Today is our third and last full day in Thailand. This country, like all others, deserves a longer investment of our time than we’ve been able to give. There are many other cities here that we would’ve like to spend time in, but perhaps we need to come back again.

We started our day at a leisurely pace. We had made lunch plans with my cousin Jeff, but nothing before that. After waking up at 10:30, we grabbed a small cup coffee. Careful not to spoil our appetites, we skipped breakfast.

Our scheduled cab didn’t show—likely due to a miscommunication between the hostel staff and I—so we hailed an Uber and took it to the local shopping mall. We found our restaurant, The Duke’s, on the third floor, and shared a pleasant lunch with Jeff.

Jeff has been living in Chiang Mai for about a year and a half as a missionary. He and his wife have studied ancient Greek and Hebrew, and are learning Thai in order to translate the bible from it’s original text into Thai and other regional languages. Because it’s impossible to do a direct translation from one to the other, it requires a lot of nuance and consideration to make the meaning and context of the written word come out in the new languages. Because many regional languages are similar, often they will base a translation off of an existing translation of a similar language.

This was also our first American food on our trip. Nothing that they offer stood out as particularly interesting, but my Italian sandwich on ciabatta was just perfect.

After catching up, Jeff and Irene drove us back to our hostel in time for us to meet the ride for our evening activity- a cooking class courtesy of Siam Garden Cooking School. Cooking classes are very popular among tourists, and it sounded like a good time to me! Thai food is a personal favorite that I’ve never been able to successfully pull off.

The school was started by a Swiss man and his Thai wife. Our group was large: three Australians, a Canadian, two French, a German, and the two of us. They picked us up, one by one, and then took us to their favorite local marketplace to do a demonstration of which ingredients to look for. Many of these items—Kaffir Lime, Lemon Basil, Thai Holy Basil—are difficult finds in the U.S.A. that may necessitate a few trips to the local Asian markets.

At the school, we each were set up with the recipes that we had chosen. Each person made a curry sauce, curry, stir fry dish, appetizer, soup, and dessert. Everything that we made turned out delicious, but also demystified. Red curry, Pad Thai, Papaya Salad, and Mango Sticky Rice, Khao Soi, deep fried Bananas, spring rolls— everything was delicious.

We were returned to our hostel with a cookbook with all of the recipes we had made. This is definitely a souvenir that will come in handy.

Tomorrow fly to Penang, and then on Saturday we start our journey home.