Home time today, but first a trip to the market before heading off to the airport.

Buddhist Offerings and Blessings.

Nan Sausage – it was pretty tasty. We had it a couple of time in our meals.

Pork crackle.

Bye bye Nan. Back Row – Zoom, Mary, Madge, Kirsty, Romney, Ghislaine, Me, Gerard, Melanie. Front Row – Julie, Ma’am, Duang, Khun Tai, Khun Tae, Gillian, Kylie and Sally

Well, today was a big day! Starting with a visit to a temple to check out the view. Then we headed off to have our lunch at a permaculture farm. Everything we ate was from the farm. This was the highlight of our trip. Such a fun and interesting last day.

We finished off the day with a magnificent spread for our last night dinner. We even participated in a bit of Thai dancing.

This was the Buddha this year, under renovation. The gold picture was taken last year so this is what it will look like when the restorations are complete.

This was just on the side of the road. I snapped it from the van as we drove past.

We arrived at the farm and we were welcomed by these young musicians. They serenaded us into the farm.

Purple Butterfly Pea Flower iced tea – Delicious!

Everyone got involved in the cooking for our lunch. We also heard all about the farm and their philosophies.

If you add citrus to the iced tea it turns it purple!

Making the fish patty filling to be steamed in a banana leaf. The fish were caught that morning from the dam.

Foraging we go!

Dragon fruit freshly picked from the tree. It takes two years for the fruit to mature on the tree. We felt very privileged that we got to eat these.

Cheers!

They gave me a sneaky little taste of the Pad Thai before lunch. I wanted to share with others but they said just for me!!

Lunch was many dishes – Okra, fish in banana leaf, ?? and jackfruit.

Sticky rice and Nam Prik with morning glory.

Fresh fruit – Custard apple, mangosteen, rambutan, cantaloupe and the freshly picked dragon fruit.

Today started with a cooking class. We made Khao Soi and Sticky Rice with Mangoes! Khao Soi is very similar to a laksa but you serve it with condiments. It was all very delicious.

Three different colours of sticky rice. Purple, coloured with butterfly pea flowers. Green, coloured with pandan leaves. And white!

The condiments for Khao Soi – shallots, lime, fried chillis, coriander and spring onion, and pickled mustard greens. The pickled mustard greens are very traditional with Khao Soi and helps cut through the richness of the coconut milk based soup.

This was a fern tip salad.

Fried crispy noodles are another essential condiment with Khao Soi,

After the cooking class and our magnificent lunch we went to Duang’s family home. It is over 100 years old and is a traditional teak building. It is also covered by the equivalent of our National Trust heritage overlays. In front of this building is a concrete building that used to be a shopfront.

Duang’s family photos are also included under the heritage overlay and must not be removed.

The concrete decoration at the entrance – how did they do that over 100 years ago?

Duang’s beautiful open air kitchen.

Rabbit shaped coconut graters.

The kitchen sink!

Off to a temple! This is Nan’s most famous “wat”. It was constructed in 1596.This is the Temple that houses the original iconic Nan wall painting ‘Whisper of Love’ (ภาพกระซิบรักบันลือโลก) well known as Pu Man Ya Man (ปู่ม่านย่าม่าน), in Thai translation is Grandpa Man and Grandma Man. It is a depiction of a man whispering to the ear of a woman. According to local tradition, a man must have tattoos from his belly down to his knees. On his chest, there are red tattoos of a human figure used to show his prestige and social power. Because, the more human figures he has, it means the more servants and slaves he owns. This iconic painting is a resounding symbol of Nan City. And, The artist of the wall painting is Nanbuaphan (หนานบัวผัน).

The whispering lovers.

Because we have to have a photo of a fire truck!

Some candles burning outside a temple. In the open on a very hot day!!

Walking around town.

Then off to a market.

Pork Crackle – Yum!

Grubs -Yuk

Dinner was at a historic home that is now a museum. The Noble House is the home of Chao Fong Kham, whose lineage of Chao Ananta Worarithidet, the 62nd ruler of Nan.  The Noble House is over 200 years old. It made from teak wood and high basement like  ancient Lanna style .The upper floor is a residence and local museums .Showing the way of life in the past and Valuable ancient items such as silverware and woven fabrics, etc. In addition, it is a living local museum which is part of the conservation of the cultural heritage of the Nan people such as local  weaving.

A very refreshing purple butterfly pea drink on arrival.

All the food is cook in this outdoor kitchen.

Live entertainment.

Fishcake stuffed egg shells – Don’t eat the shells Gerard!

Fishpaste cooked in banana leaf.

Pork Curry with Sticky Rice.

Banana donuts.

Our farewell entertainment.

Today the Sport and Tourism Minister spent 2 days in Nan with a large delegation. They stayed at our Resort and wanted to speak with us Aussies. There were lots of photographers so I am guessing we ended up in the newspaper!

Big trip today up north to see the worlds only salt well in the mountains. It has been there for over 800 years and control of the salt well has been the cause of many wars over the centuries.

Instagramable photo opportunity at our coffee stop on our way up North!

The views were amazing from the coffee shop. As usual the photos do not do it justice.

This is a very famous road in Nan. It is called “Curvey Road Number 3”. Many Thai tourists come just to seen this road and don’t go any further. There were, what I guess would be, lots of influencers coming here with photographers.

