Learn to Cook Thai Food at the Blue Elephant Cooking School

Bangkok is home to several cooking schools and if cooking is one of your hobbies or loves then it will be well worth it for you to check out one or more of the cooking schools. One of the top programs is the Blue Elephant Cooking School. One great benefit of taking a class with them is that they will pick you up and drop you back off at your hotel.

 

Located in the heart of Bangkok, opposite the Surasak Sky train station, the Blue Elephant Cooking School is housed in a stunning century old mansion where you will discover and experience the culinary wonders of Royal Thai Cuisine.

It takes just under four hours for the Blue Elephant Cooking School chefs to have you cooking like a pro. The restaurant has morning and afternoon cooking classes during which you will be taught to produce a four-course meal.

There are staff members on hand to avert disasters, and everyone graduates with a Blue Elephant certificate, souvenir apron and box of herbs to help demonstrate your new skills back home.

Itinerary

• You will be welcomed with a fresh Thai herbal drink and discuss with the chef the 4 course meal that will be prepared by you during the class.
• You, along with other members of the cooking group, will take a ride by Sky Train (Saphan Taksin) to the Bang Rak morning market. There is no market visit for the afternoon session.
• The instructor will advise and guide you in discovering and selecting Thai fruits and vegetables and the multicoloured spices!
• Then it is time to take a ride back to the Cooking School on the Sky Train.
• Arrive at the Cooking School where a refreshing drink and towel is waiting for you.
• You then move to the theory class, when the instructor will present a cookery demonstration of the dishes that you will have to prepare!
• Each student will receive a booklet with the recipes of the day.
• It is now time to roll up your sleeves and lay your hands onto the cooking utensils at the Practice Room.
• Each student has his own table and wok. Assisted by the instructor you will learn and experience the culinary technique of Thai cuisine.
• You will have to prepare four dishes.
• Now you can taste and enjoy your own culinary creation in a friendly Thai setting at the Blue Elephant Restaurant.
• The class will be followed by a meal in our delightful restaurant sampling your own cooking as well as additional Thai dishes.

Fortunately for me I am married to Golf and her Thai cooking is superb. If you love Thai food like I do then it is definitely worth your time to check out a cooking school like the Blue Elephant next time you’re in Bangkok. It’s something that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Popularity: 65% [?]

Full Moon Partying on Koh Phangan

Since yesterday was my birthday I’m in a party mood so I thought I’d write a bit about the biggest party in the world. Of course I’m talking about the Full Moon Party on Haad Rin beach on Koh Phangan which regularly has over 7500 partiers during the low season up to 30,000 people dancing and partying during the high season!

Now you can find full moon parties on other islands throughout Thailand for sure, but none of them even come close to what has become the world famous quintessential beach party on Koh Phangan. It is believed that the party started sometime in the late 1980’s (1988 or 1989) as someone’s birthday party and was so great that they started coming back each month to party again. Slowly the party grew as more travelers heard about it until today when it has become a virtual city of party people each full moon.

You really can’t imagine what it’s like without experiencing it yourself. Haad Rin beach is now home to 10 different sound systems pumping out all kinds of music from techno to drum beat to rave and everything else you can think of. People fueled by vodka and Red Bull buckets, among other things, dance on the beach from sunset until sunrise and even after. Everyone is friendly and happy and it is like no other vibe you’ve ever experienced.

Of course the popularity of the Full Moon Party can make it difficult to find a room on Koh Phangan, so I would suggest getting there a few days before the full moon. It will be fine because the Full Moon Party usually gets started a few days before the full moon anyway. You can find a great list of Koh Phangan hotels at the Koh Phangan website.

And for instructions on how to get Koh Phangan complete with air, bus, train and boat schedules see here.

Full Moon Party Dates 2008

Friday 22, February
Friday 21, March
Sunday 20, April
Tuesday 20, May
Wednesday 18, June
Saturday 19, July
Saturday 16, August
Sunday 14, September
Tuesday 14, October
Wednesday 12, November
Friday 12, December
Thursday 25, December
Wednesday 31, December

And don’t forget to stay safe while you’re partying. Follow these common safety rules for the Full Moon Party and you’ll have a much better time.

