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Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles

a travel blog by zachel

Hello everyone. This blog is meant for our friends and concerned family members who would like to keep track of our adventures in the Orient. We'll be updating our journey with blog entries and pictures periodically to show an idea of how our trip is going.

Coincidentally and luckily, both of our last days at Avalon English Academy fell on February 27th. After an amazing year in Korea, we sent most of our possessions on a slow boat to America while we ourselves took a slow boat to China. Forgoing the conventional form of transportation, we decided to save a little money and take the overnight Weidong ferry from Incheon, Korea to Qingdao, China, our first stop.

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Hue

Hue, Vietnam

We have a lot of updating to do on the blog tonight. This was the first time that we have been on a computer in the last week or so that has been even capable of updating a blog....It seems that the farther south we travel in Nam' the worse the internet connections get.
Hue was what you would call uneventful. It had a particular charm to it. It was a laid back city, outside of the touts harassing us, but all in all it was a place to skip over.
After a grueling 14 hour bus ride from Hanoi to Hue we shleped off the bus into the early morning air only to be surrounded by some crazy "businessmen" looking to corral us into their hotels. These people were some of the most desperate, insane, people we had come across. They wouldn't take "no, thank you" for an answer. After trying to avoid them unsuccessfully, we ducked into a hotel and settled in.
Hue is touted as a tourist attraction for their citadel, which is an enclosure around an emperor's palace. The city also boasts Vietnam's largest flag. The palace was occupied by royalty through the 1950's, but is nonetheless in disrepair. After visiting so many incredible temples on this trip like the Forbidden City, Hue's Forbidden Purple City was underwhelming. The highlight could have been the renovated tennis court that the emperor used during his tenure at the palace. Why the curators rebuilt the tennis court rather than focusing on the palace which is in disrepair confused me and Rachel.
Hungry after a long trip we found an Indian restaurant for our next meal and liked it so much that we ate there for both lunch and dinner. Mmmm vegetable curry.
After a rest we went down to the riverfront to see what nightlife Hue had to offer. We both agreed that the vibe at night along the riverfront was the highlight of our day in Hue. A bridge that connected the two parts of the city was lit brightly with an ever-changing array of colors. Lots of the city's locals were seen drinking beers and sipping fruit shakes by the river. On to Hoi An!

permalink written by  zachel on April 4, 2009 from Hue, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
tagged Hue and ForbiddenPurpleCity
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Hoi An

Hoi An, Vietnam

After our day in Hue, we took a 6 hour bus ride south to a quiet little city called Hoi An.

In Hanoi, for the bargain price of 48 dollars, we each purchased what's called an open bus ticket to Saigon with four stops along the way-- Hue, Hoi An, Nha-Trang, and Dalat. With an open ticket you can get off the bus at any of these cities and stay for as long as you'd like. When you want to continue on, you just call the local office a day ahead of time to confirm. These buses are supposed to be more luxurious than public transportation. Supposed to be. From Hanoi to Hue can only be described as a ride from hell. This was a 14 hour overnight journey on an old smelly sleeper bus--a bus with beds, not chairs. We were crammed into the very back with 3 other people. First the air conditioning was freezing but then it became terribly hot. The driver seemed to have a death wish, passing in the oncoming traffic lane, swirving, and honking needlessly. Needless to say, we were both pretty pleased when we saw the prestine condition of the next bus we got on to take us from Hue to Hoi An. It was new and clean and the air conditioning worked properly. Hurray!

Hoi An is a little town only 5km from the beach. The downtown is built up around a little river and its narrow cobble stone streets are decked with cute little shops. Hoi An is famous for two things-- custom tailored clothing and local food. We delighted in both of these luxuries. I had a pair of linen pants and shorts made and Zack had a pair of pants and a button up shirt made. We picked out the design, color, material, and had our bodies measured around noon. Our clothes were ready to pick up at 6pm. We hit the town in our new clothes to taste the food. The fried wanton dish was delicious! (Sorry, Duke, I know you are sick of us writing about how delicious the food is in every entry). We are also really enjoying all the fruity shakes. I love mango!

