Night Market and Fish Spas

Every Sunday in Chiang Mai they close off Ratchemonden (sp?) street and it becomes a massive market. The street itself runs the length of the old city and becomes a never ending stretch of food vendors, craftmakers and buskers.

We’d heard that the market was worth checking out so we made sure to leave some time to do it. As we left the cooking school we wandered in the direction of the street and saw that people were just getting started setting up. Even though there wasn’t even the slightest possibility of eating anything we looked at the food vendors and decided that once our stomachs were finally ready to enjoy some more food we would definitely be coming back for dinner.

We wandered along the streets a bit before we heard a familiar sound – thunder. We’d become accustomed to the daily storms that seemed to hit Chiang Mai, usually between 5 and 7 every day so we thought it wise to head back to the hostel and chill out a bit while it rained.  We made it back just before the rain started coming down, and we were glad that we had chosen to come back – it was coming down hard.  It only rained for about an hour, but it was enough to take some of the heat out of the air and give us a chance to rest.

We left the hostel again to go back to Ratchemonden street, which we realized was actually very close to where we were staying. I was a bit grumpy, maybe from the heat, maybe from being up so early, maybe just because sometimes even though you’re having a great time you are still grumpy, and was dragging my feet slightly. As we walked we passed Dr. Fish, a fish spa that was on our usual route from where we were staying. (An aside – I found it extremely frustrating to read maps in Thailand because the spellings of the streets in English is completely arbitrary and changes from intersection to intersection and almost NEVER matches the map, or guidebook or GPS. Infact the maps and guidebooks and GPS never agree on spelling either. So landmarks, such as “FISH DOCTOR!” became the easiest way to navigate around).

Anyway, we’d joked a few times walking past that we should get a fish spa. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept I will elaborate: you stick your feet in a container filled with fish who then come and eat the dead skin off your feet. I’m not kidding. These aren’t even very exciting fish – totally your usual run of the mill garden variety pleckos that you can get at any pet store to clean your fish tank. 

Ren, sensing my discontent but not really sure what to do to fix it (nothing he could have done, really, but props to him for trying) suggested we should all get fish spas. And he’d treat me. I was a bit nervous but the whole trip had taken on the motto of “We’re doin’ it!” which meant we were doing just about anything you could do. So we did it. The fact that they had beers available was a definite bonus – who can say no to beers and fish spas?!

I stuck my feet in first. And almost yanked them back out. It was the most ridiculous feeling thing I have ever experienced. Within seconds of me putting my feet in the fish swarmed my toes and started chewing away. And it tickled. A LOT. I started to laugh. Uncontrollably. With tears streaming down my face. But I kept my feet in there and finally grew accustomed to the feeling of little fish chewing on my feet. Almost came to enjoy it, except for when one would find a super sensitive spot between my toes that had never been touched before.  Eric finally decided to join in the fun after Ren and I both were laughing super hard, and the three of us enjoyed our beers and talked about how ridiculous the whole thing was.

When our time was up – about 25 min later, my feet felt .. interesting. I would say they were more smooth than before – they at least felt kinda like it. And along with the dead skin my bad mood was gone.

Feet freshly fished, we made our way into the market. Still not totally starving but wanting to take advantage of all the interesting foods, we took turns buying random things on a stick and sharing them.  I couldn’t tell you all the things we tried, but if they came on sticks or could be eaten with sticks I’m sure we gave them a go.

We saw a lot of amazing things that night – people playing local music, singing etc, but I think the most amazing thing we happened upon was a flower burning festival at one of the wats. People were lined up buying flowers to burn as offerings to Buddha. In the middle of the courtyard was a massive shrine with flowers everywhere, and off to the side was a stage with people (children, mostly) performing. The energy in the air was electric – even if you weren’t religious or spiritual it was an amazing thing to witness.

