Early September
After about our third day in Bangkok the shine was starting to wear off and the jet lag just wasn't going away. It's hard to make a baht in this city. Taxi and tuk tuk drivers are aggressive walking right up to you and tapping Jon on the arm asking him or us where we're going, if we need a ride, anything to get our attention. We haven't been to see many tourist sites. We just haven't really been in the mood. We've been doing a lot of walking around and looking - lots of looking. There's a lot of look at in Bangkok. Jon's been really pleased because he's been able to find linen shirts at really cheap prices very easily in Asia.
We were ready to leave the city and we both agreed that the beach was where we wanted to go and just chill out. I had really wanted to ride an elephant once we hit Thailand but the more I read about them the more I was turned off to the idea and the thought of heading to the mountains, even if was to go to an elephant refuge, which seemed easier on my conscious, was not sounding as appealing as the beach.
We could go by bus or plane. We had a hard time deciding where to go down south. We could go totally budget and take the bus for ten dollars but that would be ten to twelve hours and leaving at at six o'clock in the morning which wasn't sounding appealing at all.
We had spent most of the day at an internet caf้ researching and, afterwards decided to get a massage at a place nearby our guesthouse.
While we had been walking the streets of Bangkok I would, very frequently catch a whiff of Bengay which I thought was a little odd.
Until I went to get a massage.
The woman who gave me the massage used Tiger Balm which is the asian equivalent of Bengay back in the States.
I'd never had a Thai massage before and that little lady had me bending and lifting my legs every which way, at one point I was arched over her legs - back flip-style, my back streching and cracking. I was rubbed and stretched and massaged from head to toe. At one point Jon had come in to talk to me (there was only one person working at the time so Jon had to wait for me to finish before getting his massage) and the woman had me on my stomach, was standing on the backs on my legs just above the knee and pulling up on my ankles. My muscles have always been tight and since biking it's probably gotten worse since we're not so good at thoroughly stretching out at the end of the day- Jon's better about it than I am - so this gal really had her work cut out for her. She was only about as big as my mom - I could have picked her up, tucked her under my arm, checked her in as carry-on luggage and brought her home with me - but she is super strong - don't be fooled by her size.
The building space used for the massages was just an empty shell of the ground floor of a building, nothing special. It was clean with comfortable mats and pillows. In the store front was a row of computers for internet access to supplement the massage income. One thing about this place awas that it wasn't like massage studios back home. There was no creating of ambiance, no one was lighting candles, playing soothing music or using aromatherapy to create a calming relaxing mood.
What was going on around me at the time of my massage was some construction on an airconditioner about twenty feet away. The gal giving my massage took a cellphone call and simply put it on speaker phone - it all just kind of made me chuckle. The woman giving our massages was really nice and we'll go again before leaving Thailand.
The humidity here has been high. I feel like I am constantly sweating. The good side to this is that our skin is super soft and I can see why all the asian woman I see on TV have these perfect complections. Humidity is good for something I guess.
