Thai Chef Binders

Even in our first few hours of being in Chiang Mai, we could tell we liked this city. Maybe it's the fact we are out and about in a new place, or the realization how cheap things are here (and outside a resort hotel), but Chiang Mai just has a vibe of a small city you can walk around in, even though it's huge. We're loving our (free) hotel, the Le Meridien Chiang Mai, that we booked with Starwood points and get all kinds of free perks including wifi, breakfast, drinks, and all you can drink happy hour. No, I don't work for Starwood, but if you need any more info let me know and I'll get you a referral.

Since we love Thai food so much, and have been eating it almost non-stop, we signed up for a cooking class to learn what's in it and how to make some of our favorite dishes. The class started with a tour of a local market and seeing the ingredients. It's funny, you know all the tastes and smells... Like "oh that's in Tom Yum Soup" but we had no idea what was actually in it. The market was fun, and there was all kinds of other weird stuff there too.

Learning about the ingredients, that's a kaffir lime. And our teacher's weird neck beard.

Smelling the curry pastes.

Ingredients and stuff

Pile of fried stuff, I think pork related

Dragon Fruit, coolest looking fruit around. Tastes like a less flavorful kiwi and is white with tiny black seeds inside

For the actual class, we got to pick a soup, a noodle dish, and a curry. In true Binder family fashion, we picked all different things so we could try as many things as possible. All in all we went for: Tom Yum Soup, Spicy Basil Chicken Soup, Pad Thai, Pad See Yu, Green Curry, and "Jungle Curry". I had to pick Jungle Curry (the hottest) because I knew Mike McDonnell would be disappointed if I didn't pick the hottest curry out there. The class was fun, our instructor was hilarious despite a weird neck beard, the food was awesome, and we were stuffed all day. The Jungle Curry was pretty damn hot, my lips were on fire and everyone else in the class was laughing at me, since I was the only one who chose to make it. We learned a lot that we hope to bring home to make our own food... If we can find the ingredients!

Ready to chop stuff

Class was outside, luckily covered as it started pouring

Everything prepped for Pad Thai and Pad See Yu

Bri's Tom Yum Soup, called it the best she's ever had

Sweating making Pad Thai

Making the Jungle Curry paste, there are hella peppers in there.

Enjoying our labors in the kitchen, we were stuffed!

We were so full from all the food we ate at Cooking School, we decided to venture out and explore the area around our hotel. Chiang Mai is a really old city, with a old wall and moat around the central part of the city and a massive "wat" (temple) in the middle called Chedi Luang. We got some pics, sweat a lot, and are now back at the hotel relaxing and drinking free cocktails. Tomorrow is an early start for a day full of Elephants at Patara Elephant Farm. It was one of the first activities we booked months ago, and can't wait!

The wall around the old city, just parts of it left.

Wat Chedi Luang. Partially restored on purpose.

Bri hanging with Buddha.

Self pic, only moderate double chinnage

Our hotel and a typical Chiang Mai street.

 

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On The Move Binders - Heading North

We've been pretty slow with the updates the last few days from Koh Samui, mostly because we have been slow ourselves. Lots of pool time, reading (I read an entire Vanity Fair, who knew there were some great articles in there?), breakfast on our deck, and relaxing. Bri found out she loves stand up paddle boarding too. We've resisted the urge to post tropical drink and feet-in-the-sand pics (as much as possible) as to not lose our readership... Grady already told me he can't even read this while at work.

Best beach ever? We'll miss the free fruit skewers too.

Bri's new favorite activity

Breakfast in the room... We had the combination order down.

As we packed up on our last night at the Four Seasons, we felt almost sad as we realized the "honeymoon" part of our trip was ending. a similar feeling we had after the wedding of "wow, that went fast". After a groggy, sad-kid-not-wanting-to-leave slow walk out of our villa... We began to get excited for the "real traveling" to begin as we go onto our next location - Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand!

We currently are in the Bangkok airport waiting for a quick connecting flight, checking emails to fill our 4 days in Chiang Mai. We are booked tomorrow for a Thai Cooking class at Siam Rice Thai Cookery School, a day at Patara Elephant Farm (http://www.pataraelephantfarm.com/), and a day to see some temples and Thai stuff. It's already going fast, so we are trying to slow down and enjoy every minute.

Meanwhile, I just saw the A's win in another close game! Thank god for MLB.TV!




 

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Birthday Binder - Ang Thong Marine National Park and Beach Dinner

I honestly hadn't thought much about my birthday at all, with the whole wedding thing and traveling half way around the world. I've been about as happy as a Binder can be the last week, so having one more thing to celebrate was just icing on the cake. Or peanut sauce on the Satay. I entered my 20's as a pasty and increasingly robust sophomore o-lineman in a dorm in Waterville, Maine... And I now enter my 30's an almost ready to be responsible, debatably sophisticated, and of course... married... man in Thailand. And I couldn't be happier.

Our buggy driver showed up with signs

One of the top things I wanted to do in Koh Samui was go to Ang Thong Marine National Park, a set of 40-something islands West of Koh Samui about 45 mins by boat. We thought this was the perfect thing to do on my bday. I knew I was in for a special day when our golf cart driver sped in with Happy Birthday signs on the cart, one of which flew off and almost hit me when he slammed on the breaks. A speed boat to picked us up right at our hotel and we headed out due West. We made 4 stops over the course of the day to snorkel, hike to a salt water lagoon, have lunch in a fishing village, and chill on a beach and kayak. The water is amazingly clear blue, and the many rocky islands that are covered in greenery and look like they could fall over any minute make up some of the most gorgeous scenery we've ever seen. It was the perfect daytime activity, with a little surprise Bri planned for dinner...

View of the Four Seasons from the boat

Being silly in the water

Praying Monkey Rock... Because, get it?

