Mountain to Kitchen

April 2019

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With our 7 AM pick up time, we got up, grabbed some breakfast to go, and piled into our taxi. The ride itself took around 2 hours and in some places the smoke was so bad you could barely see the cars in front of you on the highway.  Once we got to Doi Inthanon National Park and started gaining some serious elevation, we were able to rise above the smoke and were treated to spectacular weather.Near the top there were two famous temples, Phra Mahathat Naphapholphumisiri and Phra Mahahat Naphamethanidon (it’s a mouthful). The temples were built fairly recently, in 1987 and 1992, and have beautiful gardens surrounding them, not to mention the view.📷Finished seeing the temples, our driver took us further up the mountain to Kew Mae Pan nature trail. This 3.5 mile loop took us through a cloud forest, by waterfalls, and across open meadows. Our local guide was kind enough to show us some of the local flora and even took a couple of photos for us.📷Trio in trees 📷Our local guide 📷Pleasantly tired from our high altitude trek (7,400 feet), our driver took us nearly to the top of Doi Inthanon itself. A short walk took us to the highest point in Thailand, at a whopping 8,415 feet. Due to the altitude, the nearby short boardwalk nature hike took us almost 40 minutes, but was still amazing to see.Heading back down the mountain, we stopped off at 3 different waterfalls, each more beautiful than the next. However, one of the highlights wasn’t the waterfall itself, but the surrounding fern forest. Towering ferns and tropical trees and vines made it feel like we had wandered into Jurassic Park.📷Fern Forest at Siribhume Waterfall 📷Wachirathan Waterfall Thoroughly exhausted from our day of hiking and sightseeing, we all passed out during the ride home. When we awoke, we were surprised how fast our driver was able to get us back to our hotel (he beat Google Maps’ estimate by a good margin). We said farewell to our friendly and efficient driver, quickly showered and changed, and caught a Grab (local Uber) to our cooking class.We must have appeared pretty lost, as a local waved and asked if we were looking for the cooking class and pointed us in the right direction. Our host, Ae Khun, greeted us with fresh Thai teas and introduced herself. She was very well traveled, having lived in Sri Lanka, Africa, and Norway and appeared perpetually relaxed and cheerful.Ae took us out to her garden where we learned about many local herbs, fruits, and vegetables, and even picked some to cook with later. As we began preparing ingredients, we realized that this cooking class was going to be a lot of manual labor. We learned how to split open and harvest coconut meat, how to make coconut cream, and how to grind spices together with a mortar and pestle.📷After 4 hours of hard work (and some beer), we had all made our masterpieces! Khao soi (golden curry), chicken (and tofu) satay with homemade peanut sauce, Som Tum (papaya salad), and Pad Krapow (basil and chili stir fry). The food was even better than what we had for dinner the night before!📷Nom Nom Noms Towards the end of our cooking class, we met Ae’s daughter, Mo and one of her friends. We had a good time chatting with all of them over our homemade dishes, and almost forgot how tired we were from the busy day we had. After polite goodbyes, we were whisked back to our hotel and our heads hit the pillows in mere moments.