Chiang Mai

Our bus to Chiang Mai arrived around midnight, with quite an impressive welcome - there was a festival going on, and thousands of orange lanterns + fireworks were lighting up the sky...it was really pretty. Unfortunately it was the last day of the festival (which only happens once a year), but at least got to see the end of it!




Spent the next day exploring. A moat surrounds the old city, with brick gates and walls still visible in parts. There are loads of wats, and some interesting old buildings. We took a songathew (large tuk-tuk) to the Tribal Museum, which I found pretty fascinating. Had loads of info on the different hill tribes existing in Northern Thailand, many of which are a mix of cultures - the borders to Myanmar, China, and Laos are all within close distance.




In the evening we did a 4-hour cooking course. It was brilliant! Nokki (our instructor) was hilarious, she really made it special. There were only 5 of us, and we cooked four dishes - veggie Pad Thai, Green Curry with Chicken/Tofu, Prawn Tom Yam Soup, and Morning Glory. The last one is a spinach/spring onion veggie dish in an oyster sauce - kind of sounds gross but I think it was my favourite :) They were all really good though...and we got the cook book to keep. PLUS, a dessert - fresh mango with sticky rice & a sweet coconut sauce. SOOO good. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO stuffed afterwards!

No expectations please mum :)