Today started with breakfast around 8am. While we were there we saw an employee in one of the palms cutting down some of the branches. It was pretty interesting to watch.
Daily activity board by the breakfast location
The view from our table
Delicious food
Cutting the palm
After breakfast, we went to the north pool, which we found out was an adults-only pool for aqua tai chi. While it's been cloudy these past few days, today had actually been very sunny which was an unexpected surprise. The tai chi lasted for 50 minted which was way longer than I expected it to be. Afterward, we spent about 30 more minutes in the pool and then returned to our room.
The deep end of the pool was 4.5 meters
attempting to dry off before going back to the room
When we got back, we noticed we had quite the red outlines on us from forgetting sunscreen as it had been cloudy. We quickly went to the 7-11 by the hotel and got Aloe. I also made some cold towels to try and get the heat out quickly. Before we went to lunch, Hunter went to go get some drone pictures. It was very windy and the drone struggled, but it managed to get amazing photos from above!
For lunch, we decided to try the M Beach Club restaurant. We got to sit right at the ocean edge which was relaxing. While we were there we noticed some lizard friends running around. They seemed to run away from people which was good, because I could see them becoming tame at a resort from people feeding them. Hunter ordered the tempura soft shell crab bao buns with Asian slaw and spicy mayo and I ordered the grilled beef bao bun with grilled Australian beef, cucumber, Thai celery, coriander, and nam jim jaew sauce. Both were tasty and a perfect and highly photogenic snack. It was nice to be able to enjoy some outdoor dining and a fusion of local and western food.
Every time we leave our room our glasses fog up from the difference in temperatures
Some cute birds we spotting while walking
A big lizard friend
Lunch views
Bao buns!
A cool shell of a bug that had molted
After lunch, we went back to our room and I worked on my blog before our afternoon activity. Today we have booked a cooking class learning how to cook 3 southern Phuket-style local dishes. The dishes are Yum Ma Muang Goong Siab raw mango salad with dried local shrimp and roasted ground coconut, Bua Thod Goong Deep-fried Betel leaves with “Southern Style” tempura with prawn, and Panang Gai “Southern Style” Spicy Coconut Curry with Chicken. After cooking everything we get to then eat it!
We went to the lobby at 3pm to meet the class, but it turned out we were the only ones registered, so our cooking class became a private cooking class! We started with a butterfly tea and then were taken in a golf cart to the cooking school, which actually turned out to be pretty close to our room on the property, just hidden in the trees. We met our chef Xin and his assistants on arrival. To start we had a welcome appetizer of a betel leaf salad called Miang Kham. It had dried shrimp, peanuts, onion, ginger, roasted coconut, chilies, and a sweet jelly to top it off. After making our welcome snacks, we then began learning about the ingredients that go into the dishes we were about to make. We tasted various sauces and the thick but smooth plum sugar. Once we understood the ingredients, we moved to our cooking station where started preparing the mango salad by cutting all the vegetables. I cut the carrot and sliced the finger chili while Hunter cut the mango and used mortar and pestle to make peanut paste. Then we cut the chicken breast for the Coconut Curry and put it in a pot with coconut milk, sugar, and spices. After that, we moved back to the chef's station where we made betel leave tempura prawns. The process of frying a shrimp to a leaf was super unique and resulted in a delicious combination that we are both excited to try replicating at home. Atlanta has a decently large Asian population and there are specialty Asian grocery stores so we don't think it will be too hard to get the ingredients. Once done, we plated our dishes and put them at the table where we sat down to eat the delicious food we made. We had made a fair amount of food and while so tasty, couldn't quite finish it all. Luckily they had some takeout containers and packaged up our leftovers for us to enjoy later. On our way out we even got official certificates for our cooking class. The whole thing was an amazing experience made even more so by having a surprise private experience.
Butterfly tea
Miang Kham
Chefs station with the ingredients
Hunter making peanut paste
Deep frying a betel leaf
Finishing our salad
Yum Ma Muang Goong Siab raw mango salad with dried local shrimp and roasted ground coconut
Panang Gai “Southern Style” Spicy Coconut Curry with Chicken
After our delicious dining experience, we went to the sunset show in the lobby. They did drumming and a fire show in the water of the lobby reflecting pool which was mesmerizing. I packed some diet cokes and water to drink while at the show since we were both a bit dehydrated from the tropical heat.
Thai dancer with the fire guy in the back
This was pretty cool to capture
This was firecrackers spinning out from the stick the man had
Video from the show
After the show, we returned to our room where we went swimming, worked on the blog some, and went to bed.
We found a frog on our walk back to our room
Night swim
Date: Thursday July 14, 2022
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