Thai Cooking Classes: Eat Your Way to Bliss

by Jamie Rhein on

When Brian Battjer went to Thailand (see Justin’s post), he did partake in one of the fine aspects of this country, the Thai massage. Even a half-hour hand or foot massage is bliss.

While massages transport you to heaven through the sense of touch, a Thai cooking class will bring you there through your taste buds. Besides that, it’s fun and a way to meet fellow travelers. And, if you happen to be traveling with kids, it’s one of those things to do as a family where everyone is happy. Our daughter was 8-years old the first time we took a class. We returned the next year for course number two.

Cooking schools have several options ranging from one day to several day courses. We did the one-day option, signing up at the travel agency stand at our hotel the day before the class. All travel agencies in Thailand seem to have a big book filled with tour options and will point you towards a class that suits your needs. Cooking classes will list the menu items. We headed to the one that had green curry chicken for our first class.

Our cooking school class in Chiang Mai involved meeting at the cooking school to eat tropical fruit from Thailand before taking a trip to the market where the instructor lead us from stall to stall to tell us about each of the ingredients that makes Thai food so delectable. Afterwards we became chefs and worked in pairs to cook five different dishes from salads to main courses to dessert. Our daughter was paired with John, another participant who was there on his own. We figured John would let her chop and dice more readily than we would. She chopped away with a very large knife at the cooking station next to us.

After we cooked each dish we ate it before cooking another. This is one way to cook your way through breakfast, lunch and up to dinner. Here is a link that lists cooking classes in Chiang Mai. One of the schools, Chaing Mai Thai Cookery School looks like the one we went to, although it’s not. Ours was run by a guy named Tim, but I don’t think they have a website since I haven’t come across it. Here is another interesting option. Chiang Mai Kitchen also offers a “stay in a countryside village” and the fare is organic. From the website photos you can see what dishes you’ll be cooking and it looks like a lot of the ingredients are grown on-site.

Photojournal: Brian Battjer, Jr. in Thailand

by Justin Glow on

Holy shit, I’m on my way to Thailand!

New York-based photographer Brian Battjer, Jr. decided to go to Thailand on a whim back in 2005, and just recently he’s got around to posting the photos from the trip on his website, ikeepadiary.com. I know, that doesn’t sound particularly exciting — who wants to see some random photos of a stranger’s trip to Thailand? — but trust me, if this doesn’t get your travel juices flowing, nothing will. The photos in this 7-part series aren’t particularly mind-blowing, but where Brian really shines is his sense of what to capture to make a compelling and hilarious narrative.

By the time I reached the end of his journey, I was ready to book my ticket to Bangkok.

  • Brian Battjer, Jr. in Thailand in parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Detour Worth Making: Thailand’s Siriraj Museum

by Willy Volk on

The Siriraj Hospital is the oldest and largest hospital and medical school in Thailand. Founded in 1888, the hospital — on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River across from Thammasart University — also houses 10 museums, which attract a widely divergent audience — from art students to Buddhist monks.

Among the many museums available for touring are:

  • The Songkran Niyomsane Forensic Medicine Museum — much like Philly’s Mütter Museum — displays objects from homicide, suicide and accident cases, including the entire preserved body of of Si-oui, a Chinese immigrant who came to Thailand in 1944, and began suffocating and eating children.
  • The Parasitology Museum displays a large collection of “important parasites in this region” including an exhibition of several parasitic life cycles.
  • The Congdon Anatomical Museum displays a complete collection of dissected human body parts, including organs, nervous systems, cardiovascular systems, and musculoskeletal systems. There’s also a collection of human embryos. If you couldn’t make the Bodies exhibit, this is your chance.

Other exhibitions are devoted to subjects like Thai traditional medicine and prehistoric artifacts, so if you have… a gentler stomach… there’ll still be something for you. To learn if Siriraj might appeal to you, why not opt for a photo tour of the Museums; check out a video tour; or zoom around inside the various Museums by having a look at some interior panos.

If you’re interested in attending in person, the Museums are open Monday-Friday, from 9am to 4pm. Admission is 40 baht ($1.25).

500 Amazing Pictures of Southeast Asia

by Willy Volk on

Timen Swijtink recently launched an excellent website called in my All Stars, a site dedicated to exploring “experience traveling.”

During the summer of 2006, Swijtink spent 10 weeks “experience traveling” through Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Over the past 2 months, he’s been sorting through the 6000 photos he took and assembling them into a book. Unfortunately, he only printed 3 copies of the book — one for his mom; one for showing people; and one for posterity. For the rest of us, Swijtink has made his book available for free in PDF format.

Swijtink’s book is an excellent cultural immersion in a part of the world that’s still somewhat mysterious. Filled with his 500 best images of people, sunsets, street vendors, cityscapes, and vistas, the book is an extraordinary look at a part of the world many people have yet to visit. I highly recommend downloading and looking through the book. It’s incredible.

Moleskine Completed City Guides: Tokyo, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur

by Justin Glow on

Last month Willy talked about Moleskine’s (mole-a-skin-a) new City Guides — a “make-yer-own guidebook,” complete with city maps, street indexes and, of course, plenty of blank pages to let your creative juices flow, all wrapped up in Moleskine’s famous binded journal. The beauty of this idea is that each City Guide comes out different, with the only limitations being one’s creativity. They’re a great way to help you organize your trip in a scrapbook format while not getting lost at the same time.

I finally got to see some of these in use, as Olivier and Natasha Ozoux have uploaded their completed (and quite beautiful) City Guides from Bangkok, Tokyo, and Kuala Lumpur on their website, ozoux.com. Have a look: