Day Six: Scheduled Activities (for real)

Today I really did have a schedule to keep. I woke at 6 again (well, really, I woke at 3:30 and forced myself to go to sleep again until 6), had breakfast, and then eagerly showed up at Moo's Kitchen for my cooking class. Unlike the last class, which was composed of couples from all over the world, with boyfriends/husbands who'd clearly been dragged in and didn't care about cooking, this class was composed of four women who were all native English-speakers and liked both cooking and Thai food.

We set off for the market, where we lingered, asking a billion questions of our chef, Su. She explained how to select the best pieces of fruit and how to prepare morning glory (saute' the greens with butter and garlic). She showed us how to flake coconut (I got to take a whirl at the giant spinning drill bit and escaped with all digits intact), how to press for coconut milk, and how to tell the fresh fish (clear eyes, not cloudy). We watched the catfish squirm when she touched them. We inspected the plate of salted cockroaches, ready for eating, but we all passed when offered a sample. Hot basil and sweet basil; longan; pineapple; all kinds of fish, prawns, and squid; coconuts; large bowls of curry paste; aubergines ranging from the familiar long and purple to green and pea-sized; beautiful pink dragonfruit...

Eventually we picked out the ingredients for class and headed back to the hotel to start cooking. Four dishes: seasonal salad (greens, mushrooms, baby corn, prawns), tom kha gai with a coconut milk base, pressed that day at the market. Minced pork with deep fried hot basil, and pad thai. The pad thai was like none I'd ever seen. We had to cook a “crepe" of egg - large, round, and thin. We piled the pad thai on, folded it up, and then used another plate to flip it so the folded ends were underneath. We cut an "X" on the new top and folded back the edges to reveal the pad thai, with the prawns on top. It looked beautiful.

One of the women in the class is the only other solo female traveler I've met here. She intended to come with her boyfriend to celebrate her 40th birthday, but things fell apart. She's here because she decided she wouldn’t let him ruin her vacation plans. We’ve been hanging out at the pool and are getting dolled up for the nice restaurant tomorrow night.

I over to my spa appointment for my scrub, wrap, and free 30 minute massage. They warned me at the beginning that some people are allergic. Although I'm allergic to almost nothing, I became paranoid and fretted over every tiny discomfort. After rubbing me with a salt scrub, they spread a seaweed wrap on me and folded me up in a human-sized piece of wax paper. They tucked the ends in at the bottom as if I were a giant burrito, then left me on a heated table. I relaxed for about 5 minutes after the masseuse left, then my nose started itching. My hands were wrapped at my sides, so there was no scratching. Especially since every move I made was amplified by the wax paper! "Endure, endure, endure," I thought, trying to stay strong until it was over.

Finally, the Thai woman returned and unwrapped me, and I was able to shower off all the seaweed. The final 30-minute massage was lovely and erased the memory of the previous discomfort (except for the parts I think were funny).

I signed up for another spa package, a facial and massage, on Friday morning, then headed home to sit on my balcony with the mosquito coil and type this up. Tired and satisfied, I headed off to sleep.