After a day out with the eaters, I switched hostels from Siam Square to one closer to Khoa San Road, the backpacker mecca of BKK. Of course, I was so exhausted that I immediately passed out when I got there...
How anyone can be hungry after eating over a hundred (or 200) wontons is beyond me. But, after the contest, after drinking a few beer's in Crazy Legs's room, we set out to find food. It was late, and we couldn't find anything open. A cab driver, of course, offered to take us somewhere, which I pretty much knew was a mistake. But we were hungry. And desperate. (I mean, I for one did not eat 200 wontons.) The place was expensive and I ordered the cheapest thing, but then others ended up ordering multiple dishes or really expensive dishes, and...
I don't follow sports. I just have never really been that into them. There are a few exceptions to that, of course. I love White Sox games and Blackhawks games live. I used to love going to Illini hockey games and had season tickets in Block I for football games back in college. And I watch the Super Bowl every year…if only for the commercials and taco dip....
My entire trip around Asia has been designed to get me to Bangkok right at this moment. It was part of the reason I decided to switch my initial flight in from Bangkok to Singapore. It was part of the reason I decided against getting a longer visa my first time in Thailand. Way back in September I was checking the day's competitive eating news from my apartment in Barcelona when I saw this on Eatfeats: there was going to be an eating contest. In Bangkok. In February. And that fell right dab in the middle of when I was planning...
After a night train from Chiang Mai I settled into my Bangkok hostel in Siam Square. The area was more geared towards shopping malls than anything else. But there would be a big eating contest in the area a few days later and so I figured it might be good to stay close to there for a bit. ...
Lighting paper lanterns in Chiang Mai, Thailand....
On my last day in Chiang Mai, Jenny and I took a ride out to Tiger Kingdom. It's a little zoo of tigers that you can get up close and personal with. And by that I mean you pay a lot of money to get your picture taken with a lot of big cats who may or may not be drugged. ...
One of the things that I've kept wanting to do but, for some reason, haven't been doing is take cooking classes. I love to cook and at home am always whipping up something or another for dinner, so the thought of learning to cook the specialty dishes of a country while in that country really appealed to me. When I got to Chiang Mai one of the first things I did was look into cooking classes, because Thai food is pretty much my favorite food ever. I chose to do Sammy's Organic Thai Cooking School because the woman at my guesthouse...
I can see why so many people make Chiang Mai their home base. It's both quaint and big. East and West. The kind of place you can get $1 dinners at the market or satisfy any home food craving you might have. I arrived the morning after I left Vang Vieng. I joined a group of six Australian girls in search of rooms. It's hard to find a place to stay at 6am. Every place was either closed or didn't know if they'd have free rooms for the day or simply said they were booked....