It is 6:45 am.  A cock nearby is crowing loudly in earnest.  According to the second hand on my watch his repeated announcement of another new day has no time pattern.  He might crow and then be silent for a minute or longer before his next utterance.  Then again he may engage in what I have come to think of as back to back crows.  When the time from the last crow goes longer than a minute I wonder if I have heard the last one for the day.  Perhaps his attention had been diverted for a bit or it was time for a drink of water to lubricate his vocal muscles, because he continues to crow. 

Nearby, the sound of motor bikes and vehicles on a nearby street that was devoid of sound through the dead of night mingle with that of the crowing rooster.  What a strange juxtaposition of sounds.  The sound of the cock existed long before the idea of a motorized vehicle was ever envisioned.  Yet here they are together sharing  the morning air of Chiang Mai.

Although my journey to get here took twenty-eight hours I do not have to adjust my watch.  The time difference between Virginia and here is twelve hours.  What was lunchtime two days ago is now midnight.  It hasn’t actually been two days.  I crossed the international date line somewhere along the way so I missed February 5 and went straight to the 7^th.

After checking into the hotel and a taking an overdue shower it was time for a dish of Pad Thai in the open air restaurant that adjoins the hotel.   I washed the meal down with a large Singha and contemplated my homework spread out on the table before me.  Of the seventy or eighty brochures in the hotel’s ‘things to do rack’ five advertised  cooking classes.  No doubt there are others, but several of these looked interesting.  I can always take another one later.  

I narrowed my selection down to two of them.  The winner was the one that threw in an apron if I took the class for two days.  I’m a sucker for aprons.

After my meal I asked the hotel to make reservations and today I am off for the first of three days of classes (9 til 3) at Oriental Cuisine, Thai cooking School.  It is recommended by Trip Advisor, no less.  (www.cookingschoolchiangmai.com) 

Anyone, let me know if there is a particular dish(es) want me to learn how to prepare for you.