Chiang Mai, Thailand

On May 31st we began our short visit to Chiang Mai, in the northern part of Thailand. Our first stop was the Wat Doi Suthep (the Temple of Doi Suthep) which is located at the top of a large hill.

We had to climb over 300 steps to reach the temple, but luckily we didn’t need our temple clothing (covered shoulders and legs) until the top of the climb!

The temple was beautiful:

We saw this really interesting tree where the fruit grows out of the trunk and not the branches!

I learned that there are different Buddha poses depending on which day of the week you are born on. In the photo below the days go from right to left, starting with Sunday. Wednesday has two poses, one for the day and one for the night. If you want to make a donation to the temple, then you must put your donation in the bowl corresponding to your Buddha pose.

I was also given the opportunity to meet and be blessed by a Monk! Monks are not allowed to directly interact with women – or to even touch their skin. So the Monk’s helper, who was seated beside him, interacted with me, and said a blessing for happiness, luckiness, healthiness and prosperity. They tie a cotton white string around your wrist as part of the blessing.

Me being blessed and getting my cotton string tired to my wrist:

It was very interesting!

After relaxing by the hotel pool in the afternoon, I spent the evening at a Thai Cooking Class! The class started in the market, where our cooking instructor explained all the different spices, vegetables, and various ingredients we would be using.

Different types of curry paste:

All the important vegetables:

We then went to his cooking studio, where we each had our own cooking station.

This is my station:

In total we made 4 dishes… some of them easier than others!

Hot and Sour Prawn and Chicken Soup:

Chicken with Cashew Nuts:

Yellow Curry with Chicken:

Pad Thai:

They were relatively easy to make, except for the Pad Thai!! During the making of the Pad Thai a number of people’s wok’s became engrossed in fire! Pad Thai is interesting, you cook the noodles with the sauce, chicken, tofu and other ingredients first, and then you push everything to the side of the wok, and fry the egg on the empty side. Then you have to push the noodles and other ingredients on top of the fried egg and mix everything together. 

This is me pushing my noodles to the side to make room for the egg:

After cooking all the dishes, we got to sit down and enjoy all of it! The food was delicious!! We got a souvenir cookbook to bring home with us with all the yummy foods! I am so excited to make Thai food once I get back to Toronto!!