Well I had my first Thai cooking lesson today, one of two before I leave for my slow boat to Laos - I decided on the oldest cooking school in Chiang Mai, which has a very good reputation - downside being it's a couple of hundred baht more expensive ie. $10 NZ, but what the hell says I?) and the head tutor/chef is a popular TV personality... he popped in to show us how to make a few dishes before handing the show over to a couple of ladies, both very funny - you spend most of your time laughing, when your not fretting about burning your curry
paste.

Loads of fun and quite interesting, I got to make a few dishes.. from fish, pork, chicken, vegetable salads, noodles, papaya salad, steamed banana, soups.. all sorts, tomorrow I'm not sure what I'll be making, but no doubt it'll be fun and educational...though I'll have probably forgotten half the stuff I learnt today by the time I get home, so I wont be making any cullinary delights without alot of practice (and a decent wok 'n gas burner) - I still find it hard to get used to the fact that a lot of food here isn't eaten with chop sticks.. they
just work so well that your frustrated when they aren't available!

Last night I had some pahd thai at a local streetside restaurant (yummiest I've had so far, probably had msg in it ;o)
and then was going to walk home when I heard ninja tunes playing in the rooftop bar, kid koala in fact, so I stopped in and had a
beer and a gander at the stars while enjoying a bit of quality scratching seldom heard elsewhere on my
travels (hardly anyone I meet even knows the label, let alone the DJ's signed to it... or Tom Waits... meh) -
ended up talking to some people and scooted off to a disco (Bubbles, pretty tragic joint and it closes at 2am?) with some
Canadian girls to do some dancing - which provided some entertainment for the evening, one was a therapeutic massage
student studying Thai massage and the other a personal trainer - odd company for someone such as myself now that I think about
it... ended up spending most of the time watching the locals dancing away and making merry with their bottles of thai whiskey.

At any rate, tonight will be a rather quiet night in.. reading a book I do believe while I digest all the food I made..and then consumed today. Mmmm.. :)