MBK

Taking cooking classes as somehow heightened my senses. I don't know what it is. Maybe because I am eating such delicious food, I am super satisfied. Maybe because it is cool and possible to walk around in Bangkok, I am able to notice things. I don't know, but I am enjoying myself immensely.

Yesterday we had another teacher, a little chubby guy named Charles. I asked him about his name because he said he was Thai, and he told me it was his Christian name. Apparently he went to a missionary school, which was also why he spoke English well. He was the first teacher we had that I could understand clearly.

Charles showed us how to make four dishes, mostly from the Northeast of Thailand. I think the Northeast is close to Laos, because northeastern dishes are similar to Lao food. Thais often disginguish northestern food from the rest of Thai dishes. They are usually spicier or more sour or both.

We made panang curry (which actually is not Northeast cooking), crab souffle, a spicy and sour soup (similar to Tom Yam, but made with sour tamarind juice instead of lime) and green papaya salad. Everything was good of course, but I liked the soup and the salad the best.

I ate in the restaurant with four of the other students. There is one Malaysian guy who is taking 7 days of classes. He started on the same day as me. He is a bit odd. He had a HUGE camera and is constantly taking pictures. After the teacher demonstrates the recipe, we are all invited to sample it, but this guy always has to take several pictures. Because of him, the other students then pull out their cameras and we all have to stand there and wait while everyone takes a picture. It's really silly because we are going to make the dish and can take a picture of our own food. Plus the food looks so good and we have to stand there and wait.

There was a Chinese couple (maybe from Hong Kong) who spoke to each other in Chinese and a South Asian guy who was very serious and didn't speak. It was an interesting contrast to lunch on Saturday where there were a lot of Westerners and the conversation was very interactive.

In general, we have too much food to eat. I tried preparing my stomach by having a smaller breakfast - only vegetables and a little fried noodles, oh and some congee with pork, oh, and some fruit....I guess my breakfast wasn't that small, but I steered clear of meat and the bready stuff. Still, I couldn't finish everything and only concentrated on the things I liked. My papaya salad was really spicy because I pounded my chilis too much. We had ice cream for desert, which I needed to cool the fire in my mouth.

After we finished, I decided to walk to my hotel and explore some more of the back streets. I ended up on a street that only took me to Silom Road with no option to turn. I used to walk Silom Road a lot when I took massage classes years ago. I was staying in a hotel on Silom and had to walk to the river to catch the boat, but it's been a while, so I enjoyed the walk.

When I got to skytrain I decided to go and look for a shopping center I found last time that has a store that sells some very nice aromatherapy products. I like to spray aromatherapy oils in my hotel rooms to make them smell a little less like hotel rooms. I couldn't remember what shopping center this place was in though, and it was a Sunday afternoon and every place I went into was packed with Thais out strolling about in large groups. It was hard to get around, and I never found the shop (I checked my guide book when I got home and I was in the wrong place completely).

As I headed towards the skytrain to come back to my hotel, I passed the entrance to MBK. MBK is this huge shopping center. It is kind of like a market place that is stacked seven floors high. It used to be very dingy and kind of scary looking, but after a fire some years back, they remodeled it and it looks shiny and nice. It is a maze and I always get lost. You can buy just about anything there. I think they only thing they don't sell is fresh food, but I could be wrong about that. I don't think I've ever made it through the whole shopping center since I usually am exhausted after just one floor.

I was hungry after passing so many food venders on the streets and inside the shopping centers and wanted something a little sweet. I knew MBK had a food court and I could get sticky rice with mango, so I went in.

At first I ended up at the International Food Court, which I never knew existed. It looked interesting, but they didn't have what I wanted. I asked one of the girls working there where the other food court was and she sent me up to the 6th floor.

I love the MBK food court. There are so many places to choose from and the signs are in Thai and English.

You buy coupons from a little booth and then go and choose the food you want and pay with coupons. Any coupons you don't use can be exchanged for cash as you leave.

I only changed 50 baht because I wasn't planning on eating a lot, but the sticky rice with mango was 80 baht (most meals are usually 30-40 baht), I had to go back and get more coupons. It was worth it. Even though this is not mango season, the mangos are incredible. The combination of the mango with the rice with coconut milk is really nice. I gulped it down and it was so good I wanted another. Instead I sat and rested because I was so tired from my morning exercise and so much walking. I was hoping that by allowing myself to digest a little, the feeling of wanting more would go away. It never did, but still I refrained (mostly because I didn't want to buy more coupons again) and I left.

As I headed out, I passed a place I had seen on the way in. People were lying on reclining chairs getting facials. I was feeling like my skin needed a good cleaning after all of this travel, and especially after walking around in Bangkok. I stopped to look and a woman outside showed me a flyer with a description of the facial. There were like 16 different things they apply or do to you for only 500 baht (about 15 dollars). I thought it would be a good way to relax a little before heading back to my hotel and no matter how good the facial was, you couldn't beat the price. And so I went in.

I laid down on this reclining chair and the woman working on me began by cleaning my face with warm water and then applying a very cold cream. The process continued and more very cold creams were applied. It was almost painful, some of them were so cold. At one point, she applied a mask, which started as a cold cream that was very thick, but also runny and began running down my face and neck. I tried to stop it dripping down my neck, but it was impossible. Finally, it began to harden and then she peeled it off.

She also applied really cold strips of cucumber and then covered my face with a towel, sealing in the cold. I felt like she was trying to freeze my face so that she could then lift it off.

The whole time there was a lot of chattering and movement as people came and went. It felt like I was getting a facial in the middle of a marketplace and not in a spa. There was no mood lighting (florescent light bulbs lit the place up), no mood music and no aromatherapy. It was a basic no frills kind of place, exactly in line with the whole spirit of MBK, where most things are no frills and very cheap. It's one of the reasons why I love MBK. Compared with the expensive, glittery new shopping centers, it is a real Thai experience and a visit to Bangkok is never complete withtout a visit to MBK.