Chiang Mai: The best is yet to come

Day 4
We got a warm welcome at Siri House yesterday. We needed a bed very badly after our bus rides. Pat kept asking about our plans in Chiang Mai and tried to help us by giving us a stack of brochures. We were super tired yesterday but went to the Sunday Evening Market anyway. Glad we did it! A mix of locals and tourists, very crowded, but great for souvenir shopping! I didn't bought anything though. I'm scared I won't be able to close my backpack...

Our first day at Chiang Mai: First impression confirmed. Although they say that Chiang Mai is the second most crowded and busy city after Bangkok, it's totally different!
People are very friendly here and taxi/tuktuk drivers don't hassle you all the time. They don't follow you around, they just knock their horns and drive by.
Siri House is a 15 to 20 min walk from the old city. We could take a taxi, or 'red car' is how they call it, or tuktuk, but prefer to go on foot. Stretch our legs, because my boyfriend wants to do a trekking through the jungle. I have to mentally prepare myself for this trip. I have no problem in walking this far distance, I'm trained since our trip to Wallonie a few weeks ago. The problem is: my arachnophobia  Jungle is full of spiders, isn't it?! I can't stop thinking about it! But I have to be strong and positive! I can do this! Although I can't stop thinking about the catapult I should have bought at the evening market yesterday...

We slept in today and had breakfast at 10am. We started looking at some brochures Pat gave us and the map of Chiang Mai so we could plan our stay. We immediately booked two more nights at Siri House. 
We started our day around 2pm at a tea house Pat had recommended us: Vieng Joom On. If I would start a tea house, this is how I would decorate it! Super cozy and typically tea-like! Expensive tea for 'normal' Thai though when we got the bill, but totally worth it! I had a rose bud ice tea and my boyfriend had a honey ice tea. Jum! They had small pastry to go with hot tea so I had my boyfriend promise me we'd come back here our last night at Chiang Mai. If you hadn't noticed, I'm a tea and dessert freak. Can't live without!

On our way to the travel agency to book the trekking we passed a few temples and went to take a look. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to go in there, because I was wearing really short shorts, but apparently there was no problem. 

It's quite a long walk to the center, so every shop with handbags we cross, I take a quick look if I can find the handbag I saw yesterday. Many are look-a-likes, but not THE ONE!

We arrived at the agency but it was closed. Weird, because everything in this street was open. But this was the only agency that organised the trekking he wanted. We walked around for a few hours at the center, came back and it was still closed. We bought a wooden game for 190BHT on our way: Othello. We played it when we got back at the hotel and booked Elephant Nature Park for Friday and a cooking class for tomorrow.We'll choose some easy dishes so my boyfriend can't make up excuses anymore for cooking with food from a jar!

Day 5
Woke up to have breakfast at 9am. The chef who'll learn us to cook Thai will come and pick us up at 1pm.
We'll have to go to the center first to get some money at the bank and to get some musquitospray for the trekking tomorrow. We managed to book through email, but need to go by the agency for our payment. On our way there we passed a used bookshop and bought a Lonely Planet. We also passed a shop with embroiderd accessories and clothing and found a bag that beats the other one. This one was embroiderd and with a leather finish. My God, I've never seen a bag more beautiful, until I looked at the pricetag... 13000 Baht. 300 euro's?! I've never bought a bag in Belgium that's that expensive! I'd like to think I misread and that it's 1300. Maybe I'll go back and take a look on Thursday... The embroided dresses were'nt that expensive...

We got back in time for the chef to pick us up. His cooking school is named: I DiD
First we visited a local market and got some information about all Thai ingredients. We got to know all different chillipeppers, the difference between some sorts of rice, ... I really liked this visit. We were the only tourists here, so you could see the real Thai people and their ways. I took some great pictrues, after asking if it was OK.

We went to the chef's place. We could choose 4 different dishes. 

• Starter: Thai Chicken Wearing and Fried Canape with Chicken Spread.
• Soup: Tom Yum Goong and Thai Spicy Chicken Coconut Soup
• Curry: Massaman Curry and Northern Thai Curry Noodle with Chicken
• Dessert: Sticky Ride with Mango and Siamese Red Ruby

My boyfriend did really good for a dummy! Everything was tasty, but the soup was really too spicy for me! I should have used less chilli. We got a little recipe book to take home with us. It was a nice surprise!

Now we're back at the hotel, writing postcards and updating my story. 
My boyfriend wanted to go to a Thai Boxing game, but we'll postpone it 'till Thursdaynight. We need to get up early for our jungle adventure...