So I’ve slacked a bit on my blogging which pretty much speaks the level of relaxation I’ve hit here in Chiang Mai. Vietnam and Cambodia were a journey unto themselves. I’ve never felt so close to the earth beneath my feet as I did in those countries. Here in Thailand I feel as though I’m on a sabbatical in every sense of life. It’s like I’m resting in the bottom of a genies bottle, pampered by the sun and illuminated by the reflection of these golden temples that seem to give me permission to indulge in my version of bliss.
Yesterday I took a cooking course on an organic farm in the country. I cannot tell you how much I learned within those 7 hours. Strolling through the harvest of fresh herbs and vegetables lined by Star fruit and Papaya trees.
Photo credits to Ivonne! My fellow foodie friend
Today we made curries from scratch with fresh and sundried chilies, various types of basil, garlic, slices of fragrant Thai ginger. The mortar and pestle releasing a contrast of sweet and peppery aroma that made my eyes water.
Red, green and yellow curries..tom yam..Tom Kas Gai..spring tools, gai phad met mamuang (chicken with cashews); and mango sticky rice for dessert.
There is so much, I’ve learned, to Thai food than what we typically know back home.
This morning I lazed around the pool ruffling through pamphlets of various things I thought I needed to see and do while here. But with my zen flowing once again, I threw them to the side within minutes..screw it..I’m going to the spa.
With all that dust accumulated from country to country I needed a good scrub down. And here’s why. Before leaving Canada I booked months in advanced at the famous Gaggan restaurant in Bangkok for my very last night. Gaggan, world renown for his unique progressive Indian creations, was rated top restaurant in all of Asia in 2015. In a few more days I will leave this country but not without experiencing this gastronomical adventure first hand. Suffice it to say, I need to clean up a little. It’s like I’m getting ready for a date of a life time.
So here at the oasis spa I was led across the teak walkway into my own private treatment villa.
First, a honey sesame and cereal body scrub so fierce she managed to dig her way down through that nasty cheeta print tan line. Then an aromatic oil massage. It was as though each muscle in my back held a stressor that was immediately freed with every pressured roll she made. I finished with a Thai facial that had me looking like the shrek, but boy oh boy was I ever clean and my skin soft as a baby’s bottom.
On the way back I went on a bit of a quest to find a small family owned cafe that apparently has the best Pad Thai in all of Chiang Mai. It was called “We’s” restaurant. But in my haste I stopped at the first sign in the vicinity with word “we” in it, and thinking I had the right place, ordered the PadThai. I looked closer only to read the fine print “we…serve pad Thai …at the Micky mouse house restaurant”. Dammit I had the wrong place and it was too late to cancel my order so I had to eat it. But a full belly never stopped this girl before and it certainly wouldn’t now. Off I went and finally I found the real “we’s” cafe. Once here I couldn’t just order the pad Thai..if it was as good as it claimed it to be I had to try their best of everything. So before you know it this was my “other” lunch.
Damn it was good.
So terribly full, the oils from my body slid me off my chair and back to my hotel for a small siesta.
Tonight I head to a not-so-Thai wine tasting with my new friends.
..life is really too short to not indulge in life’s simple pleasures..