4 March 2015-
It's exactly one week since we returned home from our Thailand, island-hopping journey. I don't want those delicious memories of our time relaxing in the water on the nearly solitary little Thai island to fade away yet sadly life is back to its full vigor.
What did we do and where did we go????
The plan was to fly to Bangkok, stay the night close to the airport, fly to Krabi, Thailand the following morning and connect up with the hotel's shuttle bus to drive us out to Koh Lanta (an island south of Phuket). After two nights on Koh Lanta (and having completed a cooking class and a scuba diving session) we'd make our way to a *tiny* island called Koh Laoliang where we'd camp in tents. Four nights sleeping in a tent with the stars shining ever so brightly for us! Then back to Bangkok (via a flight from Trang) and then back to Tianjin.
Got all that???!?
This photo is for Cousin Michele living in CA:A Hello Kitty Cafe in the Seoul airport! No we didn't eat there even though I was tempted.
Korean Airlines is such an AWESOME airlines! Our flights were smooth and on-time. Know what else? I accidentally, for the FIRST TIME EVER, left my brand-new headphones on the airplane (they're Bose noise canceling…definitely ones I want to keep for a long, long time). The Thai airport personnel weren't helpful AT ALL but as soon as we found a Korean Airlines representative- the headphones were returned to me in less than ten minutes!!! Now, how's that for service??? Trust me, it's awesome.
We are staying overnight in Bangkok at the Bussaba Hotel as we couldn't get a flight to Krabi at night. Thank goodness the hotel has an airport shuttle waiting for us. It's late and time for bed!
Swans in our hotel room waiting for our arrival:
Morning coffee (the instant powder kind) on the balcony outside our room:
Getting the RIGHT start to our morning…a good, hearty breakfast:
Good bye Bussaba! You've been perfect for our needs (including free transportation to and from the airport):
EEEEE!!! Check out this scary looking dude! He does NOT look like the kind of guy you'd want to mess with! (getting checked in at Thai Airways at the Bangkok Airport…we're flying to Krabi)
Lookey, lookey….do you see what I see??? It's a Krispy Kreme! The last time I had a donut was last summer so maybe I can have one, just this once???
This is how we pass the time in airports. What ever did we do before the invention of iThingies???? (oh, right…paper books!) The girls are actually reading books on their iPods.
The drive to Ko Lanta was a bit longer than anticipated. In part due to the fact that I had assumed we'd be taking a boat to the island. Nope. We were picked up in a van at the airport and driven the entire way to the hotel (Mook Lanta). How did we cross over the bodies of water? Drive-on ferries. Which meant we ended up waiting…and waiting…and waiting…for a long time (to get on to the ferry, ride across the water, and then get off the ferry. Felt like an eternity had passed!). There were two ferry crossings – however, they were actively building a bridge at the location of the second ferry crossing so I assume in a few years time it'll be much easier and faster to traverse to the island. It took around 2.5 hours to drive from Krabi airport to our final destination.
Our bungalow at Mook Lanta:
Do you see the raised walk way that Mark is standing on? It's a pretty steep drop on both sides…not the kind of place you'd want to accidentally take a tumble off of!
We had only ONE HOUR before getting a lift to the pre-arranged Thai cooking class. That was just enough time for us to strap on our swimsuits and race out to the ocean (minus cameras and phones). Hmmm…I guess it's a good thing I have activities planned for the two days we are on this island as the beach close to Mook Lanta is really nothing special. Lots of pointy, painful rocks to walk on and the beach is really kind of meh. Not bad but not great either.
Time to dry off and get dressed for cooking class! With Mook Lanta's help we scheduled an evening Thai cooking class for the four of us. Yes, all of us will be cooking!
We're at Roi Thai(on Klong Nin Beach…getting ready to do the Wednesday Sunset Course):
We've just met our instructor….I'm so embarrassed to admit this to you but I honestly can't recall now what his name is! Oops. It wasn't a common name. In addition to our instructor we've also got a young American couple joining us (they're taking time off and traveling around the world! How cool is that???). Our instructor indulges with this tasty appetizer:
Something sweet….sour…spicy….creamy…and salty and wrapped in a pepper plant leaf (??? Wasn't actually clear to us if that was a pepper plant leaf). All in one bite!
Time to get started cooking! Our instructor first goes through all the key ingredients in Thai cooking. The ingredients fall into either the sweet, salty, spicy, creamy, and sour categories.
