bunch of tourist trap ones in town where they cram dinner and a show in a packed room but I loved doing the off the beaten track version at a family's house. We drove into a residential part of the city and pulled up to a gorgeous two storey wooden house. The owner and his son came to the door to greet us with a garland of flowers and a welcome drink and then took us to perform a blessing before entering the house, offering small bouquets of flowers to the spirit guarding the house. He gave us a tour and introduced us to his family and showed us how the meal was being prepared. A khantoke is basically a bit like Spanish tapas. Lots of dishes are prepared and put on a tray in small bowls and then you pick a bit of everything and eat it with your hands along with some sticky rice. Before the meal they gave us some leaves and pointed us to a tray full of chopped up goodies. I piled all of them into my leaf, wrapped it up and popped it in my mouth. I didn't realise however that one of the goodies was chopped up hot chillies and my mouth was soon on fire despite my high spice tolerance. The family found this hilarious and rushed to my aid with a tray full of gorgeous coconut flans and cold cucumber which quickly restored my mouth back to normal. We sat on the floor with the family as there were only four of us which meant we could all eat together. The food was delicious!!! Steamed chicken amok in a banana leaf, fried chicken, stewed meats, a gorgeous tomato and chilli paste and many other treats accompanied by a chicken soup and a trio of desserts. Stuffed was an understatement. Before leaving, the grandparents of the family chanted over us and blessed us with another string tied to our wrist. Two blessings in one day! Then they gave us some gifts of a hand woven basket with some Thai plums that were yummy and we were off on our way. I was so stuffed that I fell asleep in the car on the way back in some sort of food coma.
The next day it was an early start to set off to Thai cooking lessons with Thai Orchid cooking school. Again I'd recommend them. We went to the market first and learnt about the ingredients we'd be using, as well as trying a few delicacies like the pungent Durian fruit (which isn't allowed in most hotels because the smell is that bad) and fermented eggs (which didn't really appeal so most of us didn't try these). On the menu were spring rolls, pad thai with prawns, a green chicken curry and some mango with sticky rice. We were given demos of each dish and then left to our own devices to cook. I love cooking so this was naturally one of my favourite activities. The food tasted great and the recipes were easy to follow. We got given a recipe book at the end and I bought one of the knives we used so I'll definitely be recreating these at home. Word of warning though, it was very hot and whilst we were doing the demos our chicken and eggs and prawns were sitting in the heat so we all had a bit of a runny tummy after the course.
I contemplated the Chiang Mai zoo but one of the girls I met that day was a conservationist and put me off giving me horror stories about animals in captivity. I also contemplated Tiger Kingdom but the locals told me it wasn't safe and that every month tourists were injured, bitten or mauled by the tigers, which was also enough to put me off. So I took the next 24 hours to do some souvenir shopping, laze by the pool or wonder through the city exploring. After such a packed itinerary I needed that bit of downtime as travelling can get exhausting!!
Next stop ... Luang Prabang, Laos
South East Asia loves a good night market, and Chiang Mai is no exception. They have a massive tourist night market on every night, but if you're lucky enough to be there on a weekend (which I was) they have a 'local' market too which I preferred. I went straight to the local night market which was in a great location with plenty of live music and locals around. I did a tiny bit of shopping - purchasing my second of five pairs of harem pants - and then landed at the insect stand. Eating insects has always spurred an element of curiosity in me, with my inner foodie wondering what they'd taste like. On the advice of the locals I opted for fried grasshoppers, as apparently these were among the tastiests and the worms could ooze in your mouth which didn't sound particularly pleasant. The woman at the stall didn't let me take just one grasshopper - I had to buy a 100g bag with about 50 of the things. My Thai friend and I stopped at an awesome little chillout bar near the market playing live music and ordered a couple of glasses of wine - clearly wine is the natural accompaniment to fried bugs. The grasshoppers themselves weren't actually unpleasant. Pulling off the legs of something before you eat it is a bit odd but they actually tasted ok - I can't really think of anything to compare it to but they were savoury and a bit crunchy.
