Cooking & Trekking in Chiang Mai
Things are certainly a bit cheaper in Chiang Mai. In Bangkok we paid £25 per night for a room, in Chiang Mai the hostel charged us £2! Okay, I will admit it was a little bit grubby but it had a great friendly atmosphere. Shortly after arriving we were booked on to a Thai cooking course and a two-day jungle trek spending the night in a tribal village homestay. Sweet!
It didn't take long for Matthew to take up position under the sun working on his sun tan. He reckoned he could get browner than me in two weeks; probably, he has my Dad's skin who only has to look at the sun to turn black! However, it was bloody hot and humid in Chiang Mai with little in the way of breeze so basking in the sun was sweaty work.
Our Thai cooking course included a tour of the local market. Supermarkets selling fresh produce just don't exist in South East Asia. Markets are where the locals go to buy groceries. It was fascinating seeing the array of unusual herbs, vegetables and fruits on offer. We were shown one of the local delicacies - an egg which has been soaked in soy sauce for a few weeks. The cook bought one and offered it around but I politely declined, it looked awful and the reactions from those that tried it confirmed that I wasn't missing out.
At the kitchen we sat down and were taught how to prepare the four dishes we would each be cooking, before moving to an individual cooking station. Dishes such as the famous staple Pad Thai were amazingly simple and quick to cook. Preparing the curry paste for green curry was quite different though; it required so many ingredients, at least three different varieties of ginger that I'm certain aren't stocked at the local Sainsbury's and bunch of herbs that were new to me. After the Pad Thai Matthew and I cooked a masaman curry and stir fried chicken with cashew nuts. Both were quite quick and easy but in the end didn't taste great as the cook had added far too much of either coconut sugar, soy sauce or ground peanuts, making the dishes a bit too salty or sweet or both. At least we learnt what not to do as well as what we should be doing!
In the evening we found a cool rooftop bar playing some excellent European electronic music (most bar in South East Asia play awful commercial pop). The highlight of the night was a local who came over to our table and treated us to some excellent magic tricks which left us perplexed for the rest of the evening.
A morning songthaew (pick-up truck converted to mini bus) transfer out of the city took us to an elephant sanctuary, where eco-tourism is facilitating the care of elephants which have been domesticated as working animals and no longer capable of existing in the wild. Shortly after arriving we were onboard our elephant for a morning stroll around the sancturary. I was allowed to sit on the elephants massive neck whilst Nilgun and Matthew were in a seat on his back. The elephants handler, who would normally be where I sat, gave voice commands to direct the elephant. This generally worked well unless there was some tasty shrubs in the vicinity and the elephant would stop and have a good munch. We took quite a few bananas with us to feed him, just a tap on the head and he would present his trunk waiting for the banana. However, once he had one, two, three the trunk just kept coming back up wanting more! The ride was great fun and impressive as we went down steep slopes, over rocky sections and through streams.
After a quick lunch we spent the afternoon trekking through the jungle. I mentioned earlier that Chiang Mai was hot, but the heat and humidity was turned up to eleven in the jungle. I'm pretty certain I have never ever sweated that much. The trek was good fun, a chance to get to know the others who were taking part and we were rewarded with some magnificent views when we got to the top. Our guides were fantastic and thoroughly enthusiastic, stopping and showing us fruit we could pick and eat straight from the tree. Matthew was particularly taken with a small mango variety and filled his pockets to the point of bursting!
As the afternoon came to a close we arrived at a tribal village, which would be our home for the evening. After a much needed cold shower we swapped stories over some beers whilst the guides rustled up a fantastic dinner. After a tiring day we all hit the hay pretty early for another early start the following morning.
Breakfast (bread, jam and peanut butter) didn't compare to dinner but the coffee helped. We had another 3 hour trek though the jungle, in search of a waterfall. Fortunately walking through the morning was far cooler than the previous afternoon, or maybe it was the monstrous storm last night that had cooled things down. Despite the water at the waterfalls being quite murky it was impossible to resist after the sweaty hike. Unsurprisingly, Matthew was the first to follow the guide as he jumped of one rock, slid down some others, then leaped off another waterfall. The latter I only did twice as it was quite terrifying but Matthew was addicted. It's one thing doing it yourself but when you have your younger brother with you one feels responsible. Eventually I managed to convince him to quit whilst ahead, or maybe it was because everyone was ready to leave…
The final experience of the trip was bamboo raft ride down a river. Unfortunately white water rafting was not an option because the river was very low after the dry season. Nevertheless, Matthew and I made it fun by larking about in the water. The others didn't approve though, us rocking the raft made all the creepy crawlies come out and give them a scare! Haha, wimps!
Next we fly back to Bangkok then get a night bus and a ferry to Koh Samui, in the Gulf of Thailand, to meet up with Jonny who is flying from London. Watch out Samui, the three Fullbrook brothers on their way!