Salt Water Lagoon

Top of the view point after a steep hike

Self pic with sweet beach hair. And no, we're not naked.

Bri had said she had something planned for dinner, and while I continued to make up guesses from midget wrestling to fireworks... She came through with one of the most special dinners I've had in my life: a private dinner on the beach. It looked like something out of The Bachelor, complete with rose petals and all... But Chris Harrison was nowhere to be found. There was plenty of food and more than enough booze. Brando left full, with a good buzz, and appreciative of my loving, caring, and thoughtful wife planning an awesome day to welcome me to my 30's! Although, everyone (including the cake) referred to me as Mr Binder... Not sure if I'm ready for that. You can just call me Binder.

Romantic Beach Dinner Binder

The soup with lobster wontons was unreal

Mr Binder? Is my dad here??

 

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Night Market Binders

After 3 full days at the Four Seasons, which is really easy to do, we decided we needed to venture out a little. It worked out great when the concierge told us there is a night market on Fridays, known as the Walking Street, in the Fisherman's Village of Bo Phut just about 25 minutes from our hotel. This got me excited immediately. If you can grill it, fry it, wrap it in something, put a sauce on it, or make make it spicy... chances are I wanna eat it. We got in a cab and headed over around 5:30... A little early to check out the scene.

Just getting started

The streets are already narrow, with one entrance street hitting the street along the beach and forming a T. The carts, grills, tables with random stuff, and people make it pretty crowded and exciting. There are all kinds of bars from Aussie Rules Footballs Bars, to German Biergartens, and even some Thai style bars. The bars, and even liquor stores set up tables and sell $1.50 cocktails. For some reason we couldn't figure out, they all made mojitos. Best of all, of course, there is a ton of food. There was a Pad Thai taste test. It's awesome to watch them make it, they put the egg on the grill and cook it into the noodles. The pork skewer I ate had a pepper on it that blew my face off... In a good way. We avoided the grasshoppers, though I was tempted. All in all a fun night, that really made use feel like we were truly in Asia.

Pad Thai for $1.50

Just ate the pepper, not smiling ten seconds later

We just got back from an amazing day at Ang Thong Marine Park, which was incredible... Pics to be uploaded soon. About to head out for a little Birthday dinner tonight. There probably won't be any carts, but I'm sure it will be great as my WIFE set it up and I have no idea where we are going. Not a bad way to celebrate my birthday!

 

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Jetlagged Binders - What Day Is It?

After much research and debate, we have determined it is, in fact, Thursday morning here in Thailand. It was a loooong trip, longest either of us have ever gone through but we made it Koh Samui, Thailand (an island off the East Coast in the Gulf of Thailand) yesterday morning. Koh Samui is like the Kauai of the Thai islands, known for its resorts, which we planned to take full advantage of by staying our first week and most "honeymoony" spot at the Four Seasons Samui. I'll give you a glimpse of the end goal, then tell you a bit about our journey...

Our own private infinity pool

Sunday night, in a post-wedding stupor and/or depression, we packed our bags wondering "how are we sitting here folding socks in our apartment alone, when 24 hours ago we were raging on the dance floor with 150 of our friends and family having the best time of our lives?". Allison picked us up on Monday, took us to SFO, and we boarded a flight for Seoul, South Korea at 2 pm Pacific. After a 12 hour flight of free movies and an Ambien induced drool session, we made a one hour dumpling stop in Seoul. 6 more hours to Singapore where we arrived at 1 am wide awake, with 6 more hours to kill. We walked 4 miles around the airport just for the sake of walking, took showers (which were incredibly nice, with tile floors and rainfall shower heads), enjoyed the free wifi, and finally boarded our flight to Koh Samui, Thailand at 7 am.

Fun in the Singapore airport after 6 hours in the middle of the night

We arrived in Koh Samui at 9 am, exhausted but ready to finally start the adventure. Our entrance to the hotel was the best "lobby" I've ever seen, overlooking the entire hillside resort and 60 villas. We spent the afternoon enjoying our own private pool, exploring the beach, and a "Bounty of Thailand" dinner in a zombie-like sleep deprived state. We learned "medium spicy" means "make honkey mans and wife sweat". Finally we got 8+ hours of sleep, after sleeping upright in public for the last 36 hours.

Entrance to the Four Seasons

Our welcome spread

So happy to be in Thailand!

Today we fulfilled our vows by sharing breakfast on our deck in our room and will likely not leave the resort today. We feel rested and relaxed, and ready to begin our adventure. Thank you to everyone who made our wedding so special, and even contributed to our honeymoon fund. It will be well used and enjoyed to the fullest. Love you all and miss you!

 

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What a Weekend!

As we sit here at the SFO international terminal, about to embark on our 7 week honeymoon adventure, I had to throw out one quick post about the weekend we just had. Many say your wedding day flies by, but we both have been saying that it felt like a dream. It is humbling, touching, inspiring, and almost tear-jerking to think of all the love we felt from our friends and family. When the video surfaces of me dancing to our last song of the night, you will see the pure unfiltered joy on my face. My head nearly exploded with happiness. When it all ended, and we found ourselves in the empty Dawn Ranch parking lot on Sunday, we just stood there wondering how it went by so quickly.

I don't have that many pics on my phone from the wedding, but here is one where you can catch our sheer joy on our faces. As well as the feeling of everyone watching you slow dance.

We love all of you, and can't thank you enough for coming from far and wide to share and create the best weekend of our lives!

Now onto the sole purpose of this blog... Some travel. We sit here, about to board our flight to South Korea, on our way to Koh Samui, Thailand. It's Monday afternoon here... We arrive on Wednesday morning. It's gonna be a haul, but we can't wait. I know we'll both sleep well!

Next post from Asia!!