Boulder, Colorado

yesterday I met the most obnoxious person so far. M., from "boulder, colorado" (purse the pretty lips - since when is that a hip place to be?) was also in cooking class. presumably because she is vegetarian, she had this whole "mightier than thou" attitude down. my fav sentence here: "Oh I think protein is totally overrated!" (also, apparently, there is a backlash on soybeans - soo unhealthy it turns out - awaiting us.) I can see you are not convinced, my non-judgemental but hopefully open-to-gossip friends, so here's more. Being practically a pro - having been almost three weeks in thailand already (gasp!) -, she readily dished out advice to everyone. The one directed to me included the condescending "it's also in the lonely planet..." (my mistake for having chatted merrily to her when I still thought she was just shy and inhibited by being a little too pretty). Apparently, she practically thrived in this dangerous dangerous country and trip - has anyone ever dared to go this far before? -, getting the Asian vibe, unlike us, the degenerated Western cooking collegues. I mentally clubbed her to curry-appropriate pieces most of the time.

The cooking class was fun though and VERY exhausting, mainly because we had to eat all courses. (Boulder, Col, after devouring her first dish and nibbling on the remaining five, exclaimed repeatedly than she wouldn't be able to eat for a week now. Gosh!)
Khao Saw, in case I haven't mentioned this yet, a local dish from Chiang Mai, is unbelievably yummy: beef in yellowish curry with noodles - terrific!

As if to prove Boulder wrong, I made yesterday a pig-out day (as a side-effect this forced my bowels to release some of its content held captive). I almost cried over seeing a street vendor selling the most delicious sushi for 5-10Baht apiece (40,50 Baht make Euro)
Yesterday was Sunday market in Chiang Mai. The city has been reknowned for its markets even before Western tourism peaked and there was so much beautiful stuff -clothes, fabrics, jewelry, bags, even shoes, and of course food - that I went gaga from stimulation overload as usual. of course most clothes are unwearable for my body type. Much to my chagrin I discovered that even some of the stuff I bought didn't fit - there were no changing rooms obviosly, but also no mirrors or size markers. Some things are too small, others will fit when I'll have those twins and an SUV. It started to rain but no-one made much of a fuss...