We recognized most of the different herbs, vegetables, and spices (mostly because we did do a cooking class in Cambodia…similar ingredients but used slightly differently). Galangal was the only herb we didn't recognize (it looks really similar to ginger).
Explaining the spices…we got all of them figured out! Even the cardamom which he said almost NOBODY knows. :-)
I think most of you know that coconut is used in Thai cooking but do you know how coconut milk is made??? It's not the clear liquid that comes after cracking open a healthy coconut. (which I LOVE drinking!) It's made by shredding the white coconut "meat" of the coconut and squeezing the juice out of it. Check out this funny looking gadget that was used in the past to shred the coconut meat:
Our instructor demonstrates how coconuts used to be shredded to make coconut milk. What a time consuming process!
Aaaaaand….he finally let us lose on our cooking project! First up: Deep Fried Spring Rolls!
We *all* get to cook our own filling!
Getting ready to make our rolls:
Spreading out the filling on the plate to let it cool before creating the rolls using rice paper:
Our instructor made sure that we made the rolls nice and tight (so they won't fall apart while deep frying).
Our instructor marked each of our rolls so that we could find our own. The girls are searching for theirs:
So proud of Ava! Her rolls look beautiful! (all of our rolls turned out very well) Now, if wasn't clear before perhaps this photo will illustrate how flamboyant and FUN and CHARMING our instructor was. He was also immensely patient with even the small one.
Yummy!
And now EATING our deep fried spring rolls….not a bad location, eh?Well, shall we get started on next dish?? I'm so excited to be making this next one as it has to be my all-time FAVORITE dish (period): Pad Thai!
Materials needed (let's see if I can remember the entire list; sadly they didn't give us a recipe to this dish at the end of cooking class): shallots, bean sprouts, tofu, shrimp, glass noodles,
Finished product….oh, how YUMMY! Best ever Pad Thai! (now, if I remember correctly, Pad actually just means frying. Isn't it interesting that Pad Thai has come to mean one specific dish?)
Now…I ate a LOT of that pad thai dish as I didn't realize we were going to be cooking TWO MORE DISHES. Eeep! How am I going to eat it all? I ate waaaaay too many of those spring rolls too.
What's next??? Red curry AND cashew chicken. Oh gosh, I wanted Thai food and tonight I'm getting all the most awesome Thai dishes ….all in one class!
Let's get started!
See that stone mortar and pestle??? I WANT one! (I've got a tiny one but I want a big chunky one like this one. Sadly, I left Thailand without finding one. Bummer. Maybe there will be a next time?). We pounded the heck out of our red curry paste…smashed and bashed and pounded. Boy, was that NOISY and LOUD!!!
Our cooking class. It's getting dark outside and the bright lights in the kitchen area are helpful:
Ready for red curry???
Chop!
Chop!
Scrape:
Fry! (cooking the red curry paste before adding a little bit of coconut milk..and then let it bubble before adding the rest of the ingredients):
So happy to be finished with the remaining dishes!
Cashew chicken (left) and red curry (bowl on the right). Oh my goodness! My red curry was just perfect (to my taste…I didn't add as much red curry paste so it wasn't as spicy. Isn't it nice that you can adjust the "heat" or spicy-ness and suit it to your taste?):
Ava is getting a wee bit tired. Can you tell? This cooking class lasted well into the night:
Wow! It got dark! Finally getting to enjoy our remaining dishes even though we're all stuffed. It was too good to pass up. Notice the guests in the background of this photo? Well, the cooking school was held in a restaurant…that means the guests could watch us cook. I think it was great advertising for the cooking class since all of us budding chefs had a clearly fantastic time doing so.
With our certificates (stating the Brevtzman completed the course. ;-) Who are those Brevtzmans anyway????):
We all would highly recommend this activity for families visiting Koh Lanta! Our instructor was very … well, instructive! We learned a lot and we all really enjoyed it. Plus, we got to eat our fantastic creations! (now I wished we stayed longer on Koh Lanta and did more of these courses!)
We had a short ride back to Mook Lanta in the back of a pick up truck. The late night, warm air felt so good after standing and cooking for hours. I can't imagine being a full-time chef!
Minutes after we entered our room the skies opened up and it started to rain…and thunder! Oh, how I've missed hearing thunder! (and weren't we so lucky to be inside rather than sitting on the back of that pick up truck before it started??? Very!).
It's been a super duper long day and the girls jumped straight into bed. Good night!
Tomorrow we're heading out EARLY to go on a SCUBA DIVING excursion to a place called Ko Haa. YAY!!!