Day 18: Leaving Chiang Mai

Highlights

-Thai cooking class
-eating our own Thai food
-time at the pool
-finishing our suits

Helpful Hints

-always threaten to walk away, we are slowly learning that we are paying too much
-bring lots of OFF, ziplock bags, and Febreeze

We are now all certified Thai chefs. May not have a piece of paper with our name on it but judging by the success of our meals, we're official. Saturday (Day 16) we took an all-day cooking class. They picked us up at the hotel and took us first to a large market. We selected the meals we were going to cook and the teacher took us around the market to buy the things we would need for that day. Learned a lot there but I don't know how easy it will be to do in Calgary. Definitely not stuff you find at Safeway or IGA. Will have to spend some time in Chinatown.

We made four meals each in the morning and attempted to eat them all at lunch. The 20 tourists-turned-cooks were very chatty and excited at the beginning of lunch but by the end most people were too full to talk, other than to complain about being full.



Out of the meals we each made my best was the Padthai, Luke had an amazing "big noodles with thick sauce" soup, and Nevin made some "big noodles with black bean sause".

In the afternoon we made lighter stuff like salads and desserts. My rice-mango dessert was so amazing that I ate it all without thinking about how full I already was OR about the fact that I hadn't let Nevin try any (Luke was lucky to get one taste test). Overall a very successful day. We each have cookbooks we're bringing home so be ready for some Thai food experiments back in Alberta.

Two more quick things:

THE OILERS WIN!! Yesterday we got to the internet cafe early to listen to the Oilers' game live in 630CHED radio. It's not as good as seeing the game live but when you've just been trying to catch up on the scores for weeks it's amazing to sit down and hear it live. We attracted a few stares from the other patrons (especially the Thai ones). The last few minutes of the game were crazy. I'd say I was sweating extra hard but we all sweat so much here that it would be hard to prove that. If we can find a TV that will play the games in Laos I think we're going to stay there for the next two weeks not matter what.

Last thing, our new suits are done. Real cashmere wool suits, cotton shirts, and silk ties. They stay up until 10:00 or so every night of the week at this place. We had fittings each evening on Friday, Saturday, and yesterday. And I must say, we look good. We're mailing the suits home so parents, expect a large package in the mail at least by the middle of June. Nevin's and Luke's are going to St. Albert, mine to Nanton.

Oh, and we've touched up our playoff beards. Since none of us can actually grow one, we decided to focus on what we can grow. Luke has a solid chin-strap going, Nevin has a nice goatee, and I have a crappy goatee with a crappy moustache (I figure they average out into one nice section of facial hair). Anyway, much better than the full playoff beards we've been growing since the start of the trip.

We have to get back and check out of our hotel now. We leave at noon to go up to the very northern part of Thailand. Tomorrow morning we get on a slow boat for a two day float to Luang Prabang. I bought a new reading book (Tom Clancy's "The Bear And The Dragon") as well as a Sudoku book (proud of me Brendan and Matt?). We'll reestablish contact in Laos.

GO OILERS GO!!!