Our Anniversary and Thai Massages

My DH and I got to celebrate our anniversary here in Thailand! Our day started when my sweet hubby served me breakfast in bed, our infamous healthy pancakes topped with fresh Thai fruits. Healthy and delicious!

Later that day we had Thai massages. My hubby’s parents were very gracious, and ordered the massages “to-go” I guess you could say? The masseuses came to the house and setup there for a two-hour couples massage session. (With Adam hanging out with his grandparents, hoorah!)

A two hour Thai couple’s massage session sounds both romantic and exotic, and while it was an interesting experience, and most definitely exotic, I don’t know that it was romantic, or my style massage…  It was far too painful to be romantic. I think I’m more of a Spa sort of person, lay the hot rocks on me and perhaps do a light oil massage. Thai massages, however, are intense!

We wore our own comfortable clothes, and the massages were given on the floor, as is traditional. They folded their hands and murmured a brief prayer (or perhaps blessing? I don’t speak Thai so I’m not positive which it was…) before beginning the massage. There are many components to a Thai massage, part is to get you stretched out, and I was told part of the objective is to assist in circulation to rejuvenate the body. Both parts were rather painful, but the assistance of circulation was the worst! The masseuse would lean on various parts of the body (generally in the vicinity of an artery) and apply firm pressure. Just as I was getting tingly numb and could feel the restricted blood flow throbbing, she would release the pressure and the blood flow would rush back into its various channels.

They started with the legs and worked their way up the body ending with the head, rotating the body as needed to reach all sides. The masseuse my husband got was a smaller, older woman, while I received a rather large younger woman. I recall upon several occasions when her full body was putting pressure on me, lamenting that I had been given the bigger girl. “Would it be rude to ask her to sit on my husband instead, in trade for the smaller woman to sit on me?” I thought. And no joke, she often sat on me - on her knees - with her full weight.

She also enjoyed quickly pulling and snapping my toes and fingers out. This practice was fairly successful on my toes, however she had difficulty and frequently no success popping my fingers out, which on numerous occasions resulted in my entire arm jerking downward. She told me in her thick accent that I had “Bad fingers” and sadly shook her head back and forth. I think I apologized for them, I can’t quite recall. As she dug her knee into the artery of my arm, she also told me that I wasn’t relaxing enough. This was true, I could have relaxed more, however, I felt certain that she would snap my limbs if I did, so I only released as far as was bearable. The scariest part was when she snapped my neck to the left and right. I was terrified she would snap my head right off! It was a painful and sore when she cracked my neck, and I think it was the main contributor to the headache I had for hours after the massage.  

Adam loves to be a part of everything we're doing, and he spent the first small portion of our massages with us. Here he is assisting in giving his daddy a hand massage. (Photo courtesy of grandma Na!)

Contrary to my painful experience, my husband loved the massage and said he wished he could get one on a weekly basis! However, he also lifts weights regularly and requires a deeper tissue massage to get his kinks out. Perhaps being sat on by a smaller woman helps too… I was told it’s something that you simply need to get used to, and that it gets better and more beneficial the more frequently you get one. Good to know, but definitely going to pass on that experience though! I was very appreciative to have experienced it once, glad that my husband enjoyed it immensely more than I did, and also thankful my kind in-laws brought them to the house and watched our little one for us so we could have some “us” time. Albeit painful “us” time… 

Nong Nooch Gardens, Thailand

On Wednesday, our first full day in Thailand, we went to the Nong Nooch Gardens. This is very much a tourist attraction, and there were many tour buses parked in the upper lot. (I think the majority of the tourists were Koreans) The entry price was crazy expensive by Thai means, 400 Baht per adult.  (about $13 in American currency).

We were there to see the gardens and cultural shows, however there was also an animal portion of the park we walked through. The mini zoo was terribly sad. The animals were generally in small pens, about twice the size of their own bodies, and all were on the concrete but one pen. (Not sure why this one animal was favored over the others… but it was the only one with a dirt floor…) There was also a cow in a pen. I didn’t realize that was considered interesting and unique enough to be a zoo animal, but there it was. Baby tigers were chained onto small platforms throughout, so one could sit next to them and “get a picture with a tiger”. I don’t have picture proof to show you because I didn’t want to support or encourage such a system, but the Asians were eating it up and paying the extra fee to get a picture with a tiger at the little stands.

There were lines of elephants, ready to be boarded with people for a stroll around the concrete exterior of the place. It rather reminded me of going to the county fair, where people line up to put their kids on the “pony ride”.  When their turn arrives they pay an inflated fee, then they sit their child on some poor pony that shuffles its way around in the same tired circle while they snap pictures of their child’s riveting and exhilarating adventure. Elephant rides are the adult version. You plop the adults onto a some poor, sad, highly decorated elephant, who shuffles around the same tired concrete circle he does all day long, all year around, and their friends on the ground oo and aw as they snap pictures of their friend’s grand adventure on an elephant. It’s a sad and pathetic scene really, but people were eating it up and to hear one talk afterward about how they “rode an elephant”, they say it as if they were Legolass surfing down the back of an out of control Oliphaunt and taking the wild beast down in order to save middle earth as we know it. However do not be fooled, they sat atop a beat down elephant and shuffled around a large concrete circle, like the children who sit on tired ponies and shuffle around the circle at the fair.

