Backpacking in Thailand (Part 2): Walking Tour of the Old City, Doi Suthep and Thai Cooking School

A visit to Chiang Mai wouldn't be complete without visiting the Old City and the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (Doi Suthep Temple). We also figured that we couldn't leave Thailand without taking a Thai cooking class.

But before anything else, here's a memory of a beautiful breakfast we had in Chiang Mai.


Look at the gorgeous french toast and fruit platter!!!!
We took a walking tour of the Old City of Chiang Mai and saw a lot of interesting temples.

Chang Phuak Gate













Wat Lok Molee







Wat Phra Singh
Time for a quick break.

Drink to go.


Wat Chedi Luang


Wat Phan Tao
Chiang Mai City Arts and Culture Centre and the Three Kings Monument
And then we saw this interesting dessert place called Le Mango and just had to check it out.


Yey, my favorite!haha


And it was all yellow.
That night, we went to the Kalare Night Bazaar and had dinner at the Food Center. We had to purchase coupons at a ticket booth and used these to pay for our food at the stalls. This was highly recommended by our friend, Jessa, so we had to check it out for ourselves. :)








After dinner, we couldn't go home yet because it was raining so hard. We ended up looking at all the cool stuff for sale.

I wish I bought this!
I took home some of those cute ball lights.
We also made sure to schedule a visit to the Doi Suthep Temple. If you look up Chiang Mai, this temple is one of the top places to visit. This Buddhist temple was built in the 1300s and continues to be a working monastery up to this day. It sits on top of a mountain so it's supposed to be nice and cool. However, all I felt at that time was the humidity. Aside from the historical, cultural and architectural aspects, the place also offers a view of Chiang Mai. There were so many people when we went there, but I guess that was expected as this is the most popular temple in the area. 

The 300+ step climb ahead



So much gold.









We have a photobomber.hehe
Stopping for a snack
Tasty sausage filled with rice noodles. We don't know what it's called.
Another highlight of our trip was our half-day course at the Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School were we learned to prepare some Thai receipes. For the program, we each got to prepare 5 dishes. Everyone made curry paste, a curry dish, and spring rolls. For the remaining 2 dishes, we had to decide as a class which categories we wanted to do: salad, stir-fried, soup or dessert. From there, we were allowed to select from a list of dishes. The class chose stir-fried and soup. I wanted to do dessert (just because I am obsessed with sticky rice with mango), but unfortunately, team dessert lost.hehe

In the end, these were the dishes we made:
spring rolls, curry paste and curry dish
(stir-fry) Eliel: cashew nut with chicken, Yza: pad thai
(soup) Eliel: tom sab, Yza: coconut milk soup

I wasn't really feeling well that day (traveling took a toll on my health), so I didn't get to fully enjoy the food we cooked. :( But over-all, I think it was a really fun experience. 



First student in our batch!hehe There was another ongoing class in the "classroom" beside ours.
The first activity of the day was a market tour, with our teacher explaining to us the different Thai ingredients. We also checked out some of the herbs in their organic kitchen garden.



Looks just like our markets in the Philippines.

I don't think I could handle this snack.
Listening to our teacher.hehe

Organic farm tour.
Chef Eliel. Char!hehe
Ready!!!
She makes everything seem so simple. :)

So happy to be cooking!
Plating his spring rolls.


Time to eat!
Pad thai
Making some green curry
3 kinds of curry
Ingredients for my chicken curry dish


Time to make some soup!





We got to take home our own cook books. 
Read about the rest of our Thailand adventure below:

Thailand (Part 1): Backpacking in Thailand

Thailand (Part 2): Chiang Mai - Walking Tour of the Old City, Doi Suthep, and Thai Cooking School

Thailand (Part 3): Chiang Mai - A Day with the Elephants at the Ran-Tong Save and Rescue Elephant Centre

Thailand (Part 4): Chiang Mai - Tiger Kingdom

Thailand (Part 5): Bangkok 

For more on our 16-day Indochina backpacking trip (full itinerary + expenses), click on the photo below.

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