A Couple of Days around Chiang Mai

Day 8: Taking it Easy

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After a couple of non-stop days in the jungle, Day 8 was set up to be a day of rest. (I guess I was one day off from biblical principles.) No alarms were set so we could sleep in. I found a nice breakfast restaurant for us nearby and we dropped off our laundry at a near by laundry service (this time it was more like $12, but I think we had to pay a premium for same-day pick up). I then had a list of things around town that we could choose to do in combination with taking it easy at the hotel pool until dinner time when we had a food tour planned. Not having a planned itinerary should be freeing and relaxing, but it seems it is more likely to cause tension over who wants to do what. There was a tiger zoo, elephant poopoopaper (where you make paper from poo), a waterfall hike (these were all going to be 30 mins+ by car away, and we were done with car rides) and then some simple things like temples around town. We had some meltdowns. It wasn't pretty. I think this is just part of parenthood but on vacation you hope that every day will just be glowing with happiness and excitement and it's extra frustrating when they arise. Sigh. We spent the vast majority of the day by the pool because everything else would probably have been miserable. We did get out for lunch and a stop by a beautiful local temple and then took a local taxi (mostly because I wanted to take these tuk tuk like taxis) to the main gate of the city and then back to the hotel. The teenager got a front seat in one of them which he thought was pretty awesome.

While they continued to enjoy the pool - I decided to take advantage of the downtime and go down the street to get a famous Thai massage. There were like 100 places to chose from within 10 minutes of the hotel - I picked one based on reviews on google that was less than a block away. Many places advertised 60 minute massages for 250 Bhat (about $7), the place I picked was 400 Bhat (about $11), yes, big spender, right? But with the comfort of everyone else's reviews definitely was worth it! I was welcomed with a cold tea and a cold cloth. Then went for a foot bath. Then got changed into a fantastic linen outfit (definitely reminded me of something you'd wear in a simplicity cult lifestyle). I had seen Thai massages on the Amazing Race (just this latest season too), so I knew they were a bit different. This little Thai woman comes in and has me lay face down on the table - very typical massage table. But then she climbs on the table too. She uses her full body weight on her arms and maybe elbows to massage my back, arms and legs. Stretching is also part of the Thai massage so she ends up bending me in ways that I don't typically bend, using her own body has leverage. I'm sure I'm not describing it accurately, but you can google it, it's hilarious.

We had more meltdowns later when it was time to go to the food tour. We recovered from the meltdown in time for the food tour. Then our driver came to pick us up for the food tour and we had a luxury tourist van this time around. The kids LOVED this van. Probably in part because we had been riding in the back of a songtheuw for the last couple of days and this was so vastly different. It was exciting enough to change the attitudes to something positive so we could enjoy the tour though!

The street food tour took us to a couple of different markets around town. The guide was fantastic. It was a private tour (even though I didn't book a private tour). It was exciting to try all of these new foods in such a different environment - the little plastic tables and plastic chairs, along the busy road, lots of locals (and some other food tour groups). It's like a good food truck event but these families have been specializing in their 1-2 dishes for decades it seems. The guide had a paper with phrases on it so we could order the food in Thai. We had papaya salad - which they welcomed me to help - some soup, sticky rice and another chicken dish that was delicious. We learned that with sticky rice you roll it into a little ball to dip it into the sauces of the dishes rather than just load it on a plate and put food on top of it. Food you can play with is always a plus!

The next stop had a pork dish - like bbq pork -and some stir fried morning glory - like spinach. Then the final stop at this market had donuts with a green dipping sauce and mango sticky rice. All delicious and the kids even tried the green dipping sauce. No insects were served on this food tour! Although we saw some interesting options.

People say to us all the time "OMG, my kids are such picky eaters, they would starve if we ... " What's amazing is that at home my kids are picky eaters and although they didn't eat everything on this trip we found that they were becoming so much more of exploratory eaters and actually really liked many of the things that they tried - especially the teenager. They may still opt for a slice of pizza or chicken fingers if given a choice but with each attempt I feel like their food tastes are expanding!

We went to a second market but by this time my daughter was zonking out - swimming always seems to tire them out more than anything else. We carried her to the first restaurant where she promptly put her head on the table and fell asleep again. We enjoyed some chicken khao soi - a famous chiang mai dish. Then we went to one more stand for a quick coconut cake like dessert. Our driver then took us back to the hotel and we were all absolutely stuffed. And I hoped that the probiotics would counteract any potential germs we may have encountered. I didn't see any outright food safety hazards, but you just never know.

Day 9: Back on the Bike and learning to cook Thai

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After our resting day, we got picked up by another songtheuw and taken about half an hour outside of the city to do some biking for the morning. This time we had a couple of Germans on the trek with us. I won't go into too many details but it was another good way of just seeing rural, village life. We rode through many rice fields - this time they were yet to be harvested so it was fun to see rice on the stalks and understand a bit better how it's grown and harvested. We learned about their funeral like processes which are always interesting. We saw schools and stopped by an after school wood carving learning center. We foraged some food along the way - the kids even trying the new fruit. After the morning bike ride, we were fed another delicious lunch at this eco-resort which the bike shop operated out of and got to spend a couple of hours hanging out at the pool there. We had the pool to ourselves which is super relaxing and makes for happy kiddos.

After awhile we got picked up again by a songtheuw and driven back into center city Chiang Mai to a cooking school, Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School. There were tons of people at the classes - massive operation. We were in a class with a family with 3 young kids from Israel, 2 couples from Ireland and a couple of women from Germany. I knew that my kids were NOT excited about the cooking class. In planning this, I had made deals with them about this being 'mommy's pick' and they just needed to enjoy it and I would enjoy things that they picked. Now we are here and they are still not happy about it. And then I realize we are making a 5 course meal and it's going to take 3 hours. They are exhausted and no way are they making it that long without a meltdown. So we made a deal with them if they made 1 dish (the pad Thai) with a good attitude, that then daddy would take them back to the hotel and I would stay to get to enjoy the cooking class (in peace). Deal.

First they took us to a local market and gave us an overview on all of the ingredients. When we got back, they set us up at our cooking stations, first we had to chop some veggies. The kids enjoyed getting to use these big knives. Then we each got our own burner with a wok. My daughter warned me that the ONLY thing I could help her with was turning the burner on. Which was actually a pretty massive flame - one thing I learned is that Thai food is cooked on HIGH heat. Not exactly great for a kids first cooking experience but we'll go with it. There were like 12 very quick steps to cooking the Pad Thai - it took less than 5 minutes. But that also meant trying to remember and perform all 12 steps with this massive flame and sputtering hot oil. The kids actually really seemed to enjoy the challenge (I don't think they would admit it though). My daughter especially really got into it and was super proud of herself. We sat down to eat our Pad Thai. Mine was decent, the kids didn't like theirs much - some of it may have been burnt. I thought there was a chance that they would want to stay to do more, but alas, they were set on going back. I continued on with the cooking class and made a spring roll, Tom kha soup and a Panang curry. The soup was probably my favorite but it was all so good. I ate as much as I physically could but couldn't finish it. I'm excited to see if I can find all the ingredients at the Asian market at home to try it there!