Tragedy struck our next day in Hoi An. We planned a day trip 50km west to the My Son (pronounced Mee Sun) temple ruins. A minivan picked us up at our hotel at 8am and then stopped to pick up about 8 other tourists. Before leaving town, we pulled up next to a large bus filled with tourists. A man came off the bus over to our van and introduced himself as our tour guide. Those of us in the minivan would rendevous with the rest of the people on the bus at the My Son ruins. Immediately, the bus took off speeding ahead of us. As we drove down the two lane back country road, we were both engrossed in our books. Since being in China, we'd grown used to the crazy traffic. Tons of motorbikes, bicycles, and a handful of cars and buses fill the streets in a crazy dance of death, buses passing in the oncoming lane of traffic. We were bound to see the scene of an accident at some point. This was the day. As our van slowed, I looked up from my book and gasped to see that the bus with our guide and fellow tourists had stopped after hitting a woman on a motorbike. She was sprawled out in the middle of the rode, arms and legs in awkward postions, dead. It was a terrible sight. There were two kids in the van with us, about 12 or 13 years old. Our minivan stopped and the driver got out and went over to the accident to see if there was anything he could do. It was too late. Two women were dead and another person was taken to the hospital. This definitely put a damper on the day, but we still saw the ruins. The ruins, though built by the same civilization as Cambodia's Angkor Wat, were not overly impressive. Sadly, a chunk of them were destroyed in a bombing during the Vietnam War. Forgoing the roads, we took a leisurely boat ride down a river back to Hoi An.

Our last day in Hoi An we rented bicycles and rode to the beach. It was much nicer than either of us had imagined. We layed on some benches and sipped some drinks before heading back to town to catch our next to Nha Trang.

Rachel

permalink written by  zachel on April 5, 2009 from Hoi An, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
tagged Hoian and MySon
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Day at the Beach

Nha Trang, Vietnam

We arrived at after a pretty uneventful bus ride in Nha-Trang. We did have to tell a 13 year old salesperson no less than 24 times (I counted) to leave us alone. When we woke up on our sleeper bus we saw the sun rising over the sea in Nha-Trang. Fortunately, there were alot of decent budget hotels (our hotel boasted a 1 star rating) just down the street from where our bus dropped us off. We settled in and after breakfast got an early start at the beach.
The setting was beautiful besides a vinpearl sign in the island across from the beach, ala Hollywood. The waves were heavy duty. We managed to wade out of harms way and enjoyed the beach for about an hour before the morning showers started.
After the rain we came back to the beach to soak up some more sun. The beach was filled with you guessed it, vendors. Women in masks and long sleeved clothing served up everything from massages to sTrange vietnamese chips packed with msg. A family happened to be next to us that ate up everything that these people were selling. The woman bought chips, bracelets, massages, you name it. After we had enough swimming we got back on shore to find no less than 4 vendors hovering around their chairs and umbrellas. It was Christmas time for the hawkers.
All in all the beach was a lot of fun. We needed to relax after the 12 hour bus ride. We headed off to lunch to find a tex-mex restaurant lonely planet recommended only to be thwarted by an inaccurate map. After we ate, we ended up taking a long nap and awoke to find it pitch black outside.
We stumbled off to find a micro-brewery that was recommended. The beer was the best we've had since coming to Asia. This place had their stuff together. Both the red ale and the Belgium wit-bier were top notch.
Those are the highlights of our day in Nha-Trang. Keep reading to hear our Dalat experience. Parents be warned.....

Zack

permalink written by  zachel on April 9, 2009 from Nha Trang, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
tagged Nhatrang
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16 km hike

