Sawadee kap from a sunny Chiang Mai, Thailand. We opted to fly from Luang Prabang in the end due to illness and also to save time. We were going to get the boat which takes 3 days but the 1 hour flight sounded like the better option. The flight was pretty interesting; it was a much smaller plane than we're used to. It had propellers and each row consisted of only 4 seats, 2 either side of the aisle. Funnily enough it took longer to get through passport control in Thailand than the flight time. After 2 hours of queuing we finally made it through and managed to jump in a tuk-tuk to the city.

Seeing as from past experience you can get a pretty good deal by just turning up to the place you are going to stay without booking, we thought we would do the same for Chiang Mai. However after getting dropped off we soon realised that Chiang Mai is very popular at this time of year and many places were full. We struck lucky, getting a room at Junior Guesthouse. So far we've been really happy with it: great location, the staff are extremely friendly and always greet and call us by our first names. The food here is really tasty and cheap too. We got a double room with en suite, hot shower, wifi and cable TV for 400 baht (£8) a night. Chiang Mai itself is really nice. It's a lot less crazy in comparison to Bangkok. The people here are all really friendly and go out of their way to try to help you out.

Today we got picked up at 8.30a.m. and headed off on a 1 day Thai cooking class. We opted to go with a company called Thai Farm Cooking School after hearing really good things about them from a few people we met on our street food tour in Hanoi. Our teacher for the day was called Benny. Once we had collected everyone from their hotels/hostels (10 people in total) we drove to a local food market. Here Benny showed us all of the different ingredients we would be using in our dishes and explained them in more detail.

Before we set off to the cooking school we had a wander around the market and came across a stall selling cooked insects and bugs. As Max was eager to try some he bought a pick and mix bag of a variety of deep fried critters. These included Bamboo Worm, Silk Worm, Mole Cricket, Water Bug and the biggest - the Grasshopper. Steph decided that they weren't for her so Max got stuck into trying them all. They were all very crunchy yet seasoned very nicely. The Bamboo Worm tasted the nicest, almost like eating a crisp. The Grasshopper was definitely the weirdest, perhaps as it was so big and so made a lot louder crunch as you bit into it.

We arrived at the cooking school which was really nice as it was out the hustle and bustle of the city and on a farm. Benny showed us around the farm, again showing us the ingredients we would be using. We could taste and smell them fresh out of the ground and off of the trees. Before the tour we picked 5 different dishes to make throughout the day. We decided to pick different dishes so that we would know how to make more between us both.

Max picked: Thai Green Curry, Tom Yam Shrimp Soup, Stir Fried Chicken with Cashew nuts, Spring Rolls and Mango with Sticky Rice.

Steph picked: Thai Yellow Curry, Chicken Coconut Milk Soup, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Pad Thai and Banana in Coconut milk.

It was great to learn how to make our own curry paste from scratch. All of the dishes were really exciting and interesting to make from fresh Thai ingredients. Benny made sure the class was fun and taught each recipe well. Probably the best part of the day was being able to eat your food after you cooked it. After the last dish we could hardly move! At the end of the day we were given cook books to take home with the recipes of the dishes we cooked on the day. We're excited to make them at home, although we might struggle to find the same ingredients!

Max and Steph x