Hello from Phuket, Thailand (part two)
Thursday morning – July 13, 2017 (Fifth post of this travelogue)
Tuesday our excursion was a Thai cooking class. They bused us to a fancy Thai restaurant that also holds cooking classes. Right after we arrived we walked to a nearby open air market (photo). Our instructor showed us the various ingredients that we would be using and let us sample some. When we returned we met in an air conditioned class room where the instructor prepared each of four dishes. After she prepared each dish, we then went to an open air cooking room where each of us had a heating stove and all the ingredients to duplicate what she prepared. That area was pretty hot and humid.
At the market for our coking class
The Chefs
Two of the four dishes had squid in them (one was like a crab cake). That was not our favorite ingredient, but we sampled anyway.
After we had completed the meal preparation, they served the dishes that we prepared in a rather fancy dining room (photo).
The meal we prepard
On the way to the market we passed a large Banyan Tree that begged to be photographed.
Banyan Tree
Wednesday, we changed our plans so that I could go diving and Pat could have a down day. I was really nervous about the dive. It had been four years since my last dive and that dive was very marginal (both scenery and dive company). If you have not dived in the past two years, you need to sign up for a refresher course. Instead, I fudged the application and studied about 2 hours of video from my original diving class (2005).
The dives went very well. It took me a couple of minutes to feel comfortable with the first dive, but after that, it went well. Well, almost. On the first dive my weight belt was too loose and I almost lost it and my swim trunks {grin}. Then on the second dive I slipped on the top step going down to the dive platform and made a big scene – but no injuries. The first dive included swimming in a “wrecked boat” (really a boat that had be sunk to provide an environment for the fish). The second dive had great plant life and a ton of fish.
For my log book
I have shown the two dive locations – mostly for my reference.
Diving one location (link to Google map of dive location)
{google_map}7.608586 98.379496{/google_map}
Dive two location: (link to Google Maps location of dive 2)
{google_map}7.613937 98.370482{/google_map}
As has been the case for the past SU trips, we receive lots of gifts. At the General Meeting Pat got several products and I got a neat shirt. Then each night we recieve “pillow gifts” that are really neat. Quite a bit of the product she has received if from the new catalog which will be released September first – so we can’t show pictures. However, I am including a picture of the great carry-on bag.
One of Pats pillow gifts
Today we have a great excursion, but you will have to wait for the next post to find out what it is.
That is all for this post.