Forest Water Nymph

I wake to torrential rain, thunder and lightning. When it finally stops for a bit I do a little hula practice on the beach and have a swim in the sea.

For breakfast I ask if they do Khao Tom (my favourite rice soup) - they do and I have my best bowl yet with lots of ginger and fresh herbs.

A taxi then arrives to take me to Tamarind Springs Spa in LaMai. I read about this spa in the UK and although it is very expensive compared to everything else here (it is more in line with UK spa prices) I decided before I left that this would be a special treat while I was here.

I arrive at a forest paradise and am greeted with a delightfully refreshing drink of iced tamarind and ginger. No mobiles or cameras are allowed so sadly I couldn't take any photos to show how beautiful this place is. Here is a link to their website though: http://www.tamarindsprings.com

The first 1.5 hours are spent enjoying the steam caves - literally steam rooms carved into boulders and scented with lemongrass - and the plunge pools on different levels which are also dug into the rocks and surrounded with jungle foliage, flowers, birds and butterflies. Snacks (fish cakes, spring rolls, fresh fruit) are also left out for me to enjoy. They have my name on them however I'm the only person in this magical land for the entire time I am there!

At 11.30 someone comes to collect me for my 2.5 hour massage. I've chosen a 'twice as nice' massage which involves some Thai massage and some hot herbal compresses on my skin. The website explains it so: 'Steaming Thai herbs, tightly wrapped in cloth, gently applied along the energy lines of the body in combination with Thai massage techniques relieve aches and re-energize the muscles. This unique ancient Thai healing massage is aromatic, nurturing and is especially recommended for stiffness and joint pain'.

All I can say is that it felt like a wonderously long 2.5 hours indeed. Afterwards I float down the hill to explore LaMai's strip and beach.

I find the beach quite disappointing. There is a lot of rubbish and it doesn't feel well cared for. While walking along the beach the sky suddenly turns very dark. I catch a photo of it before dashing into a very handy beach temple which shelters me from the torrential rain for a good 30 minutes. The other photos is of some boys crossing the bridge in the rain (taken from a long distance hence the blurriness, but I like the effect of the rain - makes it look like a watercolour).

To Samui: Wed 10 March

I decide to go out to breakfast, as its my last day in Chiang Mai, with the aim of finding some authentic Khao Tom Gai (rice soup with chicken). I find a local makeshift cafe and try their version. The chicken is very freshly cooked and shredded - it is very tender. The broth is light and flavoursome although I would have preferred a lttle more garlic and ginger. I then, unsually for me, go to a coffee house for a mocha. They have papers and I want to see what is happening outside Chiang Mai. The cover story is calling for peace at the demo in Bangkok on Friday - I hope it is peaceful.

I catch my first tuk-tuk of this trip to the airport around lunchtime and then have a quick and uneventful flight to Samui. I'm disappointed on landing that it is raining however this gives way to wonder at the airport which is the most beautiful tropical airport I've ever seen! It is all grass huts and green foliage. Even the baggage belt is housed in a wooden hut. The photo is of the ceiling in the baggage collection room.

I'm staying at Shambala on Big Buddha Beach. I chose it because it seemed more old style and authentic however my first impression is that Shambolic might be a better name. Or Ramshackle. Oh well, it has character and at night when all the fairy lights are on it looks postively magical.

Another plus is that their food is very good. I order Thai Fish Cakes and get seven! I also have a prawn and squid stirfry with chilli and basil which is also very good and the squid is super fresh.

Later on I walk up the strip in front of the hotel to see what other food places there are and see if there any bars that I want to go in. Most of the bars have girls to entice you in and one girl (called Tom) grabs my wrist and wont let go. I explain I'm going for a walk but she wont let go until I promise to come in on my way back - as she lets go she tickles the palm of my hand! I feel awful on the way back as I'm on the other side of the road and she spots me and starts yelling at me to come over. I shake my head and tell her I'm still walking, I can still hear her wail "You promised ... you promised!"

Jungle Flying & Crochet Art: 9 March

Today is my last full day in Chiang Mai as I head to Koh Samui tomorrow. I've heard that there is turmoil in Bangkok again and a big demo planned for Friday. There is no indication that it is spreading elsewhere though.

I've booked to go on a trip to the jungle to fly like Tarzan (or Jane) down zip wires rigged to trees. The day does not start off well as they forget to pick me up and then send a motorbike for me. There is no helmet and I have to grab onto the guy's waist as we dart across Chiang Mai to the outskirts where the minibus is waiting for me.

After a 45 minute journey into the hills we arrive and are kitted out in safety harnesses and helmets. For hygiene reasons we are given blue shower caps to wear underneath the helmets. Very attractive (see photo!).

