Sunday, March 1 – Chiang Mai

A rather relaxing morning followed by another big Journal Entry catch up.

Besides the daily night market that takes place near my apartment, Chiang Mai also has a unique Sunday Night Market located in the central part of the old city. It’s a 30 minute walk away; I’m going to check it out.

The market begins in the square around Tha Phae Gate. It opens at 4pm, and I arrived around 5:30pm. Hence, it was still daylight during my time at the “Night” market!

More from the square. (Yes, that’s a Starbucks sign to the right)

It may be hard to tell from this picture, but it’s very crowded as you look down the street.

I didn’t stay very long…

Instead I did some exploring of the nearby neighborhood, and came across Wat Buppharam. a Buddhist temple. This is Dhamma Hall. Can you spot Donald Duck eating a bowl of noodles out front?

Funny!

A short walk away is the entrance to Wat Saen Fang.

(apologies for the orientation of the photo; I was listing to the right a little!)

Stupa

Ordination Hall

(listing to the right again! ugh!!)

An ordination hall is the most sacred, consecrated building within a Buddhist monastery complex, specifically designed for monks to perform formal rituals, most notably the ordination of new monks.

Scripture Hall

Chanting Hall

(yes, more leaning! brother!)

Monk’s House

Mongkolsanmahachai Gate

I think I visited this temple at a good time – both because of the nice late-afternoon light, and the fact that there was nobody else here.

There were a few young monks outside doing cleanup duties. And I found this interesting: they were scrolling through their mobile phones while they worked!

Just an interesting building that I passed by on my way to…

…my nightly ritual – dumplings and a smoothie! (you’re welcome Holly! Hahaha!)

(while my main meal in Bangkok was breakfast, I have transitioned into a dinner guy in Chiang Mai!)

Monday , March 2 – Chiang Mai

Today should be fun – I signed up for a Thai Cooking Class!

(because you all know how much I love to cook. Hahaha…NOT!)

There was a morning or evening option, and I chose the morning. A pick up at my apartment was included in the cost of the course, but the market where we were starting was only a 20 minute walk away, so I met the instructor and other students there at 9am.

I arrived at Kad Kom Market a little early, and did some exploring on my own…

Peppers and (pumpkin?) seeds drying in the sun.

This is the meat stand. The orange items just below the lamps are motorized fans, twirling around to keep the flys away.

Note the QR code in the lower left. Surprised to see that level of technology at this market!

I’m now with our cooking group. We went around to the different market stalls with our instructor, Aek, purchasing the various fresh ingredients that we’ll be using today.

Here Aek is buying some prawns.

We’ve now made the drive from the market to the cooking school.

There were 8 of us in the class, the maximum capacity. The breakdown was:

• Couple from Paris
• Couple from the Czech Republic, now living in Barcelona
• Two friends from Antwerp, Belgium
• Woman from North Dakota

We will be preparing (and consuming!) a 5-course meal during the 4 hour class. For each course, we had 4 items to choose from, except for dessert, where there were only 2.

The breakdown of what everyone chose.

Preparing the Pad Thai…

…and the finished product.

For the next course I chose Papaya Salad…

…followed by Hot & Sour Prawns Clear Soup (in prep mode).

Cooking the soup.

Time to eat the Soup & Salad!

Next is Khao Soi.

For dessert, Pumpkin in Coconut.

(Not the type of Pumpkin I’m used to seeing!)

Preparing dessert.

(We typically each prepared our own courses, but in this case there were only two of us who chose the pumpkin/coconut dessert, so we worked on it together)

The final two courses are ready to eat!

Wow! That was fun, and very good. And I’m stuffed! There will be no smoothie and dumplings tonight!

Taking into account the mid-afternoon heat and the distance from the school back to my apartment, I accepted the ride that was included in the price of the course.

The cost of the class was 27 USD. Crazy, right?