Enjoy the Full Moon Party Safely

1. Take a copy of your passport with you, and keep original passport in your hotel’s safe.
2. Take the hotel’s business card to contact them in case of emergency.
3. Don’t take bags with you, it’s likely you’ll lose them.
4. Take enough pocket money and keep it in 2-3 different pockets. It’s about 2,000-5,000 Baht.
5. Wear shoes to protect your feet from broken bottles.
6. Set a time and place to meet up with your friends, you WILL lose them in the huge scale noise and partying going on.
7. If you don’t want to be jailed, avoid bringing drugs to the party

There now you have the info to get there and you have the party dates. Don’t be like Golf and myself. We’ve wanted to go to the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan for several years and every time we’ve been in Thailand we’ve missed it be a few days one way or another. Ahhhhh…well it gives us another reason to keep coming back to Thailand.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Why Do Thai Girls Marry Older Foreign Guys?

Several weeks ago I wrote a post “What Do You Want to Know About Thailand” and I got some very good questions. I know I’ve gotten a bit sidetracked since then and I still have a few questions hanging out there so I want to finish answering those and if anyone else has any questions about Thailand or Thai culture please go back to that post and leave a comment or contact us with your question. I’ll be posting all of the answers here at Thailand Musings so don’t forget to subscribe so you won’t miss any of the great questions and answers.

Here is another question regarding Thai culture and the willingness of Thai women to meet and marry significantly older western men. I find this a particularly good subject because it is exactly the question that Golf asked me when we first met on ThaiLoveLinks. I think her question went something like “Why do so many old guys try to chat the young girl on here”. Needless to say I took this a bit personally and felt it necessary to explain. The rest is history.

Question about age differences: Let’s face the facts, I am a 55 year old guy talking with a 30 year old Thai woman. I am well aware that I could produce children. But I may not be still around past age 75, who knows? And I could have ten year old kids when I reach retirement age. I do not want to put a woman and kids at risk, and can certainly make provisions for their support after I am gone. I’d be interested in any success or failure stories you have encountered regarding this. Of course, here in the US, this degree of age difference in marriage is relatively rare, and perhaps even somewhat scandalous. Not that I am ungrateful, but why is a large age span seemingly so acceptable for many Thai women?

Stories regarding Thai women and western men meeting and dating or marrying are very common on the internet and will run the gamut from wildly successful to depressing failures. Do a Google search for Thai women + foreign men and you’ll find hours of reading material. For success stories go to the testimonials of ThaiLoveLinks (where Golf and I met) or simply read about Golf and I. The International Herald has a good story about this subject as well. For failure stories you’ll find plenty, but most of them involve Thai bar girls. By meeting a good Thai girl you can avoid a lot of the common pitfalls you find on the internet.

The reason a large age span is acceptable is often very personal to the girls and I hate to generalize, but if I have to do so then there are several commonly accepted reasons that Thai girls date and/or marry foreigners so much older than themselves.

First, many Thai girls are looking for stability, both financial and in the relationship, and older foreign men are typically able to provide both. They are in general financially well off, especially by Thai standards and this is viewed as a definite positive. They are also more settled and less prone to wander than their Thai counterparts. Add to that the western cultural ideal of monogamy and they become even more attractive to Thai women who are used to seeing Thai men that are promiscuous and prone to having mistresses.

Thai’s also value white skin very much and in fact those with darker skin are perceived to be of a lower class in Thai society. Typically children of Thai/western marriages tend to be much lighter skinned and thus more accepted in society. The Thai’s even have a name for such children of mixed parentage which is ‘Luk Kreung’ and literally means ‘child half”. You’ll find many famous Thai actors and models are luk kreung including pop singers Tata Young and Lanna Cumming.

One aspect that is often overlooked by westerners is that traditionally Thai marriages were often arranged by parents, not on the basis of love, but for mutual benefits between the families such as a property tie up or business merger. Westerners don’t understand this type of arranged marriage and often don’t consider this aspect of Thai culture yet it is very ingrained and accepted in Thailand. Because of this Thai women can sometimes view their bodies as property (Thai men view them this way as well which is a reason Thai women don’t care for Thai men) and as such have no problem using it to gain a better social or financial standing.

In the beginning the Thai girl may not even like her husband much, but over time a love and mutual respect grows. As the two get to know each other better an assimilation of each others culture begins to occur and the bonds between a Thai woman and her foreign husband can grow very strong. It’s good to understand these dynamics better, but I think we older western guys should just be thankful for our beautiful Thai ladies and not question too much. After all, it sure beats the alternative.

Popularity: 78% [?]

H5N1 Bird Flu Re-Emerges in Thailand

This is bad news for Thailand. Last time the bird flu was found there it had a significant impact on tourism to the country. Considering the current strength of the Thai baht which is already curbing tourism combined with the anti-foreign business climate brought on after last years coup, this could cause a definite drop in Thailand’s GDP for 2008.

