Cooking class in Chiang Mai

We did a cooking class in Chiang Mai with Asia Scenic Thai Cooking school and I am so happy we did it! The class was really great and a lot fun! I am hoping Justin remembers what he learned when we get home! Ha! Just kidding. But all the food turned out really good, and we each got a cook book!

First we got to select 5 dishes that we wanted to make. I made green papaya salad, chicken pad see uw, tom yum soup, green curry paste and green curry. Justin made spring rolls, pad thai, tom sab soup (our teacher told us that it is the sexiest soup because of all it's sexy ingredients), khaw soi curry paste and khaw soi curry. Khaw soi is famous in Northern Thailand. We decided to make different things so we could dabble in each others!

The school has is own herb garden so we got to take a tour of the garden and smell and taste all the herbs we would be using! I loved that part and it made me realize how bad I want a garden to dink around in!

After our garden tour, we headed to the local market to check out the ingredients that the locals use. I really learned a lot about the different types of tofu, noodles and rices.

Chris and Justin making spring rolls!

We each had our own cooking station! Our teacher was great, his name was "A" easy for everyone to remember! He loved using the word sexy. He kept saying " more spicy is more sexy". He was cracking us all up!

Making curry paste from scratch!

Chef Justin in the kitchen! Maybe I will see more of this action at home! ;)

Cute miss Chrissie! I am so happy they met us. we had so much fun!

Enjoying the final products!

Spring rolls made by Justin and papaya salad made by me!

Green Curry- yum, yum!

Collin woke up sick the next day, but I don't think it was a result of anyone's cooking! At least I sure hope not!

Tigers, Monkeys, Orchids and a Temple

What a day!! We hired a driver for the day that took us around to some of the sites in Chiang Mai. First, we decided we could not pass up the opportunity to get in the cage of a tiger, so that was our first stop. The decision was whether to get in with an extra small, small, medium or big tiger. We opted for the biggest tiger they had! We were allowed 15 mins with the tiger. The tigers seemed like they were drugged but they swear they were not.

We asked if the tigers had ever attacked someone while in the cage and our guide just starred at the ground! I will take that as a yes!

It was pretty cool getting the opportunity to pet a tiger. I do always feel sad for animals that are cooped up though. They did have a really nice facility for the tigers there.

Chris and Collin

I think they are such beautiful creatures!

Our next stop was the monkey park! This is a gibbon, really cool!

Another sad situation! We bought some fruit and veggies to feed them and they just went wild.

They put a little show on for us that was beyond hilarious, Collin and Justin were cracking up days after. The best part of the show was the commentary. This was a very smart monkey. All the numbers were upside down and mixed up and the monkey could always find the number you told him to.

Weight lifting campion!

Monkey love! He was trying to give Justin a kiss on the head! How sweet!

Flowers for sale, just 20 baht! I have some really funny videos of the monkey show that I will try to upload at some point.

Next stop was the orchid farm! They were so beautiful and smelt so good!

The last stop for the day was the temple of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. The temple is located on the top of a mountain over looking the city!

Elephant Nature Park

After visiting the Elephant Nature Park north of Chiang Mai, I feel so terrible that I ever paid to ride an elephant when we were in Thailand in August. The Elephant Nature Park's aim is to provide a sanctuary and rescue centre for elephants. You can check out their site here, http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/index.htm

Lek started the Elephant Nature Park in 1996. She is an amazing women and this is her story.

Sangduen Chailert (Lek) was born into a remote mountain community in Northern Thailand in the 1960's. Her maternal grandfather was a tribal man of the forest and Lek's jungle forays with him led to an early and organic understanding of the wonders of nature. Against the backdrop of poverty she obtained a university education - something practically unique considering her circumstances.

Despite extreme financial difficulties she succeeded in founding Elephant Nature Park along with her husband Adam in 1996.

The park is close to her home village and has been supported by their family tour business which operates educational and environmental trips as well as a travel website. Her life-quest is to provide a sanctuary for elephants to live in a peaceful natural environment. This love of the elephant began as a youngster. The family cared for an elephant which became a close companion of Lek's. This affection led to working with elephants in the forests. With a vet they provided medical care to sick elephants in remote areas. Travel to these areas is hazardous and often involves hours of walking narrow jungle paths inaccessible to vehicles. She is often away for days at a time. The park's current herd includes disabled, orphans, blind and rescued, elephants of all ages.

The Elephants under her care came mainly from private owners and she has had to negotiate fees to enable them to join her herd. Some outlived their usefulness to loggers while others became useless to trekking camp owners. Leks work takes her deep into the jungles of Northern Thailand where, with the help of medical staff, she treats tribal villagers and their families with medical care and, often, donated clothing. Her Jumbo Express programme provides much needed care to elephants in the jungles in Chiang Mai province and beyond.

Protection of the forests is another of her many hobbies and she had initiated a programme of saving individual trees using local Buddhist beliefs and sacred saffron cloth to tie around each tree. Locals are reluctant to cut down these trees fearing insults to jungle spirits.

