Oh Chiang Mai, by now, I am completely enamored with you.
We enjoyed a nice breakafst and them spent the morning hours meandering aimlessly around the inner square of the city, spending most of the time exploring
Wat Chedi Luang.
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
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| Wat Chedi Luang |
Afterwards, (following a shower off from the sweaty walk, and cool off,) we walked over to our 2-hour straight-up Thai massage...the the third day in a row. It was incredible, but I truly felt like I was such a disappointment to my masseuse. She kept fighting my muscles (i.e. Me) to relax, and then, even after getting daily massages up to this point, the knots and kinks in and under my shoulders were still there. She took personal offense to this and laid into them with Tiger Balm to numb the pain. It was success though!
Our evening was spent in a Thai cooking class through
Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SCHOOL! We were a group of 9, and we were all American. They obviously have a niche market. After introductions, we walked to a local open air market to learn about the spices and how they are prepared. As most people were coupled or in groups, we buddied up with a lone guy, Matt (Hi Matt!!!!!!), and the 3 of us ended up stopping at craft beer distributor, on the return walk from the market, for some drinks during the class. The beginning of a beautiful friendship!
In class, we learned to make the quintessential curry paste for the base of a curry (me = Green, Adam = Massaman), we also made two types of "tom" soup, and spring rolls. The food was so simple to make and so incredibly flavorful!
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| Me and Matt, chef-fing it up! |
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| Learning the intricacy of rice |
Afterwards, we opted to venture out and explore the city more with Matt. First, we stopped at a roof top bar to enjoy the drinks and view, and then wandered one of the more popular bar streets that he had been out at the night before. The bar street was full of girls and "girls"(Ahem, "pay for service"), but what Matt found striking was that with me with them, I was a "girl repellant". Apparently, he and a buddy were having to deal with the girls being very aggressive and grabbing them. Not an issue with me around! At the end to the street was a Muay Tai ring, and they were advertising a fight the following night. We committed to going (stay tuned!!!)!
