Village Life, Culture, and Cooking

It's very difficult to blog during these tours because there's not a great deal of down time, unlike Peace Corps when I had days and days to write and elaborate about my experience.  These travel blog posts seem to be more of the highlights.

Wednesday (Homestay)

• Cooking class to make Northern Tomato Chili Dipping Sauce.  (Yum!)
• Dinner with traditional Thai music and dancing performed by families in the village.

As we were participating in the candlelight dance with the locals, a massive meteor shot across the sky.  I've never seen a meteor, but I have a feeling this one was particularly close, based on the huge tail it had and length of time we watched it.  It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Thursday

• Bike ride through the village; stopped to learn about processing rice (by hand) and mushroom farming.
• Left the homestay and traveled north to Chiang Mai.
• Stopped for a quick visit at an elephant hospital.
• Walked around Chiang Mai and saw three temples in the historic part of town.

• Went to the temple Wat Doi Suthep at the top of a mountain; received a blessing from a Buddhist monk and listened to them chanting.

At the end of the evening, the group decided to dive into Chiang Mai nightlife and go to a "Thai lady boy" cabaret show.  Kind of a strange way to end a day of temples and Buddhism . . . going to a drag queen show.  But it was tons of fun.

Friday

• Elephant sanctuary - we spent the entire day feeding and playing with elephants.

• Massage #3
• Farewell dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant (5 people will not continue on the trip to the south)
• Night market shopping

Unfortunately, it was rainy and cold . . . and the dirt mountain roads had turned to mud . . . and we got stuck in the mud near the edge of cliff.  It was the scariest car ride I've ever been on, but the driver and guide acted like it was no big deal - they do it all the time.

Saturday

• Thai cooking class - we made spring rolls, hot & sour soup, Pad Thai, green curry.

• Walked around Chiang Mai - found a French bakery and got some pastries.

Now on to the overnight train back to Bangkok!