Her programmes are focused around local culture, common sense and a deep conviction in the preservation of her home area. Sustainability is the key-term to describe her efforts. Elephant volunteers from around the world assist her in a unique programme involving learning, physical help and education.

Lek's efforts have been recognised worldwide and numerous stories have appeared on TV and print media including National Geographic and the Smithsonian Society. Awards include Guest of Honour - 2003 US Humane Society, 2005 Time Magazine 'Asian Hero of the year', 2006 Earth Day Award, Honourary PhD (Veterinarian Science) awarded by HM Crown Prince of Thailand

Currently 30 elephants are under her care and the park has had seven births since 1996. Anyone witnessing Lek with elephants will see a loving bond, closeness and a special understanding. Her commitment and extensive field work make her projects unique.

It really was amazing to watch Lek with the elephants, you can really tell the love she has for them. This is a baby girl elephant that thinks Lek is her daughter, she wants to protect her by keep Lek underneath her. She would chase her around trying to use her trunk to get her to go under her. She has a special relationship with these elephants and even said she sings them to bed at night.

This is a really sad but neat story. Jokia is a blind elephant, the one on the right side. Her friend Mae Perm on the left acts as her eyes as she leads Jokia around the park and forests. It is a wonderful sight for those of us lucky to witness it and Jokia's beautiful demeanour is a lesson to us all in dealing with the hard lessons of life. You can read Jokia's story here about the reason she is blind. http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/herd/jokia.htm

Ready to eat! During our visit we were able to hand feed the elephants watermelon and pumpkin.

Bath time!

We also got a chance to help wash the elephants in the river. As soon as the exit the river they head straight for a pit of mud to roll around it. The mud and dust acts as a sun screen for them and helps keep them cool.

It is true, they are such gentle giants! I wanted to take one home!

This elephant had so much love to give! Kisses for Chrissy!

Lots of kisses to go around. This was my second kiss so I was a bit more scared. It was a weird feeling and smelt really bad.

This elephants story breaks my heart, her name is Trilly. You can see that her back right leg is not right. She has a broken back that will take about 7 years to heal. It is so painful to watch her walk. They said they give her pain medicine when we starts to cry! Poor baby! She was over worked and forced to mate with overweight males that caused her back injures. Usually an elephant has 2-3 babies but she had many more.

I think we all left that day feeling a bit different about elephants. They are such precious creatures and it is too bad a lot of them are treated the way they are. We watched a horrible educational video on the traditional ways on breaking an elephants spirt in order for it to obey its owner. It was just awful and to see an elephant cry even on TV is just heart breaking! I hope that someday they will find another way to train elephants!

Thailand- Koh Phi Phi

We were so excited to meet Chris and Collin in Bangkok. We had been planning their trip to meet us forever and it was so exciting the day they arrived. We spent only one night in Bangkok, which I am glad we did. That city is huge and crowded, anymore time there and we all would have went crazy. It took so long to get anywhere with all the traffic jams. But we had a great day wondering the city and treated ourselves to a fun cocktail at a fancy rooftop bar. So fancy, Justin had to borrow a pair of slacks and shoes from the bar and Chris had to wear a table cloth around her shorts in order to have a skirt on. Wow, we did not really know about the dress code! We were a tad out of our league.

The next day we flew to Phuket to take the ferry to Koh Phi Phi. Koh Phi Phi is truly a paradise, it is so beautiful. It was raining the day we arrived but we really lucked out the next day and had sunshine! Koh Phi Phi is really great because there are no cars and with it being so small it was super easy to get around. We ended up staying at different hotels. We stayed in this little hut close to the beach.

Long Beach

Justin and his yummy fish dinner!

Walking back from Long beach.

We all have developed an addiction to mango shakes. They are so GOOD! In fact, I am sipping on one as I write this! ;)

We took a day snorkeling trip on the next island over. We did not expect sun but we were all pleasantly surprised by a lovely day!

Snorkeling

There were tons and tons of fish. Our guide tossed a bunch of pineapple in the water and the fish went wild, it was pretty cool!

Enjoying some delicious pineapple.

Soaking up our day of sunshine and boy oh boy did we soak it up. I was red as a lobster the next day as was everyone.

Our last stop for the day was monkey island. They just chill out down on the beach. They warned us that they can be quit mean so we kept our distance but you would not believe some of the tourists nerve, sitting right down beside them.

Apparently they like soda.

Just like a mini human, so strange.

We are so thankful we left the day we did and were actually able to get out. I believe our ferry was the last one out for a few days. It was so stormy and just dumping buckets of rain down. We wanted to take the 1:30 ferry but after boarding they moved us over to the 2:30 ferry as the 1:30 ferry was too small. I am so glad they moved us, even on the bigger ferry it was a really rough ride, so rough they were passing out plastic bags and plenty of people were using them. Yuck! People were also putting on their life jackets. It was a bit scary but we made it safe and sound.

We all loved Koh Phi Phi. Even with the rain we had a blast. We ended up playing lots of hearts and BS.