Thai Massage in Thailand. Worth the trip!

Day Three and I still heart Thailand. Sarah and I have talked about it and I do realize that some of our immediate "We LOVE this place!" feeling about it is probably due to the extremes of having come here straight from India. To go from chaos to order, filth to cleanliness, tension to relative calm in such a short time is bound to bring on an extreme reaction. I mean, it's just so EASY (read: relaxing) to travel here as opposed to India. But that isn't the only reason I love it. I really, truly do love its vibe, its people, its food, its charms. And, as of this evening, I really, really love its massage.

As about 95% of the population is Buddhist, you can't come to Thailand without visiting some of its temples. We didn't try to resist. We started off at Wat Pho Temple, the one that holds the dual distinctions of containing both the largest number of Buddhas in Thailand as well as housing the largest reclining Buddha in the world. It's actually a complex of numerous temples spanning about 20 acres and we spent a couple hours meandering in and out of most of them. Lots of gold, lots of glitter, lots of tile, lots of incredibly ornate (almost overwhelmingly so) buildings. The most famous of all of its offerings, though, is the enormous (over 150 feet long) reclining Buddha, which represents Buddha passing into Nirvana.

We took a ferry to the other side of the river and checked out Wat Arun Temple, which is much less blingy, but is impressive in other ways. It has a huge center pagoda that you can climb, if you dare to tackle the super steep steps. We did and it was totally worth it as it provided very cool views of the city below and across the river.

The little place where you catch the ferry is an oddly constructed little string of wooden shops and restaurants which are built right over the water. But for whatever reason, they were built at a level where, at certain times of the day depending on the river levels, the floors are all submerged in up to a foot or more of water. You walk on a central plank walkway and look at the shops on either side. Some of them have built floors high enough to be above the water but others haven't, and the shopkeepers just sit there in the ebbing and flowing water all day. If you wan't to look at something, you point it out and they go get it and bring it to you. When we were coming back, the water was down a bit so I waded into one of the shops myself. Odd, but cool.

And then, as the clincher to an already lovely day, we went for.... you guessed it.... Thai massages! To come to Thailand and not get a Thai massage would almost be criminal. Again, we didn't even try to resist. Turns out that Thai massage is not your mother's massage. I'm used to western massages, soft and gentle and relaxing. Not the case here. There were actual moments of wincing involved in this massage. There were also moments of bending and pulling, pushing and twisting, kneading, pinching, prodding, digging, rubbing, cracking, stretching and grinding. And yet, at the end of it all, I felt like a new person, like every single muscle in my body had been worked. Perhaps even a few of the ones I didn't want worked. We're totally doing it again!

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P.S. Check out the flavor of the Pringles on the right. If anyone is daring enough to try them, I'll carry them home for you... but you would HAVE to promise to eat them.