Thai cooking with Rob! So tasty, you'll wanna slap your...well...anyways

Hey everyone--so here i am with ANOTHER post in Chaing Mai! Crazy huh? Getting a little more regular, which is excellent. I just spent an entire day COOKING thai food, which was a total blast! I took this cooking course called Baan Thai (or Thai House) Cooking, which entailed a full day of shopping at the market, preparing the ingredients, cooking them up and then of course eating them! The menu for today included Phad Thai (thai style stir fried noodle, prob the most well known thai dish), Tom Yum Kung or hot and sour soup with shrimp, minced chicken spicy thai style salad, green curry paste, green curry chicken with eggplant and vegetables, and then finally water chessnuts with sweet coconut milk for desert. So good! And best of all, i got a wicked reciepe book to bring home so i can cook for all of your guys--it's going to be quite a feast. I should have some pics before too long that i will post, so stay tuned! I also had an incredible day of rock climbing yesterday at this mountain called Crazy Horse--man, i don't know if i have ever done anything so physically demanding! I have done some climbing in the past in rock gyms and such, but out at these cliffs, it's a whole different story! I am battered and a little bit bruised with some serious blisters, but i had an incredible time. And incidently, one of my guides is an MC (rapper for those who don't get it) and will be performing for the Songhkran festival, so i'm going to see him and his crew! Anyways, it has been an awesome couple of days, and tomorrow i am set for a day trek of elephant treking, bamboo rafting, hiking and visting a hill tribe village. Can't wait! I'll try to keep you guys filled in--hope all is well, gimme comments and send me news!
much love to all!

Back in Black

Hello everyone—yes, it’s been quite a while since I have updated this thing. Rest assured that it has nothing to do with any wishes on my part to limit our communication. Nor can I blame the lack of updates on laziness (or at least not ENTIRELY on that). Embarrassingly enough, I haven’t been updating recently because…well, nothing much has happened. I know what you’re thinking, “Rob you are away in Thailand on exchange, how can their be nothing to write about? Either you’re not taking full advantage of this trip, or you are lying…” But seriously guys, I have just been trucking away here in the big BKK. Sometimes life on your own means going to school, going to the gym, doing a little cooking and cleaning and occasionally even a little bit of laundry. I’m sure there is some sort of profound lesson to be found in that period of seeming inactivity…it’s right there in front of me…wait…I lost track of what I was doing…where am I again? Ah well.

A items worth mentioning: first, I took a trip with my Thai language class to the Ratchana Floating Market, about an hour and half outside of Bangkok. Although I appreciate the teachers (Ajarns Pontipa and Supattra) trying to involve the class in a cultural activity, I have to say that I was under whelmed by the floating market. It’s basically a collection of pushy Thais used to the ultimate tourists, selling cheap mass produced knick-knacks for grossly inflated prices. For example, a small bunch of bananas costs about B15 in Bangkok, or less then 50 cents. The same fruits were going for B60 at the market—and the sellers looked offended when I jokingly said “Pheng, na?” or “It’s a little expensive, isn’t it?” Anyways, I did manage to snare a collectable dinner plate with a picture of me in a long tail boat, for only B100, so the trip wasn’t a total loss I suppose.

In more exciting news, I am preparing to head out to Chang Mai on Friday for the Thai New Year’s celebration, also known as Songhkran festival. This holiday entails a country-wide water fight that lasts for three days—basically, anyone outside is fair game, be they tourists, locals, street vendors, businessmen or policemen. City buses are ambushed when stopped at lights by pail and hose-wielding Thais, who soak all of the occupants. As if this doesn’t sound fun already, the entire country is in party mode from April 12-15, meaning there will be lots of great music, food, drink, and revelry. Apparently the northerly Chang Mai, Thailand’s second largest city, is one of the best places to be for this incredible festival, so I am going to check it out with pretty much my entire class. It sounds like there will be 20 or 30 exchange students all trekking up to Chang Mai to get wet, so I’m definitely looking forwards to that trip. Also, Chang Mai is a great adventure tourism center, with downhill biking, rock climbing, white water rafting, bungee jumping and of course elephant trekking into the jungle. I imagine it’s going to be a busy couple of weeks, but I can’t wait to take this holiday—I’ll be sure to get some good pics, and will try to collect some funny stories for my next update. Until then, hope everyone is happy and healthy, send me an email if you have the time or just leave a comment below, and be well! Oh and PS HUGE shout out and congrats to my friends Anita and Joel, who have just received an addition to their family via stork-mail: Jordan Jose Elek Rivero, born April 3 at 1AM! Congrats you guys, and God Bless!!