Some amount of time ago (?) we went to a Thai cooking class. Let me just preface this with a note: Thai food is SPICY. I mean REALLY SPICY. The first thing they had us do in class was learn about the different peppers. When the teacher asked who liked spicy everyone but Dad and I raised our hands. "Silly Americans can no take spicy haha" laughed the teacher. She started to pass around a pepper for us to try, one of those red hot chilly peppers. How was I supposed to know that you're only supposed to eat the tip? I was nervous to try it but even more nervous to refuse and be singled out so I ate it. I ate about half of the pepper, bad idea. My mouth was on fire the rest of the night. O, and did you know that water doesn't help spicy? Perfect...
We made three excellent dishes though, some curry, a fish dish and some alien looking noodle dish. Previously the height of my cooking talent had been a mean Mac and Cheese from the box but I must say, I'm not half bad in the kitchen.
Anyway, yesterday was a really cool day. In the morning we sat by the pool eating our daily lunch of chicken satay and french fries with peanut sauce but in the afternoon we decided to do jet skis. They go so fast! I was cruising all along the long stretch of beach easily drifting past dad. The ocean was a bit choppy but nothing was getting in my way of going light speed fast. I think at one point my face started to stretch back like you see in those astronaut movies during take off.
That night we went to see Thai boxing. Let's just say it was an experience. We got good seats ringside in the small dingy boxing center. Speed boats rigged with speakers had been going up and down the beach announcing some big fight all day so we figured we'd check it out. The boat would come by every few hours blasting "CHAWENG STADIUM. TONIGHT. TONIGHT. BIGGEST FIGHT OF THE YEAR. 9 PM. TONIGHT. TONIGHT."
Our bleacher seats could see everything, man those Thais can fight. The first few matches were between kids, probably somewhere around my age, and they were pretty tame but some of the later guys really knew how to beat the crap out of each other. Before the first everyone stood for an instrumental version of the Thai national anthem and then the first fighters came out to some German techno and strobe lights. They got in the ring and started bowing and dancing. Something we later learned happened before every fight. It was odd to see big boxers bowing like monks but very interesting too. After bowing they would commence to kick eachother for about 3 minutes, go back to their corners, and then commence to kick eachother again. It was a very hypnotizing process.
Tomorrow is our busiest and last day here on Koh Samui. We're going to Angthong National Marine Park about 30 minutes from the main island. It's a series of tiny islands, all pretty close and all of them look like beach paradises only found in postcards. We hope to go scuba diving there and maybe even kayaking in the caves. I'll update in a few days. On Monday we leave for Chiang Mai, the cultural center of Northern Thailand.
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