Chiang Mai Dec 18th, 2023 - A walk through a paradise of flowers, an immersive Thai culinary journey and the Sunday Night Market

 We had a wonderful buffet breakfast at The Grand Napat and were ready to start the day. Somnath had booked a half day Thai cooking class and a van pickup from our hotel at 3pm. That meant we had the morning and early afternoon for sight-seeing. I had read about the beautiful flower gardens in Mueang Kaeo, Chiang Mai and even though the main flower season is in February, there were a couple of farms that still had flowers.  What is the big deal with the Flower farms? The entry fee includes different props like wide brimmed hats, colorful umbrellas, baskets with artificial flowers and a couple of other things. The fields also have additional props that can be used while posing like a white piano, a swing, an English Red Telephone Booth! We saw many ladies dressed in beautiful dresses and lots of patient husbands with their best cameras clicking thousands of pictures. It is a photographer's as well as model's paradise. It was really tough to choose which farm to go to. Some reviews mentioned that farms had colorful flowers because they were sprayed with bright colors. Coming from the city of Tulip gardens, we didn't feel like walking through artificially colored flowers and hence we chose Aunty Nok Aeang Flower Farm. I will let the pictures do the talking now though they don't do any justice to the beauty. Imagine being surrounded by colorful flowers as far as your eyes can see! Would love to go back in Feb/Mar to catch more action.

Family Pic at the Entrance to the fields

The beauty of the fields cannot be captured on film!

Not everyone had the patience to pose!

Row row row the boat gently gently.....

Our last happy pic on the boat before it toppled over taking us along with it. We all froze for the first 10 seconds gazing up at our toes against the beautiful sky and thankfully were not hurt. How could we when we landed into the pillow soft flower beds! All of us laughed and laughed with tears streaming down our cheeks - flush with embarrassment!

With the white piano in the fields

Stress Testing the Swing

Need to work on my IG pic pose skills

Sometimes, every body needs a break!

My baby and me

Color coordinated to blend in

This was the last picture before Mili had enough of posing.

A Grab ride took us back to the hotel and we were picked up promptly at 3pm by the cooking class van. We were the last passengers and there were 3 other couples in our group. The first halt was at the local market where Lily our cooking teacher for the day showed us the different spices and ingredients used in Thai cooking. We picked up some delicous sweets made with coconut milk and then drove to the organic farm where the cooking classes were held. A quick trip through the organic farm garden to pick up Thai herbs and we donned our aprons and just like that, we turned into Thai Chefs for the evening. 

A guided tour of the local market

Picking herbs in the organic garden

The ingredients waiting for us

The first delicacy was a fresh vegetable spring roll, and the stuffing was made by everyone as a team building exercise. We then individually wrapped our spring rolls before they were whisked away to be deep fried in the main kitchen by the real chefs. The guy helping Maa and the other lady in the picture were a traveling nurse couple - for the past 4 years, they have been traveling to different countries and working as nurses. They plan to return back to their hometown in Oregon (our neighbors!) next year as they plan to buy a house and start a family. The guy in the middle is a professional chef from Belgium who has been traveling all over Asia since the past several years taking culinary classes and working at different restaurants. His next destination is Australia where he has a new job as a chef at a restaurant. It was so interesting to see so many people leading a nomadic lifestyle and enjoying the experience of different countries and cultures despite the uncertainty that the pandemic brought.

Time to work at our individual stations. Each station had a wok and a cutting board. We had to choose to make a stir-fried dish as the first course and Lily taught us in groups based on the dish we chose. Pictures of the various course#1 made by our family.

Course#1: Stir fried chicken, rice and a spring roll.

Course#1: For the vegetarian option, Maa chose to make egg fried rice served with a spring roll.

Course#1: Chicken Pad Thai with a spring roll

Time to eat Course#1

Penang Curry Paste ingredients

Thai Red Curry Paste ingredients

Thai Green Curry Paste ingredients

Lily introducing us to the mortar and pestle to freshly grind the different Curry pastes.

Course#2: We all selected to make Khow Suey

Somnath on the opposite side getting ready to make chicken soup.

 

Course#2 and #3: Chicken Soup and Khow Suey

Course#2 and #3: Thai Red Curry and Shrimp Soup

Tucking it all in - we were stuffed, and I chose to pack my Khow Suey to-go.

The cooking class was a great experience and a lot of fun. The real chef in our group cautioned us that in the real world, nobody brings up chopped ingredients or cleans the pots between the different courses :) Despite that, we left the class feeling like we didn't need to buy Thai restaurant food anymore since we have learned how to make everything! Anyone interested in trying Thai food made by the Purkayasthas?

It was pretty late but our final opportunity to see the Sunday night market because we would be leaving Chiang Mai before the next Sunday. So we opted to be dropped off at the famous Chiang Mai Sunday Night Market. Not too many pictures because we were tired after a fun filled day, but we did end up buying our first 100 Baht Thai jumpers. More about it in the next post. We strolled through the Sunday night market streets before calling our Grab rides back to The Grand Napat for blissful sleep.

Food, clothes, handicrafts - you can spend hours in the Sunday night market!