Da Lat, Vietnam


Swinging bridge, sagging to one side
Again our bus ride was a bit of an adventure. When we got to the bus stop at the Hahn Cafe in Nha Trang, we were told that the bus was delayed because of a problem with the clutch. A fellow passenger with car experience told us that they were really having problems with the brakes after monitoring their work. Not what you want to hear when the bus is heading into the mountain highlands. The ride went off without a hitch besides there being no air-conditioning for the 7 hour journey.
We took it easy that night and ended up booking a 16 km trek with a local travel company for Sunday. The next day we decided to rent a motorbike and cruise the surroundings.
Da lat is situated in the mountains in the southwest part of the country. The French used the city for a vacation get-away up until their departure in the early 60's. The result was the towns architecture is filled with chalets. The area is beautiful, reminiscent of the Appalachian mountains. Best of all, the temperature hovers between 15-24 degrees celsius all year round, so no one needs air conditioning.
After we got the motobike, we started to cruise around and went into a local tourist trap called the Camly waterfalls. This place was so terrible it was great. It had weird statues of elephants and one of a man making love to a tiger. When we got to the bottom of the "waterfall," we came across a man selling 3 shots with a bow and arrow. I couldn't resist. There was even a prize if you hit the bullseye all three times. Unfortunately, I failed to win the grand prize; a sketchy looking bottle of Da lat's own strawberry wine that no one in thier right mind would even consider drinking. After Rachel and I both tried our luck, the man talked us into playing a game involving a freaky clown mask and a pole. The idea was to put on the mask, making you unable to see and then walking about 15 ft. to try to hit an in-ground pole with a stick. The guide said Rachel came closer to hitting it but I disagree. Plus, she cheated by counting out the paces it took to reach the pole without her mask on. Cheater!
Then we went looking for this architectual wonder called the crazy house, but instead found a cemetery overlooking a valley. The cemetery was the most interesting one either of us had ever seen. Vietnamese have an unusual superstition of washing the family member's skeleton 3 years after the person has been buried. According to our guide from Halong Bay, it's best for the family members to do this morbid act but they sometimes hire people to complete the task for them. Since they have to wash the bones, the Vietnamese bury the persons body in an above-ground tomb. Another interesting thing about the cemetary was that both Christians and Buddhists are buried beside each other, so you see both the Buddhist and Christian symbols intermingled in the cemetery.
Next, we went in search of a cable car that traversed 2.3 km over a mountain. I was a bit scared so Rachel tormented me the entire time. We were able to see all of Da Lat from the scenic point.
Today, it was time for the hike that we signed up for the first day we arrived. Our day started by being awakened by a rooster that is lodging right outside of our hotel. The last two days we've been awoken close to 5:30 in the morning with a cock-a-doodle-doo.
An suv picked us up and drove us to a pine forest outside of the city with our two guides. They were both quite friendly though their English wasn't the greatest.
We embarked on the trek at 9 am. The trek led us through coffee plantations and over two suspension bridges that crossed over a muddy river. When we got to the second bridge we found that it was broken. One side of this treachorous looking bridge was hanging down towards the river. We only had two options, to turn back or cross it. We chose the latter. While I was walking across this bridge you would see in an Indiana Jones movie, one of the planks broke. I deftly scrambled to the next plank before I could plunge into the river 20 ft. below.
The next part led us up a big hill overlooking the valley. Before we reached the top, we noticed that smoke was nearby. Our guide told us that locals start forest fires just for fun and that's all it was. Another custom in the forest was for locals to burn and scar the trees so they can extract the sap from them for glue, make-up, and gunpowder. It was sad to see that a good portion of the trees in the forest had been burned at their trunks.
Right after the we passed the fire, we saw a local carrying an object strangely behind his back. As we passed we saw that it was an AK-47. Just up the way his friend was coming along with a machete. The guide told us that they were illegaly poaching animals in the forest. Great, now all we had to be worried about were poachers mistaking us for the wildlife. It didn't help that Rachel was wearing her deer antlers.
Just up the way the guides layed out our lunch. All of my favorites were spread out on the tarp for us, peanut butter, bananas, tomatoes, and cucumbers. It was really interesting talking to the guides. One of them was an English major in college and had a fair grasp of the language. This was the first chance we had to really dig for information from a fairly reliable source. He opened up a little bit about politics and Vietnamese history. After we had our fill, we kept along the path and kept on trekking.
This led to more amazing views and coffee plantations. After some more uphill hiking, we found ourselves in a small minority village where about 100 villagers resided according to our guide. We didn't see many of them though. They must of been out poaching for wildlife. We were pretty tired by this time and kept pushing on to the end of the journey.
We are now resting in an internet cafe down the street from our hotel. There are torrential downpours outside so who knows how long we're going to be pent up here. One things for sure, we'll be waking up early tomorrow. Happy Easter.