I think this was an accommodation place along the way. Fabulous roof structures.

Lunch time! More food! This time though we managed to find a bottle of Australian Jacobs Creek Rose!

Lunch was a prawn salad, a mushroom stir-fry, pork ribs in broth, green fish curry, fried pork shoulder. Not many kitchens here have ovens so most things are deep fried. Most food here is served cold or at room temperature.

Handwash basin.

Dessert was pick your own banana!

Salt drying in the sun.

The 800 year old salt well. It is Buddhist lent at the moment. This lasts for 3 months and no salt is taken out of the wells and this time.

There are vendors all around the salt well selling salt!

The heavily salted water is pulled up from the well and put over heat to evaporate the water leaving the salt behind which then needs to be dried.

There were quite a few landslides along the road and a fair bit of road damaged due to all the heavy rains and flooding they have had. The scenery along the way was quite spectacular. They farm very steep slopes.

Then it was off to dinner to another riverside restaurant where we could see more dragon boats practicing.

Even in the pouring rain!

Khun Tai, Khun Tae and Ma’am. Khun Tae owns the hotel and the resort and Khun Tai is her twin sister who was visitng from Bangkok. Ma’am was our tour guide and clothes shopping helper extoadanaire!

Duang, Gillian, Romney, Mel.

This was a chicken and cashew dish, bit of Chinese influence in this one, and a Nan Sausage. I really enjoyed the Nan sausage, lots of lemongrass in it.

We started with a cooking class today, making small ramekins out of banana leaves. Today we are making Haw Mok. A fish red curry cooked in a banana leaf bowl. We are also making Mushroom Larb and Gaeng Som – sour curry. we used Green Pawpaw as our vegetable in this.

The breakfast buffet has the smallest cutest bananas I have ever seen!

A spider came to watch!

Cutting the green paw paw into chunks.

This is our view from our class.

Our finished feast.

Then some of us went for a walk to the next village.

This is purple butterfly pea drying in the sun. I have seen it used in desserts and iced drinks.

An egg delivery. No cartons, just trays and trays of eggs on the back of a ute.

A very large snail.

I snapped this image from the van on the way to our restaurant for dinner.

Krua P. Pla for diinner. Krua meaning Kitchen and Pla meaning Fish.

Pineapple for dessert cut in a very cute and practical way. Unfortunately no photos of dinner tonight.

After Breakfast we went to on of the local primary schools to present them with our donations. They lost everything in the floods. It was the school that the resort owner and her children went to. We were very happy to be able to help a little whilst we were here. We still have not been able to get to see Duang’s house – it is damaged from all the flooding and needs some repairs so unfortunately we wont be doing any cooking classes there. Also food is in short supply as many of the market stall holders are busy cleaning up their houses. Duang is having to improvise, however we certainly do not feel like we are suffering or disadvantaged in any way! We feel that we have been eating like Kings whilst the rest of the town is working very hard to clean everything up. Then we went on to Duang’s Nephew’s coffee shop called Huan Hung Tor for a coffee and Gerard even managed to find carrot cake!

Out the front of the school.

The clean up now that the water has subsided after 6 days.

Not very adventurous Gerard.

Not many cake cabinets like this in Thailand.

This tree was growing in the middle of the coffee shop.

Next up it was off to a herbal remedies co-op in a village. We soaked our feet in herbal salts and then had a tumeric poultice placed on our knees for 30 minutes.

Bit of a shame it had to be wrapped in plastic. We ended up with very yellow knees but it must have been good for us! The whole experience was lovely!

Lunch was enjoyed at Bo Suak. Fish Chili Paste with vegies, Basil omelet (these were yummy), Spicey Chicken Soup, and a pile of fresh Mangosteens!

Off now to a weaving co-op – such fine work. It takes about a week to finish one piece. They were selling for around AU$100.00. I purchased this piece and met the maker. You will see me wearing it as a skirt next winter!

Dinner was at a restaurant on the Riverside that had just re-opened after the floods. We could watch the Dragon Boats practicing for a big event held next month.

They practice in the dark and the rain. There are 200 Dragon Boat Teams in Nan so they all need to get their practice in.

Among many dishes we had there were prawn cakes and calamari.

This morning we had a cooking class – Red Curry Paste with which we made a curry for our lunch!

Tofu Thai Red Curry

This was a very pretty and delicious dessert – rice balls including mango, black sesame and some pickled ginger in a beautiful sweet ginger syrup.

The afternoon was spent at the Nan Identity Hall Museum, showcasing the unique history of the different ethnic groups that make up the Nan Provence.

Dinner was at a Restaurant called Every Day Feel Good – Deetorjai.

Big day today starting with a Thai massage – a bit painful for my liking. Time for a quick swim then lunch before we head out in the vans.

Lunch was do DIY noddle bowls with a choice of condiments, pork mince and pork balls made from pork and rice flour.

Off we went after lunch, north again to a batik cloth making place for us to have a go at stamping some Batik cloth.

Next on to our dinner spot – quite an experience! We were taken in by tractor, walked over a very rickety handmade bridge, patted a water buffalo and then sat down to do some tie dying before eating our woodfired pizza surrounded by the rice fields!

Ten Minutes by Tractor!