Chiang Mai, the city where nobody wants to leave

As I got off the train and got ripped off for the umpth time for a ride to my hostel, I realized how calmer the city was. No high rises, no crazy cars or taxis harassing everybody. It was actually SAFE to walk the streets and not get run over by a car. I didn't once got harrassed by tuk tuk or taxis. I understand by people extend their stay in Chiang Mai. However, I underestimated one element in Chiang Mai, the heat. The city felt much hotter than Bangkok. I was surprised as I was more than 1000km north of Bangkok in the mountains, which logic should dictate that it would be cooker than Bangkok. The temperature hovered around the 38 degrees mark, with an intense sun pounding on my head. My dorm room had one fan and it felt like a constant sauna. Everybody was under the shade, with a beer in their hand either sleeping or drinking. At night I ventured the streets of Chiang Mai with a fellow foodie who I met in Bangkok two weeks ago. I had a much deserved Thai massage which is an interesting experience. On top of breaking the knots between the muscles, they pull your body in ways that nobody would think of to crack the bones and stretch the ligaments, for an hour in an air conn room. The best part of the massage was the air conn. That's how hot it was in the evening.

Chiang Mai is a more cultural city compared to Bangkok where there are heaps of massage, muay thai and cooking school. The foodie in me was screaming for a cooking class, so I booked one in an organic farm, 20km outside of Chiang Mai. Sammy, a skinny Thai man with a pony tail greeted me with an impecable English at my guesthouse and proceeded to pick up the rest of the students. We stopped at the market where he explained the different kind of rices and how coconut milk was extraced. We also decided on the dishes we wanted to cook. I choose to cook a jungle curry (red curry), my favorite soup Tom Yum Gung, the ever so popular Pad Thai, Papaya Salad and a pumpkin custard.

The farm itself was really nice, peaceful and the open kitchen had a view of the rice field. Sammy kept on showing off the "best toilet in Chiang Mai" which was quite impressive. We got to the dining table where a mortar/pestle and cooking apron was set up on the table. We were going to grind and make our own curry paste! We proceeded to chop the ingredients and grinded the spices for 30 minutes before we head to the kitchen and cook the curry. The jungle curry came out quite nice, but it was a bit too salty. Cooking the tom yum soup was as easy as making the vietnamese counter part, canh chua. The soup came out quite nice, but it wasn't salty enough and it was lacking a bit more of the sour. Next time I'll make it, I'll add a bit more lemon. The most successful dish was my Pad Thai. Using a wok on a gas burner for the first time, I was sauteeing my pad thai quite easily as if I have been cooking in a wok all my life. The pad thai came out perfectly, a nice blend of sweet, sour, salty and fish sauce. It was much better than the 20 baht pad thai I had on khao san road. We all feasted on our creation and proceed with a break. I immediately ran to the hammoc and passed out under the heat for a good hour which felt like three. I woke up groggy and went back to the kitchen to make the papaya salad. To my big surprise, the entire dish is prepared in a mortel and pestle! Once the sauce is prepared (the key to this dish is the sauce), I dunked the carrots, papaya and long bean into the mortel and started to toss and crush everything! What an interesting way to make the dish! The dish came out quite nice as it had a good mixture of sweet sour and a good punch of chili (i had 3 and i was crying). It would have complimented very well with my pad thai. While I was still recovering from my chili high, I watched the other students with their other dishes: the egg rolls and a chicken wrapped in pandal leafs. Once we finished with the dessert, we brought the dishes on our table and struggled to finish all the food on the table. we all thanked Sammy and his wife for the wonderful course and as we were packing our things, Sammy's incredibly cute and adorable daughter, niece and nephew each gave us a cooking book and thanked everybody in an impecable English accent. They were soooooo cute.  We all left the class content and full.

By the end of my stay in Chiang Mai, I realized I had enough for Thailand. The lack of air conn in our room made our rest impossible as we were all tossing around covered in sweat and the odd mosquito in our room was feasting on our flesh and blood. The heat was getting to me and I couldn't spend another night sharing a room with 3 or more people without air conn. Having to fight for transportation via Taxi when a certain venue isn't located close to a BTS station. I booked a 50$ a 4 star hotel in Bangkok with wifi and air conn and going to patiently wait for the last leg of my trip: 3 weeks in Japan where the average temperature will be floating around 20 degrees. I can't wait, but most of all, I can't wait to go back home with my own bed and doing absolutely nothing. But until then, I really have to start to figure out where I will be staying in Tokyo...