Let’s hope that this is an isolated case not only for Thailand’s tourism, but also because of the very deadly nature of the H5N1 bird flu virus. Most of us know that avian flu is being watched very closely, but do we know why. The reason is that this particular virus has mutated in the past and was extremely deadly. During the period of 1918-1920 the virus mutated and caused the Spanish flu which was responsible for 50 million deaths worldwide. Those interested can learn more here

Source: Reuters – 24 January 2008 The H5N1 bird flu virus has re-emerged in a northern Thai province for the first time since March last year, forcing the slaughter of 10,000 chickens, an Agriculture Ministry official said on Thursday.

The outbreak occurred on a farm in Nakhon Sawan, 240 km (149 miles) north of Bangkok, where the owner reported 4,085 chickens had died earlier this month, senior Livestock Department official Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk told Reuters.

“The H5N1 virus was found on the farm and we have culled the rest of them,” he said of the birds slaughtered in one of four closed chicken houses on the farm.

The others house 45,000 chickens which had shown no signs of the deadly avian influenza virus, he said.

The virus last reappeared in northern Thailand in March 2007, but there have been no new reports of human infections in the country, where the virus has killed 17 people since 2003.

Of the 351 human cases recorded since H5N1 re-emerged in Asia in 2003 and spread to parts of Africa and the Middle East, 219 have died, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The virus does not currently spread easily between humans, but scientists fear it could mutate into a form that would trigger a global pandemic, killing millions of people.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Thailand Coup is Over

It appears the military backed coup is finally over as the military leaders have stepped aside as previously promised now that elections have taken place. The Parliment has convened for the first time since the coup and it appears that a pro-Thaksin Prime Minister will be elected.

Does this mean that we will see all of the changes made by the coup disintegrated and Thaksin will come back into power of some sort in Thailand? I think it is highly likely. Thaksin has a large degree of support, especially in the provinces of Thailand. Meanwhile the middle and upper class Thai’s in Bangkok will very likely protest once more.

It is difficult to see when stability will return to Thailand considering the current situation. One can hope that the return of the Thai Rak Thai party (under the guise of PPP) will also see the return of a more pro-business and foreigner friendly Thai government.

BANGKOK: — The military council which ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 putsch disbanded itself on Tuesday and promised there would be no more coups as a Thaksin-backed coalition prepared to take office.

The Council for National Security (CNS), widely derided for presiding over an inept government, also called on politicians to stay out of military affairs, suggesting it feared vengeful Thaksin supporters in office.

“Everybody in the CNS, especially the army commander-in-chief, insist there will be no more coups,” CNS spokesman Sunsern Kaewkumnerd told reporters.

“In a political transition into a full democracy, which is a sensitive period for all sides, the military should not be involved in politics and politicians should not interfere with the military,” he said.

“Therefore, we need a politically neutral person to be defence minister,” Sunsern said a month after elections in which the openly pro-Thaksin People Power Party fell just short of an overall majority.

That call followed newspaper reports that Samak Sundaravej, the firebrand PPP leader determined to become prime minister, would also become defence minister.

But the military is in a weak position after the elections proved Thaksin’s abiding popularity in the countryside where the majority of Thais live, despite CNS attempts to eradicate his influence.

The PPP campaigned on Thaksin’s populist platform and told people a vote for the party was a vote for Thaksin. The former prime minister was ousted months after street protests began against him in Bangkok and faces corruption charges when he returns from exile.

Political analysts saw the results of the December 23 election as a vote against the coup and criticism of the military is becoming ever more trenchant.

“The generals have proved unfit in their handling of post-coup Thailand,” Chulalongkorn University political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak wrote in Tuesday’s Bangkok Post.

“Policy directions have been murky, leadership incompetent, overall administration inept. The generals have made themselves obsolete by botching their latest putsch,” he said. The generals accused Thaksin of presiding over rampant corruption and of disrespect toward revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej — charges he denies — but an anti-graft panel they appointed has come up with only one case against him.

They also failed to eradicate his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party despite its court-ordered dissolution for electoral fraud and the banning of Thaksin and 110 senior party members from politics for five years.

Thai Rak Thai members simply took over the almost defunct PPP, which is expected to take office at the head of a coalition government and occupy the most powerful ministries some time next month.

–Reuters Jan 22, 2008

Popularity: 17% [?]

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