From Cooking School to a Cabaret

One of my favorite days in Chiange Mai I got to learn all about the most famous aspects of Thai culture- food, massages, and lady boy cabarets!

My day started with attending cooking class at a local, family owned and operated cooking school. After arriving and checking in, they loaded us into the back of trucks and took us to a local market for a tour and to pick up the ingredients for our class! One of the ladies took us around to different vendors and explained the local vegetables, pastes, and flavors that we would be using in our dishes that day. After looking around the market and the lady purchasing the necessary ingredients we returned to the cooking school to get started.

The class was pretty fun and they walked us through the preparation of six dishes that we got to select from a menu of available options. My favorite of the dishes I made were "Chiang Mai noodle," coconut soup, spring rolls, and a black rice pudding for dessert. I liked most of the foods I cooked, and at the end I received a cookbook with all the recipes in it! I am excited to continue cooking Thai cuisine now that I am back home. Luckily, because I live in Asia I will still be able to easily find even the most unusual ingredients.

Humble outside of the cooking school

A quaint poster that listed old Thai remedies for various ailments

Inside the large classroom-kitchen

Curry paste vendor

Fresh chicken for sale!

Whippin' up some coconut soup!

Chiang Mai Noodle, yum!

Upon returning to the hostel late in the afternoon, I had just an hour to wait before a complimentary taxi picked me up for my massage at the Fah Lanna Spa, one of the highest rated spas in Chiang Mai. And this massage was splendid! When I walked in they showed me to a seat in the waiting area and brought me a cup of that delicious iced red herbal tea (like I drank after zip lining). Also, they brought me a consultation card and instructed me to fill it out so the massage therapist would be aware of any areas on my body which required special attention. I filled it out, and marked my left elbow. Over a month ago, I jammed my elbow in Judo so I was hoping she might be able to work out a bit of the kinkage.

My massage therapist, Patty, came to get me from the waiting area. Patty was a big, strong, confident and very kind Thai woman. The first thing she did was ask about my elbow. I explained to her what happened, she felt around my arm and quickly identified the problem area. She promptly said, "I'll take care of you." And then led me down the hallway to my private massage room.

The Spa is a very beautiful place. Everything was expertly decorated, and the waiting area looked out over the open air hallway leading to all the massage rooms. The "hallway" was actually a long footbridge over the water with sections leading into each room. My room was dimly lit, had a comfortable massage table, and a large tub inside. There was also a wicker chest to put my clothes and purse in. Patty gave me a minute to change into the little cotton shirt and trousers the spa provided, and then she returned to start my treatment.

I had a two-hour Thai massage and Herbal Heat Compress. She massaged my whole body, and it was great! Just like Hollywood portrays it, the massage therapists really do climb up on the table, I suppose for a better point  of pressure or something. During the massage, she did take care to pay extra attention to my elbow. She rubbed something that seemed like icy hot on it, and tried to massage out the kinks. I was very grateful that she took the time for that. After the massage, she did the heat compress.

She had brought in a huge pot to boil water and herbs in, and she steamed these handheld compressor things in it. When they were ready, she pressed all over my body with the hot compressors. It felt very nice and relaxing. After two hours of relaxation and luxury, my massage was over and it was time to venture back out into the streets of Chiang Mai.

I returned to the hostel to meet Tricia and Charles, from there we set out to go see a lady boy cabaret! Seeing the cabaret was probably the most entertaining part of the trip. The lady boys are astonishingly believable, all so young and beautiful looking.

At this cabaret, there is no entrance fee however you must buy at least one drink. So I ordered a beer, and one of the older, obviously manly, and rugged ladyboys brought it to me. After she set it down and I paid, he drawled, "Now something for me." I was taken aback at outright being asked for a tip like that, so I reached into my purse and grabbed the first coin I felt and tried to give it to her. He looked at it with disdain, said no, and pointed to the 20 baht notes that were hanging out of the top of his dress. I again offered the coin, and with a sniff and a whine she turned her nose away, then again pointed to the notes in her dress. So I relented, and put a 20 baht note in his dress. Bear in mind, 5 baht is only about 15 cents in USD, so I suppose she might have reason to be offended at my stingy proffered tip. But in my defense I was simply shocked at being outright asked that way! Charles also ordered a beer, and when he came back with his change the money plate had written on it, "CAN YOU LEAVE TIP." So as soon as you pick up your change you see it. Defeated, Charles gave the change to Tricia who handed it over to the lady boy.

Other than our run ins with the old, grungy ladyboys- the show was phenomenal! The entire time we were watching the show our high level of excitement never wavered. It was so easy to be captivated by the extravagant glittering costumes paired with the catchy tunes and energetic dancing. All the boys dance and lip-sync so well- it was a great performance. Even their hand movements were well choreographed with the words of the songs. The only hitch in their performance was that sometimes the way they moved their mouth was not quite right, I could tell they are not native English speakers! But other than that I loved it.

They had a couple acts where they were dressed up and danced like Vegas showgirls, a couple racy songs where they danced around in an exotic fashion, a Tina Turner act, a couple Rihanna songs, and a couple other random special acts. It was a great line-up!

Of course, a lady boy show cannot be attended without some glimmers of fear. The scary part was that a couple times they actually came into the audience to give out kisses or lapdances to an unfortunate few in the crowd. Which of course just added to the excitement when the lady boys ventured into the crowd causing everyone to cringe in suspense hoping they would not be the next victim!

Please welcome Tina Turner to the stage!