Chiang Mai – Sammy’s Organic Cooking School - 26 of March

Recommendations from fellow mahouts-in-training led us to Sammy’s Organic Cooking School. We were picked up by Sammy himself, and joined just two others from Germany for the class. We stopped by a local produce market before continuing onto Sammy’s farm, around 30 minutes’ drive from the city. At the market, Sammy explained to us, making jokes all along the way, about different types of rice, in particular, sticky rice, and showed us how coconut milk and cream is made. We reached Sammy’s farm, which is surprisingly lush (given it was the dry season), and tranquil – such a beautiful setting for a cooking class.

Rice vendor at the market

Fresh from the farm

We were to make five different types of dishes, and within those five, could choose from two or three choices. The great thing about this was that we could all make different things from each other, allowing us to see how lots of different dishes are made. Under the patient tutelage of Sammy’s wife, various parts of the class made things such as green, red, or yellow curry – the paste, then the curry itself, tom yum goong (hot and sour prawn soup), tom kha gai (chicken in coconut milk soup), stir fried chicken with holy basil, phad thai, som tam (spicy green papaya salad), spring rolls, chicken in pandanus leaves, mango sticky rice, and pumpkin custard.

Pad Thai

Folding the Chicken in Pandanus leaves

Chicken Laab

Making Papaya salad

After we ate three of the five courses for lunch, we all went and had a bit of a nap in the hammocks for an hour or so. Our food suitably digested, we then made the appetisers and desserts, and ate those as well before heading back to town. Delicious food, beautiful setting, and even a nap – what a great way to spend the day.

Chiang Mai – Baan Chang Elephant Park - 24th of March

We spent a day at Baan Chang Elephant Park, around an hour’s drive north of the city. The Park rescues elephants from Myanmar or from people using them for logging or not treating them well, and then brings them back to the park to live. Each elephant ‘chooses’ their own mahout who looks after them.

 Our course involved us trying out our hand at being a mahout for the day. This included getting to know them by feeding them bananas and sugar cane (huge bunches of bananas just swallowed in a few gulps!), learning the commands for go, stop, left, right, and down (in Burmese as the mahouts are from Myanmar), and going for a ride with them and then giving them a good bath in the pond.

 It was a great experience and we learned some interesting facts about elephants; they consume around 300kg of food each day and leave behind around 70kg! We were riding the elephants bareback, Kylie and I on one aptly named ‘Big Mamma.’ We took turns to sit on the elephant’s neck and act as mahout, and sit on the back as passenger. During the walk, Big Mamma frequently sprayed us with water through her trunk, cooling herself down and coating us (perhaps intentionally?) Turns out elephant skin is quite tough and the hair on their back and sides particularly bristly, so I was quite glad to climb down at the end. While it was great fun, sadly neither Kylie nor I would make a good mahout anytime soon! 

Chiang Mai - 21st-26th March

We decided to celebrate our 10 year anniversary by treating ourselves while in Chiang Mai, and booked a resort in the northern hills about 60 minutes from town called the Rawee Waree resort and spa. After our more humble accommodation we were thrilled to find a bath tub, a comfy bed and the biggest pool I think I’ve ever seen, and which extended right to our back door. After a few days of luxury and being pampered we caught a cab and headed into town to stay a few more nights

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Chiang Mai is the biggest city in northern Thailand but the place still has a lot of it charm. And unlike Bangkok you aren’t harassed at every turn for massages, tuk tuks, or random merchandise. With more coffee shops in Chiang Mai than 7-11’s it’s easy to sit by the river and relax with a coffee although we would recommend something local and maybe not an espresso or latte as they aren’t great. With dozens of art, antique stores, and markets with surprisingly good quality goods and crafts there is a lot of shopping to be done. But as anything we buy we would have to lug around for the next few months we decided to spend our money on some of the many activities offered in and around the city. We spend a day at Ban Chang elephant sanctuary learning how to be a mahout, and another day on an organic farm with Sammy and his wife cooking up some northern Thai dishes but they will be covered in later posts.

With a market every day and night it’s easy to wander around and try some of the local street food like Chiang Mai sausages, mango sticky rice or just a refreshing fresh fruit shake with blended ice.
If you’re there for the weekend I would recommend the walking night markets which are held in different locations; one for Saturday and one for Sunday. The streets are closed off and tens of thousands of people wander the streets inspecting local handicrafts and enjoying local street food.