The zip lines are very safe as we have two safety clips however the canopy walkways do not feel as safe as there is only one wire each side to hold onto. The scariest parts are the abseil sections. On one of these the Thai guide straps me up backwards so I don't have anything to hold onto, stepping off the edge feels like free diving and I am super scared! No one else was sent down that way and I think he picked me because he knew I'd scream.

The longest abseil was 40 metres and I chose this last one to go down fast which was a real adrenalin rush.

One of the women in the group kept ignoring the guide's instructions. For the zip wire they give you a forked wooden stick to use as a brake (you put it over the wire and pull down to slow down). At the start they always tell you if you will need the brake so you can hold it in one hand, so she should have been prepared to use it. She didn't hear them yell BRAKE and instead crashed into the guide at the other end with both of them hitting the tree. She lost one of her shoes in the kerfuffle.

After a good three hours wizzing through the trees we enjoyed a rustic Thai lunch before heading off to a very poor example of a hot spring (encased in concrete!).

Lunch consisted of:

- Clear broth with white radish
- Massaman curry (chicken and potato)
- Stir fried mix vegetavles
- Omelette
- Rice
- Bananas

On the way back to Chiang Mai we drop some people off near the university and I decide to hop out there to explore the shops and art galleries. I see an excellent exhibition of crocheted wall hangings and have included some photos of a couple of my favourites.

As it is my last night in Chiang Mai and I'm in the area I go back to the Roast Pork place and this time try their Roast Pork, Wonton and Noodle Soup which is also very good.

Last Day of Cooking and some Fish Therapy: Mon 8 March

My last day of Thai cooking and I'm quite sad it is almost over. We have the most people yet on the course today and it is quite chaotic (all the other days have run very smoothly).

We start the day at the market again however this time we're given a shopping list to go buy some of the ingredients we need. I'm asked to buy 10 limes and 24 Tiger Prawns. We were told the other day that the way to check a prawn is fresh is to squeeze its head, therefore I have to stick my hand into icy water and squeeze 24 prawns' heads!

While at the market I also pick up some spices from this 83 year old Chinese man (photo of him above).

When we arrive at the school, Sompon gives us a tour of his vegetable garden and we each pick some greens to go in our first dish. Sompon even has a cashew tree - I'd never seen cashews growing before!

Today's dishes are:

1. Fried Big Noodles with Sweet Soy Sauce (Phad Siewe)
I really like this dish (better than yesterday's noodle dish) as it has egg through it and is quite sweet.

2. Yellow Curry with Chicken (Gaeng Garee Gai)
This used yellow curry powder as well as Thai curry paste. I used a little extra curry powder and reduced my sauce quite a lot, so I ended up with an intense yellow sauce at the end. Nat said he preferred mine!

3. Steamed Fish in Banana Leaves (Hor Neung Plaa)
I really thought I would love this dish however I'm pleased I didn't as it uses quite a few very obscure ingredients (banana leaves, prickly ash, pepper leaves). You have to add ground rice to the mixture before you steam it and this serves to swell the filling so it resembles a heavy fishcake when it is done. The texture and sludgy brown colour put me off eating it! The photo shows it before I opened it.

4. Chicken with Cashew Nuts (Gai Phad Med Mamuang)
Every wondered why the cashews in Chinese dishes taste so yummy? Well, they've been deep-fried. This dish tasted more Chinese than Thai but it was still delicious and very easy - once you've deep-fried the nuts that is.

5. Spicy Prawn Salad (Plaah Goong)
Although I liked the prawns in this salad, the rest of it was mainly lemongrass, shallots, chillis and herbs and it just didn't have enough substance. The prawns were poached for a few seconds in coconut milk though and that's an idea I'll use in the future.

6. Bananas in Coconut Milk (Kluay Buad Chee)
Not a winner. The bananas were boiled in their skins before using them and soggy bananas are just weird!

I buy one of the cookery school's knives plus a ladle and stirrer as mementos and because the knife is a brilliant multiple use cleaver.

On the way home I stop off for some Fish Therapy. I've been wanting to try this for a few days so I can get my feet ready for the beach. The fish eat dead human skin and so nibble at whatever part of your body you put in the water. It tickles in a weird way for the first few minutes and then is oddly relaxing. After 30 minutes all the hard skin on my feet has been removed and I much prefer it to using a pumice!

Punk Rock is alive in Chiang Mai

After Day Four of my cooking course I arrange to meet Nat off my course to 'do' the Sunday Walking Market. This is the same set-up as the Saturday market except closer to my guest house and MUCH bigger.

When Nat arrives to meet me a plaque of mayflies has just engulfed the guesthouse, and most of the street. On our walk down I need to use a cash point (which is housed in a plastic booth) and I get attacked as I withdraw my money. I find flies inside my clothes later when I get home. Eugh!