Zack


permalink written by  zachel on April 10, 2009 from Da Lat, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
tagged Hike, CableCar and DaLat
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Sweet Saigon

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam


Cao Dai Temple northwest of Saigon
After the relatively mountain cool weather in Da Lat and pretty laid back atmosphere, Saigon felt quite hot and bustling. They don't lie about the motorbike traffic. The trick is that no one drives terribly fast, so it's really not as dangerous as it might look. Zack would still have to hold my hand as we crossed the busy side streets in the backpacker district, full of a bunch of hotels and restaurants. When we first arrived in Saigon, we were tired from the long bus ride and just wanted to find a room to stay at. We were surprised to discover that the hotels generally had higher prices than Hanoi. We were also surprised that so many of the hotels didn't have any vacancies. We finally settled on a rather dumpy looking place for 10 dollars, telling ourselves that it was only for one night. It was a place that just felt dirty and I didn't want to take a shower there. At 9pm, we lost electricity, but luckily Zack found his flashlight and we made our way out of our room, down three flights of stairs to the street. No other building on the street had lost power. Their was a disgruntled guest, a man of about 40, grumbling "This happened last night! They said there would be power and then this again!" We agreed with the man up to the point where he said "And there's a mosquito in my room and this hotel did NOTHING!" Hmm, so the hotel was supposed to go into this guy's room and catch one mosquito?

The next morning we promptly checked out and moved into a lovely little hotel down a quiet street, strategically positioned next to several vegetarian restaurants (Zack loves fake meat) and a Mexican restaurant. We walked the street and visited the Reunification Palace, the palace that would have been the "White House" Presidential house had the south Vietnamese won the war. We got a thorough tour from an "English speaking guide" (She had a script memorized, but could not answer simple additional questions). We saw the banquet halls, bedrooms, a movie theater, the kitchen, and even the bomb shelter where the president's drab bedroom was located. A 19 year old Vietnamese girl came up to me and asked to practice her English. She looked like she was 14. Women tend to look really young here. We walked back to our hotel from the palace, and discovered that Saigon has some lovely parks with big old trees. Propaganda billboards are also abundant.

We booked a tour for 7 dollars through our hotel to see the Cu Chi tunnels, used by the Viet Cong, early the next morning. The tour was to leave at 7am and return around 2pm. After the tunnels, we were going to visit the War Museum in Saigon. Unfortunately, there was a mix up and we ended up on the WRONG tour in the morning. This tour visited not only the Cu Chi tunnels, but first a Cao Dai "church/temple/mosque," a weird fusion of religions. Somehow this strange religion has 2 million followers. The outside of their church is decorated with what looks like the pyramid eye from the back of a one dollar US bill. Victor Hugo is considered one of the three main saints of this religion. Very strange. The church service, which we observed 30 minutes of, was followed by another long bus ride, lunch, and another long bus ride. We were relieved when we finally arrived at the Cu Chi tunnels.

After buying an entrance ticket for about 5 dollars a person, we were shuffled into a covered wooden pavilion to watch a vide before seeing the tunnels. They had us watch an "educational" video. The television screen was completely too small for an audience of 50 people, so it was a bit difficult to see, but it was quite easy to hear, "The Americans, from thousands of miles away, came and stuck their foot in here....This young girl received an honor for killing 3 Americans..." I'm not a big fan of America, but this was a bit uncomfortable. After the video, we were shuffled along past down a path in the woods. We stopped an looked at life sized models of the Viet Cong, sitting in their hammocks, scarf around their neck. Our tour guide revealed a hidden door entrance to a tunnel buried beneath a pile of leaves, invisible. We saw fantastically elaborate booby traps, designed to kill the enemy, America. We passed US tank, severely damaged from having gone over a bomb. Five Americans were gunned down as they exited the flaming vehicle. Some tourists then proceeded to climb onto the tank for smiling pictures. It was all a big circus. Next, we were paraded to an area where for a little over a dollar tourists can choose from a variety of guns, machine guns and AK47s included, to go shoot. Zack and I doubted the safety of these things, so we stood a safe distance away from the booming sound of gun fire. Finally, it was time for us to crawl down into the portion of the Cu Chi tunnel that our tour guide referred to as "king sized." About 100 meters had been doubled in size to accommodate the growing throngs of tourists. We went down into the tunnel. Zack had to crawl on hands and knees, but I was able to crouch. 30 meters were enough for us. It was terribly claustrophobic!

Next day, we went to the Vietnamese History Museum which is located next to the botanical garden and zoo. As soon as we got into the museum, torrential rain began to beat down from the sky. The storm was so bad that the museum shut down the power, so there was no light to see the exhibit! The museum houses a pretty creepy looking mummy of a woman, hair still attached. Next we check out the botanical gardens and zoo, which turned out to be pretty sad.