Eventually we had to head back to the hostel to grab our things and take off to the airport. It was getting late, at least 9pm, and our flight was at 11. It was a late flight, but on the upside we would soon be in Phuket – gateway to Koh Phi Phi!!

Cooking In Chiang Mai

We decided that we should definitely take a cooking class while in Thailand and something about being in the more rustic North of Thailand made it the ideal setting to do such a thing.

After we returned from our trek through the jungle we returned to Terry the travel agent and told him that we wanted to do a half day cooking class and that we needed somewhere to stay in Phuket when we arrived at 2am.

Terry got on the phone and did what he does best – made our trip easy and memorable. Moments later we were booked in for a cooking class that would go from about 9am til 1:30. We debated doing a whole day class but with only one day left in Chiang Mai we were looking forward to the ability to go check out the Sunday market and just take it easy.

We spent the evening at the Night Bazaar, eating enormous helpings of mango sticky rice and looking at all the things that were available to buy.

The next morning we were awake early... well, I was. 6:30 to be exact. I don’t know what had me awake so early but I was up and ready to go. However, the boys were not and when I should have been going to get something to eat I was waiting for them. Silly me. Eventually they got moving and we went for a coffee down the road. Back to the hostel we went, gathered up our stuff and left it in the locked cupboard for the day, since we had to check out of our room but weren’t flying out until late that night.

We waited for the cooking class company to pick us up, reminiscing about the fun we’d already had and pondering what else might happen to us before we had to return to Canada. The bus arrived and we met some more people who were also doing the class. We were given a sheet to choose what food we wanted to make. We had the choice of a noodle or rice dish, a curry paste and corresponding curry dish and a meat dish. I chose to make the fried noodles with basil, penang curry and paste and the cashew chicken. Also, because we were only doing half a day we didn’t get to choose our dessert but we would get the opportunity to learn how to make fried bananas in coconut toffee syrup. Drool!!

We headed off to the market where our guide gave us a lesson on the different veggies and spices used in Thai cooking. We learned about all the different types of basil and how to tell the difference, saw the Thai Long Beans (seriously, those are some long beans! Can be like, 18-24inches long!) and were shown different types of roots etc. We also learned about the different types of oil used (pretty much everything but olive oil because it doesn’t fry well) and chillies – aka Thai Chocolates, because the Thais like chillies the way us north Americans like chocolate.

After our lessons we had time to wander around the market while the guide gathered up all the necessary foods to make the meals we had selected. Because I was still starving from the fact that I had been up since 6:30 and hadn’t eaten anything, I grabbed a fruit smoothy to tide me over. This was probably the silliest thing I could have done. But I didn’t realize that we would be eating so soon!

From the market we headed to the cooking school where we set to work almost immediately. We were divided up based on the foods we wanted to make. We were given instructions on how to chop up our foods and then directed to our own work stations with a wok. The instructors showed us what to do and we set to work cooking our meals. The first thing we made was the fried noodles. They gave us all the foods ready to go, premeasured and in little bowls. Man it must be nice to have a sous chef when cooking! We sauted the garlic put the chicken in, then the fish sauce, and other veggies, move it around the wok and voila! I know, it sounds so easy. It actually was. After our dish was done we were led into a nice air conditioned room where we could sit down with our cooking partners and taste the food we’d made. It was amazing.

After the noodles we went back out and learned how to make curry paste – from scratch. It’s not easy. It requires a mortar and pestle and a lot of brute strength. Thank god there were boys in the group that wanted to show off their skills. Once the paste was ready we were sent back to our work stations and baskets with the rest of the ingredients needed to make our curry dish appeared. We followed the instructions and all of a sudden the ingredients in front of us transformed into some amazing looking dinners.

While the curries were simmering we got to work making our second main dish. Mine was the cashew chicken. We did our chopping, and then back to the woks. Mixed up the food, again, all given to us ready to go... when done put it on a plate, grabbed our now finished curry and back into the air con’ed room where some rice was awaiting us. We tried out what we made. I fell in love with the curry. Red curry (in this case Penang red curry) is amazing. Must be the coconut milk. I’d made mine extra spicy... it was amazing.

