Thai cooking and massage

Today, we took a half-day Thai cooking class. The session began with
an introduction to Thai ingredients and produce at the local market.
We then proceeded to make a few dishes: coconut tofu soup with
lemongrass and kefir lime, hot and sour soup with shrimp, pad Thai,
then green and red curry pastes to make two curry dishes. We were
quite amazed at how simple the dishes become if you have the right
ingedients--pad Thai, for example, was remarkably quick and easy.
And, everything tasted great. We look forward to hitting our local
Ranch 99 market when we return to try sone of these dishes at home.

In the afternoon, we treated ourselves to Thai massage. Michael, who
doesn't normally appreciate any type of spa experience, opted for a
Thai foot massage. I went for a traditional Thai body massage, which
was unlike anything I've experienced before. I was pushed, pummeled,
slapped and squished into positions I didn't think were possible. Even
with a base level of flexibilty from many years of yoga, I was still
stretched and pulled to extremes. The massage therapist ended up using
all parts of her body in the process. It was definitely an active
experience for me and very much a collaborative experience with the
therapist. I left feeling invigorated, although there may be bruises.
Something to be experienced, for sure, although my next Thai massage
may be what the call "oil massage," or more traditional Western variety.