Wat Pa Kham

05:00
I wake up at 03:00. Bah humbug. Once again, I’m instantly awake and clear-headed. I try to sleep for 30 minutes, but even I’m sceptical. I give up, and read for a while, in the hope this will tire my eyes again. My reading is briefly interrupted by a somewhat urgent dash to the latrine. I don’t think it’s anything sinister - just my stomach recovering from the long journey out here, and likely acclimatising to new environment / food etc etc. I’m heartened when a further hour’s reading doesn’t require any additional latrine based dashes. Feeling fairly tired again. Hoping I can grab a few more hours…

10:30
Sleep never came. At 07:00, I give up trying. I grumpily make a coffee, and make for my balcony. The day feels sweaty. It feels like it’s rained a lot overnight. The verdant leaves of the Pai Loess garden are heavy with water. Felix is awake a little before 08:00, and we compare sleeping notes. He struggled to get off to sleep last night, but has at least slept through till now. We grab some breakfast at our resort, and make something approaching a plan. We’re both reluctant to bike ride today, so decide an afternoon cooking class is in order. I find a suitable option, negotiate starting time / dishes we’ll cook, and agree to pop in this morning to pay for the lesson.

Payment sorted, we head off on a meander around Pai. It’s a little after 09:00, and the town feels like it partied too hard last night, and is struggling to wake up. There are very few travellers up and about at this time on a Saturday. Felix and I both heard revelry going on near us last night. He - some sort of rave based activity, and I, a rather bizarre post-punk rockabilly sort of band. Reading that back, I do wonder whether I dreamt it, but I’m pretty sure not. We stop to chat to a few tour operators, to try and make plans for tomorrow, to get out of town to see some of the beautiful scenery surrounding Pai. The sun is trying to shine. Even at 10:00 it’s feeling pretty hot. We see a sign for some Muay Thai boxing this evening, and decide this will probably make for some decent entertainment. Felix heads off for a swim, while I head back to Pai Loess to try and catch up on some zizz.

19:15
Success! I manage a good 3 hours, waking at 14:00 ahead of our 15:00 cooking class. I feel a LOT better for it. Quick shower, and we’re heading off to Saveoi. We’re the only people in our class, which is great. The set up is awesome - a proper garden kitchen behind their restaurant. We’ve each selected two dishes to cook - spring rolls and a Paneang curry for Felix, and a glass noodle salad and stir-fried chicken noodles for me. We start with the noodle salad / spring rolls. Our teacher, Mwanee (sp?) is a patient and insightful coach. She talks us through some of the basics of Thai cookery - ingredients, styles, flavourings. Our ingredients are carefully laid out in front of us, and we’re walked through each stage. The resulting food is, and I’m not kidding here, tremendous. I ate similar salads a bunch of times back in April, and I’m delighted now to know how to recreate them at home. Felix’s spring rolls are properly excellent. There’s more technique in his dish, and I’m more than impressed at the quality of what he creates. We sit to scarf these down, and move onto our second dishes.

There’s a brief hiatus as we come to realise Paneang curry heavily features peanuts, to which Felix has a slight intolerance. Plans are adapted to a yellow curry instead, and all is well with the world once again. There’s some quite intense manual labour going in to making his yellow curry paste. I realise I’m being less than sympathetic towards his efforts. I’m hopeful my stir-fried noodles are in the same vein as those Vicki and I tried on our street food tour of Bangkok. The ingredients certainly seem to be pointing in that direction… The dish is simple to cook, though I’m surprised at the use of water at a couple of stages of the cooking. There’s also a store-bought ‘XO’ sauce used at the end of cooking, about which I need to learn more as it seems critical to the colour, texture and flavour of the dish. Felix has done great things with his curry - it smells wonderfully aromatic and enticing. Again, we sit to eat - and we’re both more than a little pleased with ourselves. As we eat, Mwanee brings us a cookbook, containing the recipes we’ve cooked today, as well as others that are available to cook. I’ll treasure it.

Food and heat combine to leave Felix feeling nap-destined. We head back to Pai Loess, and agree to touch base a little later, before the boxing starts at 20:00. I read for a while but can feel my eyes growing heavy, so lay my head down - you know, just in case there’s some nap to be had. It transpires there is. I’m conscious that I’m doing very well catching up on sleep through the day, but it would be far preferable to manage a full night’s sleep at some point. I’ve brought some Zopiclone with me. Reckon I’ll treat myself to one tonight, to see if I can course correct a little…

23:50
We’re up and out around 19:30. We stop at a cool little bar called Vinyl Sky - a rooftop cocktail joint. Tunes are good, chat is awesome, cocktail is brilliant. I have something called a Flying Moon, which is basically a vodka martini with some lychee liqueur added to it. While chatting, we dissect the nature of monogamy, views on friendship, the challenges of parenthood - despite neither of us being a parent.

We head further up the road, to the Muay Thai boxing promotion. The big top is constructed with bamboo, and has some more than avant-garde décor. The fighting is visceral. I think this is the first live pugilism event I’ve attended. When I use the word pugilism, Felix laughs, but then acknowledges that despite sounding like I’m from the 19th century, it’s the right word. The bouts are well matched. We see at least one, and possibly two bones broken. The rituals when the fighters enter the ring, which are somewhat spiritual in nature, are entrancing. Neither Felix nor I are particularly familiar with the rules and regulations of Muay Thai. Yes - kicking is encouraged; elbows are a must. We’re both unsure about the more judo-oriented elements we witness, but they’re cheered by the crowd, and seem to be viewed well by the judges. We’re one row behind ringside, and the view of the ring is primal. Despite not necessarily feeling 100% comfortable with some of the beatings that are happening, I enjoy the evening more than I maybe thought I would. It’s £8 for 4 hours of brilliant entertainment.

The bouts finish about 23:30. We think briefly about grabbing some street food, but are both pretty jaded. We’ve got vague plans for tomorrow, so agree to meet for breakfast to thrash out what Sunday will entail…Les mer