At this point I was completely stuffed. I’m talking can’t-eat-another-bite-damn-you-Alanna-why-did-you-get-that-smoothy stuffed. Thank god the only thing left to eat was the fried bananas. The three of us were the only ones who were doing the half day, so I can’t imagine how the rest of the class was going to cope with a soup and appetizers still to come before dessert.

We got a chance to rest, which was much needed because I don’t know how I was possibly going to eat another bite. Eventually they called us over to the cooking area again and showed us how to make the fried bananas. It was actually very easy. And I could see my waistline growing before even taking a bite. Butter, coconut sugar (made from the flowers of the coconut plant, tastes a lot like maple sugar in my opinion), bananas, coconut cream. Nothing about this dessert was healthy. But man was it delicious.

Once the cooking was all finished, they presented us each with a cookbook with all the ingredients and instructions on how to make the meals we’d created that day and all the meals that were usually offered by the cooking class. All my favourites – mango sticky rice, red curry, etc, they were all there. So excited to be able to stretch my cooking skills at home.

We left the cooking school in search of something to do, but being so full the best we could come up with was sitting under a mist machine at a patio we found walking home. The heat was unbearable after eating so much so we enjoyed a few glasses of beer Chang before doing some more walking around. 

Thailand in 3.5 Minutes

While I'm struggling to get my blog updated (being back to work seems to make this difficult!) here's a video of our whole trip in 3.5 min, courtesy of Ren. The music used was recorded in Chiang Mai at the Sunday Market, played by a couple of buskers in the middle of the street.

Enjoy!

Hiking and Hilltribes in Northern Thailand - Day 2

The next morning we woke up early, around 5am. The guys wandered around the village taking pictures while I attempted to catch up on my writing. I wrote for about an hour, then wandered around the village myself before heading back to the hut to have a nap. We all fell back asleep from about 7:30 til 9am when we got up for breakfast.

The family had prepared us some breakfast consisting of toast (with an interesting wood-fire flavour) and butter and jam, hard boiled eggs and tea and/or instant coffee. Starving, we each ate at least 3 pieces of toast. While we ate we discussed the art of raising chickens, and how does one know who's chickens are who's, as we watched birds roaming about the dirt floor.

We got ourselves ready for our morning of hiking to the spot where we would hop on a bamboo raft to go down the Mekong river. I managed to fit my camera bag into my backpack (and swearing that on my next trip I wouldn't pack so much) and filled up my water bottle. My clothes had finally dried to a point that allowed me to put them back on without cringing at the feeling of dampness against my body. One more walk around town to snap some photos and we were off on the next leg of our journey.

The first leg of the hike was up. Up. UP. A lot of up. And my muscles still hurt from the day before. So I'll admit I was a little bit whiny. However, I was pretty happy when we started going down down down not long after that. The steepness of the hill wasn't overly enjoyable but it gave me a chance to use different muscles at least.

Eventually we came to a little rest spot near the water. We all had another can of beer Chang (probably not the best rehydration tactic, but sooo delicious) and sat with our feet in the water. As we sat there it started to rain, but none of us bothered to move... instead we just laid back on the rocks and let the rain fall on us and cool us off.

We hung out at the rest spot for about 20 min before getting back on our feet and making our way to the main road. At some point Tony Montana pulled out his cell phone, rattled off some words in Thai and next thing we knew there was a pickup truck waiting for us. We piled into the truck completely unsure of where we were going next.

The truck took us to a little roadside stop where we got out and were instructed to put our stuff down. Lunch was to be served before going on our bamboo raft trip. We had no idea what to expect in terms of food, but figured it would probably be delicious. And it was. Very simple fried noodles and veggies were presented to us and we devoured them.

