At 1:15am this morning I woke up to see one of the receptionists hanging around the room with a torch. I could also hear Lauren's voice so I got up to see what was going on. It turned out that due to the torrential downpour outside, a leak had appeared at the edge of the ceiling and was dripping on Lauren very close to her head. The receptionist dude brought a bucket and then the leak spread so he brought a towel and another bucket, before leaving us to go back to sleep. Soon after the rain stopped and the leak dried up. Later on during the night I went to the toilet and saw multiple over wet patches and buckets. Clearly the leak over Lauren's bed wasn't the only one.
At 10am we got up and got ready, had breakfast and headed out to wander. We wandered past the Three Kings Monument, which I can offer no information about as there was none to see. I could probably google it but I'll leave that up to you if you're interested. It wasn't a particularly impressive monument. We then wandered to Wat Lam Chang, which was very decorative.
Next we crossed over to Wat Chiang Man/Mun, depending on which sign you read. There was two temple buildings on the one site and an impressive elephant decorated structure at the back. One (or maybe both) was/were built in 1296 AD. One of them was also particularly grand.
Next we stopped at a massage shop. It was about £5 for an hour long massage so that's what I opted for, whilst Lauren got a pedicure. We had heard from a girl the day before that Thai massages were painful/uncomfortable and you were forced into multiple different positions, and Lauren and I had been discussing how it probably wasn't particularly comfortable, so I asked for a back, shoulder and head massage. Instead what I received was a traumatic but memorable experience. The masseuse started off with my feet, so I told her I had asked for the back/shoulder/head massage. She said something in Thai which sounded like she understood so I lay back down. But she started kneeling on my feet and then basically crawled up my legs until she was kneeling on my back. What followed was an hour long massage that focused mainly on my back, using her whole weight, her forearms and (painfully) her elbows, with about ten minutes focused on my head. Additionally she pulled my arms into certain positions while sitting on my legs and stretched my back and shoulders and sides. Then she bent my legs up, and with one foot behind each knee, grabbed my feet and pulled my legs up, bending my toes and stretching my quads. She also pulled my arms behind me while pushing on my back with her legs while I was sitting up. It was an experience to say the least. The majority wasn't too painful, although some moments were, and I feel like I may ache tomorrow. At one point her phone rang and she answered it, holding her phone in one hand and massaging me with the other, which added to the whole experience in a way. It wasn't the massage I asked for but at least I got to try out a cultural aspect of Thailand...
After leaving the massage parlour we walked along the river that ran along side ruined sections of the old city walls. We walked past a fancy temple that had a large Buddha statue next to it. We reached a shopping centre and stopped for some icecream. Then we wandered back along a different route. It was very hot. We arrived back at the hostel sometime between 5 and half past and relaxed on our beds.
Around 7pm we went out to the food section of the night bazaar to get dinner. I had dumplings and chicken wings. Lauren had chicken satay, sweetcorn and potato. We sat for a while listening to the band play classics such as 'Celebration', 'Ladies Night' and 'Funky Town' before heading back around half 8, showering and packing, as tomorrow we leave Chiang Mai.
No comments:
Post a Comment