The following morning we set out through Vietnam's famed travel bus company, the Sinh Cafe, toward the mighty Mekong river delta. Here we spent a day going around on a boat. We stayed a night close to the border and then set out on our boat ride over the Vietnamese border into Cambodia.

Rachel

permalink written by  zachel on April 14, 2009 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
tagged Cuchitunnels
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Sunset in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I guess we've been in Cambodia for a week now. We spent the first night and two following days, exploring the ""pearl of Asia" as the city was known before the Khmer Rouge revolution that started on April 17, 1975. We actually missed this horrifying anniversary by only one day arriving on the 18th.
The first night that we got to the city we tried to check out the Riverfront and around the Royal Palace area. We were famished after the river trek, so we ate a pizza, then had a drink at the foreign corresspondents club, tragically immortalized in the movie the Killing Fields.
The next morning we wanted to switch to a hotel closer to the city center. The place our tuk-tuk driver recommended, the Her Royal Highness hotel, was a bit dodgy,but was nice because of the short distance to the Royal Palace.
After we got settled, we took off in the morning to find a city without basic sanitation services. Trash was littered everywhere and worst of all, composting on the sidewalks. At first we weren't that impressed, but once we reached the Royal Palace we couldn't get over how majestic the palace was. Best of all, there were huge cumulonimbus clouds over the palace, making it look like a piece from the game, Candyland.
Unfortunately, the palace takes a ciesta from 11:30-2 so we just missed going into the Royal palace. We got something to eat and went to an internet cafe down the street to pass the time.
Traditional Khmer architecture differentiates itself from other Southeast Asian architecture with ornate spires and a unique decoration that looks like a stick and juts from the corners of the buildings. The weather started clouding up but the weather held. There were stone monuments were almost as impressive as the palace itself.

2nd Day

The 2nd day took a turn for the worse since any part of a trip to Phnom Penh now makes a stop to the Killing Fields and S-21, a prison that could be compared to Auschwitz in the amount of mass killings that happened at the prison.
We made it to the Killing Fields which was a couple of km out of town. We ended up getting an English speaking guide to show us around. The first sight, is a monument with a glass area to show skulls of victims killed on the site. Next, we walked around the mass graves and were shown sugar cane plants that the Khmer Rouge used to decapitate their victims.
S-21 prison, was similarly gruesome. It was originally used as a high-school. The classrooms were converted into prison cells. The Khmer Rouge would execute prisoners, simply to make room for the new ones. Part of the museum was dedicated to first hand experiences told by Cambodians. Here people talked about reasons they joined the Khmer Rouge. It was interesting to read that some Cambodians didn't feel that the individual soldiers should be punished for the genocide.
Right now a trial is taken place to punish as many as 5 former Khmer Rouge low level leaders are being judged. We didn't really talk to anyone about the killings. I got the feeling that they wanted to move on from the past. We both tried broaching the subject with our tour guide at the Killing Fields but he seemed aloof and did not want to go into details. It could have been that his English was not very advanced.
The next day we took off and went to Sihoukville on the Southern Coast of Thailand. More to come.

Zack


permalink written by  zachel on April 18, 2009 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
tagged KillingFields, Phnompenh and RoyalPalace
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Sihanokville, reunion with Sean and Kia

Sihanokville, Cambodia


A big gecko visited our bungalow

Sihanokville, view from our bungalow

We made it on a bus from Phnom Penh to Sihoukville and found Sean and Kia! Zack and I are staying in an awesome beach bungalow. It has a little private front porch with two chairs, a table, and a hammock! It's fun seeing old friends from Korea here at the beach in Cambodia. We went and had lunch together then went swimming for about an hour.

Sean is building partnerships with orphanages. The idea is for TEFL International teachers in training to do their volunteer work at orphanages. The problem is with the orphanages. A lot of them aren't hurting for money and already have paid teachers. When volunteers come in, they fire the paid teachers and someone loses a job. So, Sean is really trying to avoid that. He's going and checking out the places.

We loved being beach bums here for a few days!