However the sad the animal portion was, the gardens and cultural show were a great improvement and a fun experience. Here is a sample of our day from there:  

This was part of the cultural show we enjoyed before touring the gardens/grounds. 

I believe this was an example of Thai kickboxing

Their traditional wear costumes were pretty. One could pose for pictures with them afterward if desired. 

A portion of the well kept gardens

A platform in the trees. These tree house type structures were spaced throughout the park.

This was a part of my view as I looked down from a platform in the trees

This structure was 5 or 6 stories tall (sorry, don't recall the exact number, but at least 5!) How neat is this tall, old tree?

Distant view of a city

It's a jungle out there

They had a large area of decorations made with pots, even large boats and cars one could sit in. 

I enjoyed the Orchid Room most, they smelled sweet and were lovely to photograph. 

More Thailand posts to come! When I have the time to sit down and put another something together... 

Arrival in... THAILAND!

Welcome to the land of Thai! Here's a brief post of our experience so far in Thailand!

Adam slept in the bassinet nearly the whole flight!

After a series of flights, (which weren’t bad, Adam slept all but one hour of the journey!) we landed in Bangkok and drove (on the LEFT side of the road) past the sugar cane and rubber tree fields to Ban Chang, where we plan to stay for the first week.

Thailand sounds fairly exotic, but for those who have never been, I think you can get an idea of it if you have ever been to Mexico just south of the border. I've been to various locations in Mexico several times and during my first day here I felt like I'd made a mistake and landed myself in Mexico, with a few exceptions of course.

When there is no more seat room,
you pile into the bed!

Similar to Mexico, you can easily tell it’s a third world country, and in-between the tropical trees are poor homes and shacks, some appearing to have dirt floors. Recycling is unheard of, and there seems to be a fair amount of trash around, a 180 from Italy, where every possible item is placed in the appropriate recycling receptacle. Here you see motorbikes stacked with people, often holding their tiny babies with one hand and holding something else or another person with the other hand. The beds of trucks are also packed with people. If there's a public restroom chances are high it's a "squatty potty" (you know, a hole in the ground you squat over), no one drinks the tap water (bottled water only!), and be careful if you choose to go for a run because there are packs of feral dogs that may chase you down. Also similar to Mexico, there are many street vendors and people with small hole-in-the-wall stalls selling delicious food.

However, unlike Mexico, the well-tanned people are Thai and not Hispanic, there’s a bit more of a jungle feel, the humidity is intense, and the fruits are amazing! Don’t let the third world description deter you, Thailand is a beautiful place and the people I have met have been very sweet, but it’s also good to keep those facts in mind before coming.

Money:

The currency in Thailand is called Baht. One American dollar is equivalent to 32 Baht. Most things here are a steal for an American. A very large coffee drink was just over a dollar, and everything else has been fairly cheap too. (Though sometimes it’s not always the best deal, you will get what you pay for…) The only places that are ridiculously inflated are tourist locations and some of the American shops at the malls. When we went to Nong Nooch Gardens, it was 400 Baht a person for entry.

Spirit Houses:
Most homes and businesses have “spirit houses”. Anywhere that land is being occupied, one is supposed to have a spirit house so that the spirits who occupied the land before you, have a place to go. The Buddhists will often place offerings of food, like fruit, onto the little doorsteps of the spirit homes as a food offering to them. I have often wondered what happens with the food, and I was told by my hubby's step-mom, a native Thai, that it is considered acceptable to pick it up and eat it for oneself after it has sat there for a few hours, or it can be tossed. My husband said that the neighborhood animals will get the food if they are left out and forgotten. 

A common setup of Spirit Homes in the yard. Each home has a set, 
decorated as the home owner desires in various themes and colors. 

Writing:
Here is an example of what Thai writing looks like. I think it's quite pretty with all its curls and loops. In many places there is English translated underneath it. It makes me feel very spoiled to be able to travel to foreign countries, like Italy and Thailand, and be able to get by so easily because English is like a second language everywhere we go.

นี่คือตัวอย่างของสิ่งที่เขียนภาษาไทยดูเหมือนเป็น

The King and Queen:

There is a King and Queen ruling over Thailand, and the people have a great respect for them, often calling them mother and father. Father’s and Mother’s Day is celebrated on their respective birthdays, and the towns have banners and large signs with their pictures on them as you enter. It is not a rule, but a gesture quite common of native Thai people, to have a portrait of the king and Queen in a prominent place in the household.

This is the Queen and King of Thailand, though at a much younger age.  The king has reigned since June  9, 1946, making him the longest reigning monarch currently in position in today's world. 

We had our first dinner in Thailand here, right on the beach.

Sunset on the beach

And finally, here is Adam getting a bath in a bucket like a true Thai child. 

That's all I have for this post, but I plan to write more soon! Until then...