andersonbowen.comBLOG

we’re in thailand, not uganda. did you know that? it’s obvious to us with the 16+ hour travel, 4 hour time difference, and smoothly paved roads with stoplights. sorry to the respective anderson and bowen fams for not posting sooner so you knew we were safe and sound…

we flew entebbe to addis ababa (1st time in ethiopia) to dubai (1st time in u.a.e.) to bangkok (1st time in thailand) to chiang mai. chiang mai is the tourist hub of northern thailand, but we wouldn’t know that. we’ve been lucky to not yet taste the “over commercialism” that supposedly characterizes chiang mai. maybe we’re not bothered by it because it’s just so nice after close-to-no commercialism in uganda, or maybe it’s because we’ve been consciously avoiding it. either way, chiang mai has treated us well so far.

we’re convinced that the best thing to do when traveling to unknown places is to have your lodging arranged for your first night in country so you don’t have to worry about finding a place at odd hours of the day or night. then, based on your good/bad luck either extend your stay or switch to a new place the next night. either way having a place to stay that first night relieves a lot of the early stresses of travel in the unknown. this time around, we got lucky with the red hibiscus, a small 10-room guesthouse with quiet, laid-back atmosphere and good staff; added bonus: still in the old city but far far away from the over commercialism of chiang mai. our first night in town we wandered empty city streets passing people’s homes, small streetside vendors, and 5 wats (temples) on our way to dinner. if you’d asked us, we would’ve said we were one of a handful of farang (westerners) in town.

in the same vein as antigua for spanish classes in guatemala, chiang mai is the center for thai cooking classes in thailand. we love thai food and phil’s cooking a lot in his role as “housewife”, so we decided let’s learn to cook and what is better than learning to cook thai food in thailand? not wanting to strike out with a dud for a cooking school, i decided to take a recommendation from our friends becca and brian, who were in thailand for 2+ weeks during their round-the-world trip a few years ago. they recommended the chiang mai thai cookery school, so i booked two days of classes.

day 1, chiang mai: first day of thai cooking started with a tour of the local market where we learned about all sorts of thai fruits and vegetables - some of it we have in uganda (jackfruit), some of it we don’t (rambutan). then we learned to cook 6 dishes:
tom kha gai - chicken in coconut milk soup
gaeng phed plaa - red curry with fish
phad hed ruam khao pod orn - fried mixed mushrooms with baby corn
raad nah muu - fried big noodles with thick sauce
som tam - papaya salad & sticky rice
khanom kluay - steamed banana cake
the beauty of cooking class is you get to eat what you cook. the bane of cooking class is eating everything you cook. trust me, don’t do it. if you do, i promise you will be ill by the end.

cooking done for the day, we went to the chiang mai weekly sunday market. we didn’t know it existed and we sure didn’t plan on being in chiang mai for it, but i’m really happy we were. it’s a huge (HUGE) market - it covers scores of city blocks - that happens every sunday noon to midnight. we walked for hours in all directions and still didn’t see the whole market. we ate all day, but somehow left enough room for market food adventures. sushi, yep sushi. i have to believe that sushi is the pinnacle of risky/tasty street food. no problems though and the reward was well worth the risk. plus it was uber cheap; a whole meal for $2.

the markets we have in kampala are nothing like this was. the food, the variety of handicrafts and merchandise, the size. nakasero is kind of like it, but it’s more permanent and doesn’t have any handicrafts really. unlike our craft markets in kampala, the chiang mai sunday market was 90% thai, 10% farang. the kampala craft markets are more like 75% mzungu, 25% ugandan.

day 2, chiang mai: i was happy to return to the thai cooking school for a second day. the first was spent trying to keep up, the second day i could actually get some skills and retain some information. day 2 dishes included:
gaeng garee gai - yellow curry with chicken
hor neung plaa - steamed fish in banana leaves
gai phad med mamuang - chicken with cashew nuts
phad siewe - fried big noodles with sweet soy sauce
plaah goong - spicy prawn salad northeastern style
kluay buad chee - bananas in coconut milk

day 3, chiang mai: our first day without any planned activities. we checked out of the red hibiscus and into smile house (another becca/brian recommendation), rented a car, and headed up the mountains to our first temple, doi suthep. doi suthep is a beautiful temple outside of the city and takes some lung capacity to get to. it’s 300+ steps up a steep hill. the intricacy of tilework is impressive and the golden stupa at the top is stunning; i particularly liked the green dragons cascading down the balustrades leading up the stairs to the temple. but, like i’m sure a lot of now tourist attractions in thailand, there were a lot of westerners. we saw the temple, got back in the car, and drove not more than 2 km (literally) up the mountain and immediately found ourselves in a virtually deserted national park.

technically we were in a national park the whole time (doi suthep-pui national park), but it wasn’t until we got to the doi pui portion did we realize it. doi pui is beautiful. you have unique views of doi suthep temple without all the tourists, as well as a view of chiang mai at your feet. we saw one other farang and maybe 5 thai total, which included the park staff. really, nobody was there. we hiked for several hours thru the rainforest to a waterfall enjoying the quiet trails all to ourselves. it was refreshing to see such isolation so close to so much tourism.

tomorrow (may 31) is the full moon day of the sixth lunar month, so marks the visakha bucha, a buddhism holy day. doi suthep is one of the holier temples in thailand and is the destination for thousands of buddhists who trek up the mountain on visakha bucha. our plan is to return to doi pui to stay at one of the park’s bungalows and to watch the procession up the mountain. considering we made the arrangements thru a non-english speaking park ranger, though, i’m not counting on anything. for all i know we made reservations for 31 people on 2 june.