As we ate our food we watched a pair of children come over and inspect the camera that Ren was making on his Go Pro video camera. They just kept staring into it and we all watched, amused and excited about what might come of it on the video.

When we were done eating we piled into the back of the truck again, this time joined by a few more people - a couple from Canada and a guy from France. They too were doing a trek and the bamboo raft ride. We drove to the raft take off spot, unloaded ourselves (leaving our gear in the car) and went down to the river. The rafts were waiting for us so we climbed aboard, myself at the front right behind the "driver", Ren in the middle and Eric in the back .

As we took off down the river all of a sudden the "driver" (gondolier? Raft man?) started laughing and pointing at my lap. I was a bit concerned what on earth he could be seeing that was causing him such enjoyment and looked down. There, on the raft was a black and brown frog, apparently coming along for the ride. Ever the animal lover, I picked him up and we became friends.  He couldn't have cared less that he was sitting on me, infact was completely content to just hang out on my knee or hand while we floated downstream.

The ride itself was awesome, very peaceful and giving us a completely different perspective of the area. We floated past a few "beach" spots - areas where the locals would come to to hang out by the water with their friends on bamboo platforms. We'd wave and they'd wave back . We went over a waterfall (thankfully not too big) and got wet. And it felt awesome.

When we reached the end of the ride we all climbed back up on shore and back to our truck. The driver took us back to Chiang Mai and dropped us off at the hostel. We said goodbye to the people we'd met and gathered our stuff from the locked room and headed off to shower before heading down to the Lost Hut for some well deserved beer Changs.

I now have my elephant license

Feeling slightly hungover was probably not the most ideal way to start out a day of elephant riding and jungle trekking but that's how it began.

We got up and checked out of the hostel, leaving our bags at the front desk and taking just some stuff for overnight. We were picked up by a name named Hansome who was to be our elephant trainer. On our way we picked up a girl from Holland, two girls from the UK and two girls from upstate New York.

We drove about an hour to the elephant camp where all of our breath was taken away at the scene in front of us: lush green forest, hazy skies and elephants galore. I don't think I have ever seen so many elephants at once!

We were given traditional Mahout clothing to wear while with our elephants, so we all got changed and headed over to the common area to learn how to communicate with the gentle giants.

Handsome taught us the basic commands:
Put your leg up: sungsoon! (you grab an ear and some skin and use the elephants leg like a step before pulling yourself up on the elephant)
Go forward: huuuuhhhh (basically a grunt) while kicking both legs into the back of the ears
Stop: how!!! (while squeezing the neck with your legs)
Go back: Tuoy!! (while scooching your butt backwards)
Turn: Couy!! (while kicking the opposite legs from which way you want to go)

After repeating the commands over and over we went and practiced on tr elephants. What a completely weird feeling, hauling ones self up and onto the back of a creature who is at least 13 feet tall. It definitely took some time to learn to be comfortable way up on top, using your legs to hold on and resting your hands in their head for stability.

After practicing we took a bunch of photos with Dodo, one of the young elephants at the camp who was extremely smart. He posed with us, giving us kisses and putting hats on our heads and playing dead etc. It was absolutely adorable.

It was about lunch time so we took a break to eat before our trek through the jungle. Handsome brought out dishes of yellow curry with chicken and potatoes, stir fried veggies and rice. We all ate so much, not realizing how hungry we'd become. Once the main course was finished some pineapple and watermelon appeared, beautifully displayed.

While we were eating Champu, the little baby of the camp came to visit us. She tried to steal some fruit from us, but mostly just barreled into the table before her trained came and wrangled her back. Just like a little human she kept trying to sneak back over to us whenever he wasn't watching.

When we finished eating it was time to go actually ride on the elephants. We walked over to the main camp and waited while the men brought us each our elephants. Being guys both Ren and Eric were given huge elephants that stood about 18 feet high. Luckily the massive animals were told to bend down so that the guys were able to climb aboard.

