Monday, May 23, 2011

Thai cooking crash course... then Lao time


The cooking class was pretty fun, although I'm not sure if i'll be able to cook the pad thai or prawn in coconut milk or sticky rice with mango properly without my teachers.  I was surprised at how well all my cooking turned out since I know nothing about cooking.  It was pretty grueling because we cooked 5 courses in 5 hours and had to eat each meal!  Needless to say, dinner was pretty light that night.  That night we went to a Muay Thai fight (ring side seats!) which was a lot more exciting than I thought.  They started out with kids, which was a little weird to watch at first, but they were pretty professional.  The most exciting fight were the women, whoe were best matched for each other and there was even a knock out!  At the fight we sat next to an Englishman who lived in Chang Mai and trained in Muay Thai and he helped us better understand events. 
The next morning we left Chang Mai for a 6 hour bus trip to Chiang Kong and later that afternoon we crossed the Mekong River and we were in Houay Xai Laos.  The town is simple and quiet, not like any other town we've been to yet... maybe it's because there's really nothing much to do here for tourists except for the Gibbon Experience.  Today we spent the day exploring on a scooter and had a delicious lunch looking at Thailand from the other side of the river.  It was a pretty glorious day because we had nothing planned at all, just a day to relax which we haven't gotten much of.  Our first day in Laos seemed like the perfect place to do this since Laos time is significantly more relaxed than any other place I've been to.  It's so refreshing...   
Tomorrow we leave for the Gibbon Experience!  All we know is that we'll be gone for for a few days, there will be waterfalls, trekking (but mostly flying) through the jungle and sleeping in a treehouse 100ft up in the air.  We're not really sure what to expect, but what's the fun in always knowing.  See ya in a few days!

1 comment:

  1. The food looks yummy. You will have to try to do it for us.

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