Saturday 19 July 2008

Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts and Natsuda

Toby, Anka and I got the free hotel bus into town and the driver couldn't find SITCA. Luckily we left with plenty of time and eventually found it. There was one other person in the class, a Pakistani woman who lives in Singapore. I took a photo of Toby and Anka and the Pakistani woman was upset I didn't include her in the photo and she got one of the staff to take a photo of all of us with her camera. She had a strong face and penetrating eyes. She was not the submissive, burkah wearing Pakistani and her husband was minding the children while she took the class.

The teacher was a real character. Her name is Natsuda. We learnt about all the spices and made our own red curry paste. We made 3 dishes - red curry vegetables with tofu, prawn soup and stir fried chicken with cashew nuts and sat down and ate and it was really good and we were all really proud of ourselves. The Pakistani woman left as soon as she finished eating and Toby, Anka and I sat and talked for a couple of hours and then we talked to Natsuda for another hour.

Buddsaba Restaurant on the beach

Had dinner at Buddsaba restaurant in my own little hut on the beach where I could lie down on the mattress. Toby and Anka had told me about it. They were off to the Full Moon Party on Koh Pha Ngan. I asked Chai whether I should go to the full moon party and he said there would be thousands of men who would be very drunk and would only want me for sex. I didn't say "bring them on". Ha ha.

I had a beautiful Massaman Chicken Curry and a Mojito. It was very hot and steamy - an oppressive night. A storm was brewing. I got back to my room and all hell broke loose with thunder and lightning. Scared the s*** out of me and it went all night. I couldn't sleep. Very bad weather for the party as they had to catch a boat there and the first boat back wasn't until 2am.