Diana meets us in the market and the three of us bargain our way down one side of the market before wandering into a temple where all the food stalls are laid out. And, yet again, here is a list of the food I sampled:

- Thai fishcakes
- Chicken in Pandanus Leaves (same dish I made on Day 1 of my course)
- Miang Kam (again) - twice. One of these was super hot and all the stall holders were laughing at the tears in my eyes.
- Fried Squid
- A Thai sweet (wrapped in leaves) which was black, hard jelly with a coconut taste
- A Chinese Pork Bun

I bought some lovely Mango wood bowls for soups / noodles and then we headed off to find a bar to have a drink in.

After wandering down a couple of streets to find nothing open we began to despair, until we heard a band playing and got excited. As we got closer we found a make-shift bar with corrugated iron walls and roof and a heap of young punks hanging around outside. It would appear that there is quite an established punk rock scene in Chiang Mai! All the bar seemed to sell was beer ... so I had a beer.

The kids had all the punk gear and were trying to act really tough and drunk, however when one boy stumbled out the bar and fell into a bin, knocking beer bottles all over the road, he very meekly picked up the bin and all the bottles.

We got chatting to an American guy whose girlfriend (Sophie) used to live here, running a tattoo parlour. She's apparently credited with kicking off the whole punk rock revival. I'd spotted her on the street the day before and she reminded me of Colette. Her boyfriend, Jay, was quite drunk and told us how they'd met. He'd been married for 15 years before and had vowed never to marry again. In fact he was going to get NO tattooed on his left ring finger. However he then found Sophie at the end of a rainbow!! He explained that he was heading to a party in New Mexico, which happened to be at the end of this rainbow, and as soon as he arrived he met her. Love at first sight and all that. I loved the fact that these super cool, hard rock guys were so soppy and romantic. Jay and Sophie are pictured about.

Day 4 of Cookery School: 7 March

Mixed response to the six dishes I cooked today. Will probably make about three of them again.

Before the class we all went to a super little market to learn more about Thai ingredients and how to shop for them. I've included some photos from the market. The Thai people only use about three types of rice (Jasmine, White Sticky and Black Sticky) however there were about 15 versions of these on sale. The large fruit/bulb being held up is the Banana Flower!

The dishes we cooked were:

1. Chicken in Coconut Milk Soup (Tom Kha Gai)
This was lovely however the coconut milk really needed to be heated with the main spices for longer to infuse properly.

2. Red Fish Curry (Gaeng Phed Plaa)
This was a tasty curry however it had fresh bamboo shoots in it and they were only marginally better than the tinned variety.

3. Fried Mixed Mushrooms with Baby Corn (Phad Hed Ruam Khao Pod Orn)
This was a delicious, quick and simple vegetable stir fry dish. I even carved stars into my shiitake mushrooms (see photo!)

4. Fried Big Noodles with Thick Sauce and Pork (Raad Nah Muu)
I was not a fan of this dish. Too greasy and non-descript

5. Papaya Salad
This was easy, fresh and incredibly yummy. We had to make it in pairs (my partner Becky is shown in the photo with our joint result) and although I was worried about the raw garlic in it, it worked - and with no aftertaste!

6. Steamed Banana Cake
I was also not enamoured with this. It was incredibly heavy.

Dancing in the Street at Saturday Night Market

I go the Saturday walking market (from 4pm to midnight) with Diana, a Swiss German girl who is staying at the guest house. I've also arranged to meet Natalie from my cooking course down there. The market is not very enticing from a tat point of view however from a food perspective it is hard to resist.

Things I tried at the market:

1. Miang Kam (again) - this time 5 ready rolled parcels on a skewer all for 10 Baht (20p)
2. Octopus Balls - a Japanese speciality in fact
3. Deep Fried Shrimps in their shells with chilli dipping sauce (mini crabs were also available and I'd like to try these too - see photo!)
4. Fresh passionfruit and orange juice
5. Black rice and sesame cake

I'm supposed to be meeting Natalie at this cool looking bar we've spotted however before we get there I spot this girl sitting chilling with some bohemian old Thai guys, and then do a double take as I realise it is Natalie. She couldn't find the bar I meant and had asked the tourist police who didn't know, and she'd then been offered a seat and a beer by this cool Thai dude who had a passion for Jane Fonda.

The cool guy (called PomPom or something like that) was screening a silent black and white version of Barbarella in the middle of the market and it was only because I stopped to watch it that I spotted Natalie. Diana and I were soon offered seats and free beer, and we sat and listened to PomPom spin 60s tunes on his old school record player.

PomPom was hanging out with a group of his mates in front of an old junk shop, one guy drumming on a chair with a seed pod, another rattling something else, another going on constant beer runs for us all.

Our payment for their hospitality came when PomPom put on The Twist and I was invited to take to the make-shift stage and do the Twist. Soon all four of us were dancing and drawing a small crowd. Natalie had been travelling for four months and this was her first dance! Later on I did some jiving with PomPom and we had a few singalongs. Snacks were provided, and a Thai lady fed me Thai dessert. Simply brilliant!