I lost my camera. And then I found it again. Yessss!
Wednesday, Shirley and I took a cooking class at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. Fancy schmanzy! Here's what we cooked (names loosely adapted to my liking):
- Noob Soup
- Burnt Fried Noodles
(No photo record.) - More Stir Fried Stuff
- Tasteless (Shirley's was Significantly Tastier) Curry
(No photo record.) - Spicy as Hell Green Papaya Salad
- Tasty Banana-Coconut Dessert
A peer cooking pupil from Colorado asserted this rose has been the highlight of his entire one-month trip to Thailand. I sensed a trace of sarcasm.
I was so excited about our class that I told Shirley we should open up a restaurant back in the Bay area--she cooks and I carve. Another cooking student suggested at least one of us should keep our day job. I nominated Shirley.
Wednesday night, all four of us went to a traditional Thai dinner, which included performances of local music, dances, and other arts.
The dinner itself contained a bunch of fried stuff, including some ingredients I recognized from class earlier. We also had Thai whiskey (just as repulsive as its American counterpart) and ate on the ground using our hands for some of the dishes.
Part of the performance was held outdoors. They showed a hill tribe dance using bamboos, which I had actually learned in the Brazilian boyscouts:
I decided to make everybody try this out (possibly during a bonfire) on my next birthday. Bring your dancing feet!
Yesterday (Thursday), we took the most boring tour ever imaginable. We probably spent a total of nine hours in the car. It started with a trip to a magnificent five feet hot spring. Nobody was impressed enough to bother taking a picture.
Then we went to the "Golden Triangle," which is where three countries (Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos) meet:
We stopped by the northern most point in Thailand:
But after further exploration, I found an even more northern point, which was actually a mere shopping stand:
The locals were perplexed with why I was taking this picture. They kept pointing me to the fake touristy spot instead. But I knew better.
Afterwards, our tour group went to visit some local tribes. The four of us waited by the van while others went to ogle the long necks.
At last, we thankfully headed home. During that time, Shirley taught me the theory of using an abacus for arithmetic. We then practiced arithmetic problems (and numbers in Chinese) for three hours. Shirley noticed some dirty (if not threatening) looks from others in the car.
I somewhat felt bad for our tour guide. Put yourself in his shoes: imagine routinely conducting a tour where you have to act really excited but really know it is actually completely boring. On top of that, whenever you throw out a corny pre-canned joke to pick up people's spirits, they respond with some grunts and half-hearted fake laughs. And then you ask, "so you guys wanna do some shopping now?" To which no one really says yes, and some people mumble "can we go home now?" But you can't take them home yet because they signed up for the whole damn tour that includes shopping, and you're obligated to take them shopping.
We decided against another tour today. To Phuket we go!
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