5 Days in Chaing Dao

Oh where do I start?! On Thursday 9th February, thirty three year 10 students and 4 teachers set off on a journey to the Makhampom Living Theatre Company in Chaing Dao. The students completed three workshops for their GCSE Drama coursework, but also were treated to acrobatics, dance, mask and shadow puppetry workshops before visiting and performing to the people of a local hill tribe village. And all this set in the hills rice fields and glorious surroundings of Northern Thailand? With fresh air, traditional home cooked Thai food and stunning weather? Yes...it was perfect!

I like the weeing man!

Lunch being prepared

The washing up station

Banana trees

My morning view

My bedroom...surprisingly comfortable

Some excellent shadow puppetry from the kids - all hand
made puppets!

Sunset

The leader of the Pang Daeng hill tribe - so
welcoming! They taught us their local
village dance.

Stilt walking - I managed 3 steps with A LOT
of help!

Hand made spinning tops - I was much better
at this

Handmade clothing, jewellery and bags were on sale when
we visited the community. 

My bedroom from the outside

Masks made by the students

The local community also treated us to performances
of dance, acrobatics and singing

Good food! 

It was a relaxing, energising, inspiring, humbling, thought provoking few days. I loved it. Highlights...the food - khao soi gai, massuman curry, roti, fresh salads. The weather - perfect summer camping weather, really warm in the day, cooler in the evening and cold at night (even slept with a hoodie on!). The fresh air - so nice to take a deep breath and smell...the countryside! The activities - learnt so much. The Pang Daeng visits - beautiful people, a beautiful place. The ethos. Coming back feeling enthused. The views. The slower, calmer pace. 

The last time I felt like this I was training or working on a superweek for a wonderful company called ATE. I need to do more...!

Pizza and cocktails at Viva Aviv

This time, Pippa, Mel and I decided a Saturday night gossip was in order and so we caught the boat, and then another boat to Viva Aviv. It's a relatively new bar-restaurant in River City. The decor is pretty cool (I stole this photo from their fb page) with pulleys and chains hanging from the ceiling and the bar and walls made of crates. 

We ordered a few cocktails to start us off, and were very impressed. If there's one thing they do well here, it's cocktails. Pippa had a Cuban Smuggler, which looked ace! The whole thing came in a small ice bucket, topped up with crushed ice. The drink was made then poured into a glass coke bottle, which you poured yourself into a little shot glass garnished with some lime. Talk about fancy! I had a long island iced tea, which was very good and Mel had a Mangoes Nuts which was garnished with some dried orange. Needless to say, we all ordered another! Cocktails were about 300B each (can't quite remember) but were worth it for the show and experience. We sat on tall bar stools at a high table and watched the bar man make them too. 

Mangoes Nuts, Cuban Smuggler and a Long Island Iced Tea

The menu is quite limited at the moment as they're still quite new. In the end we all ordered pizzas (because we saw someone else's and it looked good!). I had the Boeuf et Bleu (250B). It had a gorgeous pizza base, lovely tender beef, caramalised onions but waaaay too much blue cheese. It was almost fruity! Ok for a few slices, but pretty rich. All the pizzas were served on two wooden boards, which was quirky.

Boeuf et bleu

Mel had the I Foccacia Name (225B) which was hand made foccacia bread topped with tomato slices and green and black olives. It was nice, but needed cheeeeese! 

I Foccacia Name

Pippa had the Tom Ka Gai pizza (225B) which had another gorgeous handmade base but was topped with a Thai style coconut and chicken sauce. Very tasty.

Tom Ka Gai Pizza

After all that bread and carbs, I felt the need for...more bread and carbs so we ordered the Rocky Road Pizza (225B) from the dessert menu. It was a Nutella covered, pizza base topped with chocolate pieces, biscuit crumbs and marshmallows. Nice, but I think I'll stick to my savoury pizzas! As you can see, I was off the cocktails and on the pot of tea by now...what a crazy Saturday night! 

It was a lovely night with lovely company. A great place for cocktails and perhaps next time, I'd try one of their sharing platters.

7/10 (cocktails are a 10/10 though!).

As an extra little note...I've heard there is an even more exciting venue opening at River City in the next few months, keep your eyes peeled...can't wait! :D

Tapas at Next2, Shangri La

On the last Thursday of January, Rach and I decided to treat ourselves to a bottle of wine and some nice food. We went to the Shangri La, just a short boat ride up the river from the Chatrium.

We sat on the decking outdoors and watched the sun set.

They had a good range of tapas at 185B a plate. We chose...french fries with aioli, bruchetta, mixed garlic mushrooms, house cured salmon with soured cream and meatballs in tomato sauce.

The salmon was some of the best I've ever had. Thick, generous slices served with thin cut melba-like french toast, lemon wedges and soured cream. Very good indeed. The bruchetta was also incredible. Melba-like french toast and finely chopped tomatoes, onion and garlic. Very garlicky, very tasty! The fries were a bit of a disappointment as they were missing the aioli (the only reason they sounded so good!) and when we asked for some, we were given thousand island dressing...definitely NOT the same thing! The mushrooms weren't great either, quite tough, not garlicky enough and no good sauce to dip our toast/fries in. The meatballs, however, were great.

We also ordered a bottle of rose d'anjou between us which, I have to say, was delicious. Haven't really had an rose since I've been here but this was light, sweet and fresh and a nice change to white. Very yummy!

Dessert was reasonably good. Rach had a trio of chocolate which included chocolate ice cream, a warm chocolate cake and a triple chocolate mousse. 

I had an oreo cheesecake. Good but not a knock out. The evening was lovely and I enjoyed the food. Between us, it came to just under 4000B (which is pretty expensive) but we fancied a treat and the bottle of wine, salmon and bruchetta were definitely a treat. I'd definitely go back, but would be a bit more selective about my tapas choices I think. 

7/10

5 days in Khao Yai

Apologies for a quite month, so much for my New Year's resolution!

So, January brought with it the Year 7 residential trip to Khao Yai. We left early on Monday morning and had a 2 hour (ish) coach journey to Wild Lodge. It was an eco-centre where the students got to do abseiling, climbing, a high ropes course, cooking and a river bed scramble. It was great fun, even with the lack of sleep, self-flushing toilets, cold showers and bugs. The fresh air was a lovely change and to be out of the air con was also really nice.

On the Wednesday we went to Khao Yai national park and walked through the forests.

The deer came to visit us while we were
having dinner at the park.

I also took some photos on the river bed scramble. During the rainy season, the river is pretty high but as it dries the river bed becomes a path of boulders and rocks small enough to scramble over.

On the way back from the walk we saw the
snake that had been in the girls' bathroom
but now looked less scary without its head.

I was brave enough to go up to the top of the abseiling tower but not to abseil down! The view from there was pretty impressive.

I was very tired after coming back, but it was nice to see some other places in Thailand and to see a bit of the countryside.