25th – To snip-snip or not to snip-snip

At around 0630-0700 a stern staffer walking down the aisle yelling “Good morning! 2 stops Chiang Mai!” over and over again functioned as an alarm clock. I had found that if I laid diagonally I could just stretch, so I had had a fairly good night’s sleep. Others had not, either due to the bed, rumbling, noise or the fact that the lights never were turned off in the cabin.

When people woke up and had gotten themselves out of the bunks the same staff member started going through the car and collected the used linen and packing the beds away so it would be ready for a trip back to Bangkok during the daytime after arriving in Chiang Mai, which we did on time at around 0845. From here we drove to our hotel where we got to check in and have 1½ hours’ break before continuing. My room mate and I got a room that hadn’t been cleaned so we left our bags, notified the staff and waited for half an hour in the lobby before returning; the room was still messy and now our bags were missing. So back down to the lobby and when informed their reaction was basically “oh yeah, we should have told you” and gave us a new key where we found a clean room – and our bags.

At 1030 10 of us left for a cooking class where a sweet old lady picked us up at the hotel and brought us to the market to shop for the groceries needed for the class. From here she brought us to her home where she had a whole Master Chef-like setup for up to 20 people at a time. We were given vegetables to chop followed by us cooking at our stations, adding ingredients by her command while she walked around adding coconut milk, oils and other liquids as needed. “Now add the [ingredient] and stir! Stir until boiling and wait! Turn down on medium! This is coconut cream, now stir! STIR!” etc. We ended up with red and green curry, pad thai, mango & coconut rice and morning glory as sides (yes, it is called that, and yes, it is a vegetable).

Cooking class.

Very full and happy we returned to the hotel at 1400 with a certificate and cook book.

At 1600 we left the hotel again to go up to a temple view a view over Chiang Mai – if it hadn’t been covered in clouds. We had a walk around and saw the monks when they started their scheduled chanting at 1800. Soon after we returned to the town centre where we had an hour and a bit for shopping or at a food court before meeting up again at 2045 to go see the local ladyboy show.

Chanting/praying on schedule.

Despite what one might think I thought it was surprisingly fun and entertaining. A cabaret or dance theatre. It was also obvious that many of the participants didn’t take it too seriously, either. They basically “just” mimed to various songs but put on a great stage performance. Among many other performances there was a Tina Turner, a Whitney Houston from her later years (which did have an amount of humour to it, involving among other things a… butt rose) and a near perfect Rihanna.

Tina Turner.

Rihanna has taken an innocent bystander up onto the stage.

After a few hours of amazing entertainment we left and 7 of us decided to stay behind for a few drinks until midnight. Which of course meant that we didn’t leave at midnight but didn’t return to the hotel until around 0200. While a bit tipsy I know I won’t be suffering nearly as much as some others in the group tomorrow.