Here Julie is tasting her very own Tom Yum
soup. Our teacher first took us to a local market where he
explained how to buy all the ingredients we would be using. Then
we each got a stove and made about 5 dishes each day. Julie and I
took the 3-day course, but most people just did one day.
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Cooking class by day, festival by night.
The local market was in overdrive for the festival. Roads
were blocked. Concerts were scheduled. Thai boxers held
exhibition fights.
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Our favorite pastime during the festival is
to follow the parade route from the old town to the river. That
lets us watch the parade, be in the parade, and see the lantern boats.
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Spirit houses were especially well-dressed
for the festival. Spirit houses are miniature dwellings for the
spirits that were displaced by the constuction of some other building.
This one is for the guesthouse we stayed at. It is loaded
with fruit, incense, and flowers.
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Here the family that runs our guesthouse is
sending off a hot air balloon with fireworks. There were so many
of these in the sky that it looked like new constellations of red stars
in the section of the sky where the wind was blowing. One night,
the wind blew the lanterns right up to the full moon. Gorgeous.
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Here is something every city needs: a
bicycle-mounted dried squid stall. The dried squid hanging from
the light are wrapped in plastic. The rows of squid below are
skewered on sticks. I think we were followed all night by this
particular squid-mobile. And I generally could smell it before I
saw it.
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We tried some of these rice and meat sausage
balls. Pretty tasty and not quite the commitment that you get with
a whole hot dog.
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Ahh, but life is not all one big party.
Not even in Thailand. We need to get busy and acquire our
visa for India if we want to make our scheduled flight. But, darn
the luck, we lose a crucial day due to this unexplained closure of the
Indian consulate in Chiang Mai.
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My poor handheld digital camera just isn't up
to the task of fireworks and candle light. But the candle boats on
the river Ping are lovely. Each boat has a candle, flowers,
incense, and a coin. As a result, there is a small army of boys
swimming in the river collecting the coins and dodging the fireworks.
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In the foreground here is the sugar toast
vendor. That's one of our favorite street snacks. It happens
to be near a temple, so you can see the cluster of monks in the back
watching the parade go by.
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