Prison massage and Doi Suthep

One of the guys (Brian) put a message on facebook saying he was going to be in Chiang Mai if anyone cared to join him. This was music to my ears as i was bored stiff in my little town so for the second weekend in a row i went to Chiang Mai. This time i was going to attempt it on my own, emboldened from having been there with someone who knew what to do. Unfortunately i found out that there is no transport after 4pm to CM so that ruled out going Friday evening. This offered the thrilling prospect of getting up for the bus on Saturday morning for either 6, 7, 8, or 9am. Great...... So i manage this (barely) and step outside of my room into a cool blanket of fog. As i walk towards the main st to hail down the passing bus, several people walk by me. We all looked at each other the other person was crazy. This is mainly because im in a Tshirt and shorts and they are all wrapped up as if its below zero! The fog was already starting to burn off even at 7am so i was damned if i was goin to wrap up for the sake of a half hour. And lo and behold within an hour i was sweating away on the bus on my way to CM! Thai people have no tolerance for cold as they so rarely experience it so i think the 'cold' season is going to be a disappointment to me. I may at some point need a jumper....maybe.... and all the thai people will be wearing layers.

Anyway by the time i reach CM its a bloody scorcher. I book into a hostel and meet up with Brian and Nancy. They announce we are going for a thai massage in a women's prison. Now i had been looking forward to my first thai massage but i hadnt thought it would be in a prison. I went along anyway and was pleasantly surprised. We arrived in and asked for a full thai massage. We were then handed a set of 'one size fits all' trouosers and shirt and told to change. we store our gear in lockers provided and head to the massage room. We are asked to lie down on a mattress on the ground ( with a cup of green tea to relax us) and the massage begins. Now for those of you oblivious to what a thai massage entails (as i was going in) it is basically all the muscles in your legs, arms, neck, shoulders and back getting stretched and massaged by your masseuse who uses her hands, forearms, elbows and knees. you get manipulated into all sorts of weird shapes and stretches and you get very close to your masseuse in an entirely non sexual way. When she is using her elbow to cut the blood flow from the main artery in your leg (basically where your groin meets your upper leg) then you see there is nothing sexual involved! They stop the blood flow before working on your limbs which i asume makes the massage easier or better. feels weird though. Anyway i'll leave some of the rest as a surprise ( It certainly was to me) but suffice to say we were all happy with our decision afterwards. We were all alongside each other and mine was the first to start so the other two got a sneak preview of each part before it happened to them. We all had a good laugh though. we got some lunch afterwards and headed for Dio Suthep!

Doi Suthep is a mountain next to CM and is a popular tourist attraction. We got a songthaew to the top and visited the wat there. To do this you must climb the stair of 300 steps. We had a wander around and looked at the various Buddha statues and temples but the best bit is the view. You can see right down over CM and it was a truly impressive sight. A cloudless day meant it was untarnished as well. After this we tried to figure out what to do next. An enterprising songthaew driver spotted our indecision and approached us with a map. We decided to head to a waterfall before returning to the city. This a beautiful sight and a good way to wind the day down. We began climbing the various levels of it (there are 8 and we saw 3) before we got tired and returned to our waiting songthaew. we were disappointed we didnt have swimming gear as it looked like a nice cold shower!

After returning to CM and freshening up we met Cindy for dinner. The menu was a great source of entertainment as their spelling and phrasing was dodgy at best. On a placard outside it stated “It Foods, Taste Great!!”. No idea what they were looking to try with this statement but we thought it was hilarious. Anyway the food was good and the staff were friendly so all in all was a nice meal. After this we made our way to the “walking street’ or night bazaar. This is a closed off road where you can buy whatever you want. It was at least a mile long and we spent a lot of time there (along with a bit of money). I spent the most on a few presents and bits and pieces for myself and still spent less than 1000 baht or 20 euros. So while it felt like a lot at the time it really wasn’t. That’s the thing about Thailand, I’m getting used to the money and spending large amounts of it feels strange but when I convert it back it really isn’t that much. Anyway after a pleasant evenings shopping we head back to our hostels to offload our gear and meet up with Pez for some drinks. He introduces us to a workmate of his and pretty soon we are whisked away to Mandalay nightclub. In here we get some drinks and by drinks I mean a bottle of whiskey and some mixers. After the second bottle my memory gets a little hazy although I do remember being in the bathroom at one point and there was attendants there to massage your shoulders… The next day I bus it back to Li for another week’s work…