I wad given a slightly smaller, however much more dirty elephant. He had mud caked to his back. And he'd been in the process of trying to wash it off when they brought him over to me so he was both slippery AND muddy. A slightly unnerving combo to say the least.

Once we were all comfortably on top of our animals we set off into the jungle. Up we climbed through the forest, grunting and kicking to make the elephants go. Mine was content being at the back of the pack, so I spent a lot of time attempting to coax him along. "Huuuuhhhh!!!" I grunted, kicking him in the back of the ears. It didn't work. He only listened when the old Mahout man that was following along beside me used his elephant whispering skills.

A few times my elephant attempted to eat the luscious leaves located on the edge of the road which also happened to be cliff side. I would be lying if I didn't think I was going to fall off my elephant and tumble to my death. I tried to use my skills and convince him to back up but it failed miserably and i ended up just begging my Mahout man to convince the elephant to back up and resume a non life threatening postion.

Because we were just sitting on the necks of the elephants a lot of leg work was required to stay balanced... Especially when going down hill. And double especially when my elephant decided that going downhill would be a good time to become tired of being at the back of the pack and start passing everyone. I think everyone in the group had the same feeling while going downhill.

When we got to the bottom of the hill there was a river that we walked the elephants into. They kneeled down and we were able to dismount. Handsome started to hand out brushes and we were able to wash our elephants. Finally i could scrub all the dirt off my very dirty elephant.

After the bathing we fed the elephants bananas as a thanks before they were sent out to the field to graze. We piled into the back of a pickup truck and headed back to the camp. Once back at camp we changed back into our dry clothes and prepared for our trek through the jungle.

We said our goodbyes to the rest of the group, since we were trekking alone, and headed off into the trees...  But that's a story for another day.

Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Not sure if it was the excitement of the next leg of our journey or just that I wasn't tired but I woke up at around 6:30am. I did a bit of internet-ing and then started to get ready.

The boys both woke up fairly early as well ms with our extra time before the shuttle we decided to go for a walk to find food. We walked down the street and bought some drinks on the way. Instead of turning right at the end like the night before we opted for left. As we walked we passed a coffee place but it wasn't open yet.

We came across a street vendor selling what looked like donuts, so both Ren and Eric bought some. Not extremely sweet, they were still tasty. We walked a bit further down the street until it became obvious that there really wasn't much to find so we turned back. The coffee place we ha passed earlier was open so we all got coffee for about $1.

I stopped and bought a little bundle of sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves.  It tasted a bit like banana bread.

When we got back the shuttle was ready to go so we piled in and headed for the airport, which was only about 10 min away. Upon arrival we checked in and decided to find some food.

There was a food court of sorts that had the normal chains like McD's and burger king, as well as a few little
Cafe places. The boys each got
Egg mcMuffins and I opted for mango sticky rice and a coffee. We walked to our gate, boarded our flight and set off for Chiang mai.

The airport in Chiang mai was small but completely functional. We were off the plane and had gathered our luggage in about 25 min. Outside was a bunch of taxi drivers waiting so we grabbed a cab and asked him to take us to Yourhouse hostel, one of the ones I'd made note of prior to leaving Bangkok.

The taxi drive was only about 10 min, and the driver took us right to the place. We unloaded ourselves and went to the desk to check in. We opted for a 3 person room with a fan and private washroom. The total was 350baht, or about $10. Total. Absolutely crazy that it can be that cheap.

We dropped our belongings off and decided we should get out and explore. Ren wanted to find a place called the Lost Hut, run by the brother of a colleague at henrys. We decided to start there and see where the day took us.

As we crossed the road somehow caught the attention of a local who was very helpful in regards to how we should go about booking the next couple days of adventure. He said we should talk to the tourist info places, not the hostel or travel agencies because they have better prices.

