A trip to northern Thailand brings exotic experiences and confronting flavours.
What attracted me to the north of Thailand was the chance to take an off-the-beaten-track trek through the mountains, plus the distinctive cuisine influenced by the Burmese just across the border and, finally, the opportunity to visit the famed Golden Triangle and Mekong River.
Before I left, I read about navy seal cadets stumbling across a huge oarfish - measuring about 7m by 1m - lying on the sand. It's a fish that lives in the depths of the world's warm tropical waters and that story seemed to sum up everything I wanted this trip to be.
This was my chance to challenge my fear factor. As a kid I hated the idea of encountering the smallest of snakes, never mind a giant fish resembling something you'd expect to find in Weta Workshop.
I arrived in Thailand's second-largest city, Chiang Mai, to attend Baan Thai Cooking School with a class of six enthusiastic cooks. The day started at 9.40am with a market visit. After that, the experience passed in a blur of grinding pastes and cooking jungle curry under the watchful eye of Thai TV personality Sirichalerm Svasti, better known as Chef McDang.
According to McDang, the cuisine of Thailand's north has been freely filched from the cuisines of nearby China, Burma and India since the days of the Million Rice Fields Kingdom, officially known as the Lanna region, which at its height included parts of Burma and Laos. Lanna fell under the rule of the Burmese for several hundred years before being conquered by the Siamese and absorbed into what is now Thailand.
Travelling closer to Chiang Rai, 200km northeast of Chiang Mai, where "northern noodles" reign supreme, I wondered why the Thais love pungent flavours.
The first time I cooked kapi, I roasted it in several sheets of clingfilm in the microwave. It still stank out the kitchen with a smell resembling that of dirty socks. In its country of origin, I upped my resistance to pungent odours at the popular eatery Nam Ngiew Pa Suk, where locals chowed down on rotten beans. I opted for the khao gan jin - rice wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in pork blood. But if that's all a bit confronting, there are other wonderful culinary treats to be had here, such as spicy pork curry with ginger, tamarind and turmeric; and nam prik ong, a chilli dip served with dried shredded pork and freshly cooked vegetables, that won't scare you silly.
I finally got to the Mekong to witness sunrise and flotillas of boats with nets cast into the river - and thankfully not a giant oarfish in sight.