Rachel

permalink written by  zachel on April 22, 2009 from Sihanokville, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
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The Temples of Angkor

Siem Reap, Cambodia


Angkor Thom
This part of the trip was really indescribable for me. Rachel has been talking up Angkor Wat since we have been planning this trip and it did not disappoint.
Most of the temples were constructed at least 600 years ago by various Angkor Kings. Much like the Egyptian Pharoahs, the kings would try to best other past kings temples to prove that they were the most exemplary. Jayvarman VII is most respected in Khmer culture since he is responsible for some of the finest works including Bayon. Unfortunately, this expansion is thought to be the downfall of the civilization due to the manpower and resources that the building of the temples demanded.
The whole place had a majical feel to it. We were lucky to get a nice couple of days to see the temples. We hired a tuk-tuk driver at the bus station where we were dropped off. We ended up keeping him for the full 3 days. He kept trying to sell us stuff but he was cool, except that the tuk-tuk got 2 flat tires in 3 days while we were arriving first at Bayon and then at Angkor Wat.
This was one of the most mind-blowing structures that have to be seen to be believed. The hours and mastery of art was amazing. We'll try to post some pictures soon.

Zack

permalink written by  zachel on April 25, 2009 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
tagged SiemReap and AngkorWat
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Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand

There is a lot of bad press out about Bangkok being a seedy town and it is, especially around the foreigner areas, but overall I thought it was more scenic than expected.
After arriving by a combination of taxi and train from Siem Reap we had a taxi take us to Kao San road (not sure if I spelled it right) and got a hotel.
We ended up getting some mediocre Thai food at a tourist restaurant on the strip and then turned in to watch some bad movies on our tv.
In the morning we headed out to the central post office to mail some souvenirs and gifts back home. We decided to take a river taxi since it was close by the river. This was the way to go, we ended up seeing alot of great Buddhist sites from the river.
For lunch we ate at a place recommended by Lonely Planet since it was closeby the post office at Naaz restaurant which had some decent Indian food.
We wanted to back to the area of our Hotel by the river since it was so scenic. We stopped off at the Royal Palace complex and went to a Buddhist temple called Wat Pho. Here was the most massive indoor Buddha I have seen in over a year in Asia. It was a reclining Buddha that was close to 30 ft high and probably over 50 yards in length. Rachel took a couple of great pictures.

There was a time crunch and it didn't look like we were going to have time to go to the Royal Palace or the museum before they closed down for the day. Were going to be headed back to Bangkok at the end of the trip so we'll have more time to explore then. We booked a cheap flight through Air Asia for a total of $80 for the 2 of us to get to Chang Mai. The next day we woke up and got ready to depart. We're here in Chang Mai now and are really enjoying it.

Zack

permalink written by  zachel on May 1, 2009 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
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Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Since coming to Asia I've been reading and hearing about how amazing Chiang Mai is and I'm relieved to say that this city mostly lives up to the hype. After taking the first flight of our trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, we arrived in the midst of the bustling weekly Sunday handicraft market. We checked into a cute guest house with a garden in an inner courtyard. It was a lot cuter until we discovered we we had company in our room-- a giant cockroach on the wall to the side of our bed! Fortunately for me, Zack was brave and captured the critter in a pizza box and took it away.

Our time in Chiang Mai was spent walking around town, eating delicious Thai food, and riding bikes. We were both surprised to find that Chiang Mai was not very bike friendly. To add to the confusion, Thais drive on the left side of the road. It was all worth it as we discovered a handful of ancient, ornately decorated Wats and temples throughout the city.

The highlight of Chiang Mai to me was the private vegetarian cooking class we took. Zack and I arrived at 9am to the restaurant. Our teacher was a kind, talkative young Thai woman with excellent English. First we learned how to roast sesame seeds and cashews in a wok. After that we took a trip to the local produce market to buy the food that we would later cook. We learned a lot about Thai veggies, including Thai eggplant, which is green and circular. We learned that no Thai dish is complete without chili peppers. When we came back to the kitchen we learned the proper way to chop Thai veggies. Next, it was time for a marathon cooking session where we learned how to make TEN different dishes. It was intense, but well worth it. Zack and I each had our own burner with a wok and it was a fun competition to see who could remember what to do and who could make the better dish. Usually, the teacher had us make different variations of the same dish (for example, adding coconut milk to one soup but not the other). By 1:00 we had finished and it was time to feast. There was wayyyyy too much to eat, so we had the food bagged up, literally.

Rachel

permalink written by  zachel on May 3, 2009 from Chiang Mai, Thailand
from the travel blog: Zack and Rachel's Asian Chronicles
tagged Cooking
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