Cooking Class in Chiangmai

So unfortunetly I made Dean end our Pai adventures early. Why you ask? I wanted to do a cooking class. I feel bad that the entire trip seemed to be "me" oriented...but then ya'll know me right?

Okay so the menu was: PadThai (which I totally burned), Hot and Sour Prawn Soup (Delish!!), awesome green curry, a trip to the market, chicken and cashew nuts, spring rolls and a dessert of sweet sticky rice and mangos. OMG I was full and completely happy by the end of the day....now if only i could replicate these recipies :(

This is the work area....it was really nice and airy, always important when cooking in a tropical climate!!! There were six students for the first half of the day. The second half of the day was just two of us :)

Our wonderful teacher!!!

the first menu item, Pad Thai....looks better than it tasted....I tried to make this once I got home...a complete failure. Dean was a real sweetheart about it...seriously I know he was trying to make me feel better. "Well it's not Phad Thai Annie, but it tastes like really good noodles". Well bless him, he's such a sweetheart. It reminds my of that country song where the guy eats a bunch of burned meals so that he doesn't hurt his wife's feelings....well I tried anyway. :(

Next up, Tom Yam Soup....absolutely splendid. I have a bunch of packs and I intend to make this for dean at some point. Hey maybe I'll make it this week!
Ingredients for Green Curry. Who'd a thunk that there were different kinds of egg plant....The bulb like think and the little pea shaped things are actually different kinds of egg plant. Cool huh?

MMMM splendid!

A quick break to check out the stinky local market. It reminds me of the markets I took my family to in Guatemala. Remember mom? The one where Grandma threw up into a garbage can after eating something funny?

Chicken and Cashew Nuts- ingredients all chopped and prepared.

Result? Divine!

Also Divine!

And words can't describe how friggin good this was....I'm drooling just thinking about it!!!!!

Pai randomness

Just a few random pics for ya'll to enjoy.

Can you see the moth????

The View from our awesome room!

Me after a crazy shot of Sambuca!!!

Touring around Pai/Hotsprings

So, after getting our tattoos, Dean and I decided to go for a lil scooter ride around Pai. These are a few of the pics of the area and specifically a few pics of the hot springs that we hung out in.

Area near Pai...really pretty, really green!
Again...but you can see Pai from this pic....for a while we drove around and then we had to stop and ask someone where to go....NO...we weren't lost ;)

Sportin my Sexay! helmet....it is right? Seriously though, I don't think that helmet had ever been cleaned. It was the most stinky and nasty dirty helmet ever....I'm surprised I didn't pick up some creepy hair fungus or somethin.

A little hut on our way to the hot springs.

My baby Dean lookin all sexy in his sexiness!!

The beginning of the hot springs. Apparently this water is about 80 degrees celcius (HOT) and during busy hours you can see lil old ladies boiling eggs for people to buy. I dunno if I'd buy an egg boiled in this water...it'd probably smell even more like sulphur than eggs already do.

Picture time!

It's important to test the water before you get in....I mean, you wouldn't wanna jump into water thats like 80 degrees right? That doesn't sound like it'd be much fun.

I am woman hear me roar!!!

Time for my weekly bath. I was wondering when I was gunna be able to find a public bathing pool...I was starting to collect a film of dirt on my skin.... ;)

Smile for the camera happy couple!

Another point where the hot water had flown downstream and created a pool.

After our adventures, we decided that we should go for something to eat. So we didn't eat the plants...just hung out near em.

This is my dirty, sweaty, I'm hungry, why is it raining, serious face :)

MY TATTOO!!!

Thing that everyone has been waiting for...drum roll please....ok shut up Annie...be honest does anyone really wanna see my new tattoo? Well maybe a few but whatever, if you don't, that's okay too. I love it and that's all that matters to me. It's really personalized. I got my parents' two favorite songs tattooed on my back...Dad's is Auld Lang Syne and mom's is Amazing grace. I was able to combine the two songs together, for the most part to make one cohesive piece of music. There is only one spot I'm still considering putting a quarter note but its nothing that I can't change later. I hummed and hawed about it for the longest while and decided to just keep it the way it is. Have a look and let me know what ya'll think.

Don't mind the bra and whatnot...that's just my attempt at being sexy...hehe.

This is the outline drawn and traced onto my back.

When Korn is doing my tattoo, he needs an assistant to hold the skin tightso that the tattoo is better quality.

This is what the needle looks like as it is going into my skin. Nice huh? That is basically all his tools. He used three different sticks each with a different number of needles for the different styles of inking.

Wiping it off for a check over by me!!

After a touch up here and there I decided that it looked great and I was a super happy customer. Now however, it looks sad and lonely on my back. I want something else to join it so it doesn't look so alone. Any ideas?

Deans Video tattoos part Two!!!

This last video is Dean getting his hand tattoo. It's the whole process from start to finish. Since it was just a small tattoo, Korn didn't get anyone to hold the skin tight. The whole process took about 7 minutes. And it looks really good :) Argh its taking FOREVER to upload onto this darn website!!!

Deans Video tattoos!!!

In this video Dean is super cute. Just before he got his tattoo he saw a pic of himself dressed in a sexy Calgary Stampede shirt from a previous visit to Pai. So there you have it.

Pai!!!!--Thailand Adventures Part Two!

So, Dean and I decided that we'd take off to Pai to relax and get some tattoos. I don't know if Dean remembered his previous trips or if he was just trying to be funny but while the road trip in the back of the van was beautiful, it certainly wasn't fun.

For those of you who live near mountains, you know what mountain roads can be like right? They're long and windy. Well taking a 3 hr ride in the back of a van didn't seem like a bad idea until we started on the winding road. I don't usually get car sickness but on this trip I was certainly not feeling well. A lady near us threw up into a bag and then got moved near the front. That was a bonus. Then her partner was trying to convince us that these "coca" pills that he literally takes for everything, "they're good for everything. just take one and you'll feel totally better!!", are not illegal in the country that we were in. Some how I don't believe him but whatever.

This is the train station. So in true SE fashion, after our guy picked us up, he dropped us off here and told us to wait for the van. We of course, the van was super late so we ended up waiting for a VERY long time. Then we finally got in the van and headed out for our wonderful 3 hr journey.

Pai was one of the few places that Dean hadn't booked us a room for the first night so, being tired and all, we decided to park ourselves at a place that wasn't too far away and was thus a we bit expensive. It turned out to be a great place and I'm so glad that we stayed there.

Here, Dean's relaxing. We put our stuff down and basically walked to the tattoo shop. The guy wasn't there for the longest time so we just chilled till he finally arrived.

This is the view from our bungalow...it's a beaut isn't it?

Now it was time for Dean to get one of the two tattoos he got and me to start planning the tattoo that I was gunna get!!! The tattoos that we got in Pai are from a guy named Korn with a store named Korn Bamboo Tattoo. Yes, you guessed it right, bamboo tattoos. No, they don't stab us with bamboo. He takes a stick of bamboo and ties a few needles to the end of it. With this he moves the needles up and down with his one hand and guides it with another. Because he's using both hands to tattoo, he has someone else holding the skin tight. I really loved this experience because it was so quiet. There was no machine blaring in my ears just his music and the feeling of the tattoo being done...sure it doesn't feel the greatest but no tattoo feels good when its getting done.
My Dean, relaxing while getting his leg tattoo.
You can see the two people working on him. At first I was a little worried about getting a tattoo in Thailand cuz I've heard that it isn't the most sterile. But this place was really good. They both wore gloves and Korn wore a face mask. The room was really clean and I was happy enough with it to consider the tattoo that I had wanted for quite a while now...