The next day was one of my favourite days of the trip - packed full of activities. In the morning I booked on to a jungle ziplining adventure with Jungle Flight - I highly recommend them. The safety standards were excellent (despite the limited English of some of the staff), the price was reasonable (including a great post ziplining lunch), you get a free tshirt, its in a great part of the rainforest with amazingly scenic views and is generally great fun. Jumping off a 40m platform was a bit daunting but the rest of it was exhilirating and, despite the intense heat that day, I loved it -and it also gave me the opportunity for some extreme selfies.
I got back to my hotel with 10 mins to spare and then jumped on to a mini bus to Doi Suthep mountain and Wat Phra That temple. This is pretty far out of town (about 15km) so its best to do on an organised tour rather than on your own (though the local buses to go there) and definitely worth doing. This temple is home to many stories - such as the Legend of the White Elephant and the story of the protective five headed Nagas. There are over 300 steps to reach the temple so I'm glad we went at dusk when it wasn't as hot. The inside of the temple was a spiritual experience. I learned a lot more about buddhism - the significance of the positions of the buddha, the traditions observed by people, how they prayed, and a lot about their beliefs. We then got to receive a blessing by a monk, who chanted and poured water over us and then tied a white string on our left wrist. It was really serene in the temple and quite a humbling experience.
From there it was straight to a typical khantoke dinner. There are a bunch of tourist trap ones in town where they cram dinner and a show in a packed room but I loved doing the off the beaten track version at a family's house. We drove into a residential part of the city and pulled up to a gorgeous two storey wooden house. The owner and his son came to the door to greet us with a garland of flowers and a welcome drink and then took us to perform a blessing before entering the house, offering small bouquets of flowers to the spirit guarding the house. He gave us a tour and introduced us to his family and showed us how the meal was being prepared. A khantoke is basically a bit like Spanish tapas. Lots of dishes are prepared and put on a tray in small bowls and then you pick a bit of everything and eat it with your hands along with some sticky rice. Before the meal they gave us some leaves and pointed us to a tray full of chopped up goodies. I piled all of them into my leaf, wrapped it up and popped it in my mouth. I didn't realise however that one of the goodies was chopped up hot chillies and my mouth was soon on fire despite my high spice tolerance. The family found this hilarious and rushed to my aid with a tray full of gorgeous coconut flans and cold cucumber which quickly restored my mouth back to normal. We sat on the floor with the family as there were only four of us which meant we could all eat together. The food was delicious!!! Steamed chicken amok in a banana leaf, fried chicken, stewed meats, a gorgeous tomato and chilli paste and many other treats accompanied by a chicken soup and a trio of desserts. Stuffed was an understatement. Before leaving, the grandparents of the family chanted over us and blessed us with another string tied to our wrist. Two blessings in one day! Then they gave us some gifts of a hand woven basket with some Thai plums that were yummy and we were off on our way. I was so stuffed that I fell asleep in the car on the way back in some sort of food coma.
The next day it was an early start to set off to Thai cooking lessons with Thai Orchid cooking school. Again I'd recommend them. We went to the market first and learnt about the ingredients we'd be using, as well as trying a few delicacies like the pungent Durian fruit (which isn't allowed in most hotels because the smell is that bad) and fermented eggs (which didn't really appeal so most of us didn't try these). On the menu were spring rolls, pad thai with prawns, a green chicken curry and some mango with sticky rice. We were given demos of each dish and then left to our own devices to cook. I love cooking so this was naturally one of my favourite activities. The food tasted great and the recipes were easy to follow. We got given a recipe book at the end and I bought one of the knives we used so I'll definitely be recreating these at home. Word of warning though, it was very hot and whilst we were doing the demos our chicken and eggs and prawns were sitting in the heat so we all had a bit of a runny tummy after the course.
I contemplated the Chiang Mai zoo but one of the girls I met that day was a conservationist and put me off giving me horror stories about animals in captivity. I also contemplated Tiger Kingdom but the locals told me it wasn't safe and that every month tourists were injured, bitten or mauled by the tigers, which was also enough to put me off. So I took the next 24 hours to do some souvenir shopping, laze by the pool or wonder through the city exploring. After such a packed itinerary I needed that bit of downtime as travelling can get exhausting!!
Next stop ... Luang Prabang, Laos
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