 We found the lost hut but it was closed (assuming it opened later) so we opted to search out lunch instead. As we stood staring into our
Guidebook for recommendations another local asked if we needed help. We said we wanted a place to eat. He suggested a place around the corner, so we took his advice. Happy we did too, since we had a fantastic meal of pad thai, Chiang Mai noodles and green curry for about $3 each.

After lunch we wandered around some more and then decided to go for traditional Thai massages- an hour for about $5. They were an amazing experience. The little Thai woman spent 15 min on each leg, another 20 on my shoulders and arms and the last 10 walking up and down my body on her elbows and knees. It was unlike anything I have ever had before.

We decided we should make a plan for the next couple days and decided on elephant riding, trekking through the jungle to a hilltribe village and spending the night and then more trekking to a place where we would ride a bamboo raft down the Mekong river. We booked the whole adventure with one of the tourist info places and got what we thought was a great deal: 4000 baht for the whole thing (about $130).

All booked and prepared for the next day we headed back to the Lost Hut, which was now open, and had some drinks while talking to the girls that worked there and Blake the owner. Around midnight we called it the end and made our way back to the hostel (via McD's) and promptly passed out.

Next stop, elephants and hill tribes.

Thailand Planning

In about 5 weeks I'm taking off on my next adventure. As I mentioned before I'm off to Thailand with two of my good friends. We've only got about 10 days to see as much of the country as possible. We are all photographers, so we want to be able to hit all the photogenic sites (and a beach or two for me, hopefully...)

Here's the itinerary (for the most part) if you're interested. We're trying to not plan too much of the trip and just let it happen, but with only 10 days we're forced to set a few parameters:


Depart from Toronto at 10am. Convince myself to sleep on the plane so that I can function when we arrive in Hong Kong. Spend 24 hours in Hong Kong just because we can. Hopefully do a whirlwind tour of the city and see what we can in a short period of time. I'd love to hit a night market if possible.

Hong Kong at Night  (Google Image)

We fly out of Hong Kong in the afternoon and arrive into Bangkok in the late afternoon. We've got an airport hotel booked, so we'll drop off our stuff and probably take a bus into the city (or maybe just sleep, it's hard to say).







Next morning we have a relatively early morning flight to Chiang Mai. We have about 3 days in Chiang Mai to check out the temples, elephants, markets and hilltribes.

I've been given a heads up that we know a family that operates a bar/restaurant that we should check out, The Lost Hut, so we will definitely do that. I've also heard that if you're going to do a cooking class in Thailand, the northern part is the place to do it.

Long Neck Tribe (Google Image)

 


After that we head to Phuket to take in some beach action. The guys aren't as stoked about the beach as I am but I refuse to go to Thailand and not see at least SOME sun. They're more than welcome to go do their own thing while I frolic in the water. I have full intentions of attempting to surf ... and probably doing some snorkelling. Will probably look here for more ideas on what to do in Phuket

Koh Phi Phi (Google Image)

From here we're going to hit up Krabi province and it's islands (Ko Phi Phi for example), the backdrop for the movie The Beach.

After some beach time, which I'm sure will also include lots of party time, we're heading back up to Bangkok for the last few days before returning home. I've already made some Twitter friends that we are going to meet up with to get a photo tour. Since it's our last stop before heading back, I'm really looking forward to some night markets and maybe the Ampawa Floating Market, if we have time.

There are so many things I'm looking forward to doing on this trip - eating being a huge part of it. I love Thai food. Well, lets be frank, I love food. I'll try just about anything once... and if this includes some of the stranger things like roasted tarantulas or crickets, I'll give it a go. Rice and rice noodles, I live for those things. I think I'm going to be the only person who comes back from Thailand having put on weight.

 

 

 

image courtesy of wikipedia

Overall, I can't wait. It will be a fantastic trip and I'm sure I'll have a million awesome photos to share when I get back so that I'm not forced to steal images off the internet to fill my blog with :)