Rolling With It

Wow.  I had a bad massage!  Didn't even know that was possible here. It was a temple massage, at the Wat that's at the end of my Soi.  I had one there last year and it was good.  Quite good.  My usual place was super busy with an hour wait, so I thought 'what the hey?'.  

I did notice that all the massage people looked super grumpy.  When it was my turn this big older woman barked at me to come along.  Turned out there were more mats in the back.  At first I was happy I wouldn't have to wait as long.  But once the massage started I became alarmed!

This woman seemed to have anger issues....very rare in a Thai.  Also, she didn't have good technique. And she was massively strong.  In other words, it hurt.  A lot.  Often.

I should have just said 'fuck it' and gotten up, but everytime I thought about it she'd do something good for my very sore muscles.  So it wasn't all bad.  Just 80% bad.  

Thai massage is rarely super quiet and private, the therapists often chat a bit or make comments.  This woman was actually yelling across the room while she was finishing up--meaning I was sitting up with her doing my shoulders so her big mouth was right next to my ear.  One last chance to wince.

The frosting on the cake?  When I paid her she actually said "No tip?".  No lady, no tip.

But now I'm sitting in my favorite open air restaurant, next to a big French family.  It's raining and I'm eating this incredibly good sour coconut milk soup.  I think it's called tom klah.  I'm typing as it cools down a bit, but the tastes I've had so far are making me very very happy.

So I'm putting a bunch of random photos into this post, just for the hell of it.

This is the team who just finished installing my dental implants.  They were taking photos of my teeth, so I whipped out my little camera and turned the tables on them!

Temple wreckage.  Do you suppose I could stick one of these in my suitcase (they're made of painted cement I think)?  It might be tricky explaining to the customs agent "No really, I didn't bust this off a temple, it was just laying there".

Samlor driver who gave me a ride to the old Chinese Wororos Market.  I sure would love to have one of these back home!

Accidental Meaning Dept.  I think this Buddha (or whatever) was just covered up to protect it during construction, but it put me in mind of some ancient mystery cult.  The Goddess who can not be seen.

Look at this tree.  Those temples to the right of it are not toys.  They are regular ol' full size temples.  That tree is massive.  It, and several like it, are at Wat Chedi Luang, one of the older Wats here.

I'll take this as a message for me tonight.  Bad massage?  Boo hoo.  

The soup was awesome!