Chiang Mai

Our first three days in Thailand were spent in a northern town called Chiang Mai which is known for it's markets, trekking and cooking schools just to name a few. They have a world famous market every night however we skipped it and went to the weekly "Walking Street" market which is more like a street festival. Music, street food, homemade wares, etc. Of course Nelly was very patient with me while I looked at every stall. Luckily the rain saved him :)
The next day we participated in a full-day of cooking class. I love cooking and I love Thai food, so this was the perfect day for me! We started by going to the market with our instructor and learning about all of the produce used in Thai cooking. We were each given a list of ingredients we had to "buy" as well.

Nelly had to get big red chiles and tiger prawns.

And I was in charge of the big flat noodles.

Then it was time to cook! Our first dish was pad siewe with chicken. This was one of our favorite dishes!

We then made our lunch which consisted of yellow curry with chicken, steamed fish in banana leaves and chicken with cashew nuts (another favorite). This is Nelly wrapping up his fish (everyone's least favorite dish)
Next it was spicy prawn salad and bananas in coconut milk! I don't remember, but I am assuming we didn't eat dinner that night!
The next day was all about the animals! First we visited Tiger Kingdom where we got to play with cubs and 18 month olds.
Then it was off the night safari! Because we missed the famous one in Singapore we were excited to hear Chiang Mai had one too. They do not allow you to use flash so I didn't get a ton of pictures.

Moon bear! Can you guess why they call them that?

Now it's off to 10 days of beach time!

Location:Chiang Mai