Foot Massage

Our last day in Phuket was quiet and relatively uneventful. Moving slowly as not to aggravate our sunburns, we were out of the hotel by noon. We planned to fly to our final destination of Chaing Mai from Phuket since it would have been a two day trip by train. Our ride to the airport wasn't scheduled to arrive till 5:00 pm, so we had a few hours left for last minute sightseeing.

We started the afternoon being a little adventurous and decided to try our luck at true local cuisine. We found a little place that had a long table paralleling the sidewalk with several large pots of unidentifiable items cooking inside them. The lady tending the table knew no English, but pointed at the pots as if we were supposed to figure out the contents by the number of wags her finger made over each pot. After giving us a good looking over, she pointed at two different pots and then pointed at each of us as if to say "You take this one and you take this one". We just smiled and nodded in agreement.
We found our way to a little table and in a moment we were served two plates of rice and two bowls with the contents of the pots she had recommended. We identified our respective dish and started eating.
As we were wrapping up our meal some local workers came in to eat and it was by watching them that we discovered what we should have done. They also were given large bowls of different items, but they ate 'family style'. Each scooped what they wanted out of the different bowls. Oh well, whatever it was we enjoyed it.

Our next stop for the day was the spa. We planned to take Thai Massage classes once in Chiang Mai, but neither of us had really ever had a real Thai massage. We thought it would be good to know what we were getting into. Here in Thailand there are more massage parlors than gas stations and churches combined back home. Literally every block has at least one and sometimes two or three. A full body massage here averages about $10-$12 an hour, and a foot massage is even less. We opted for just a foot massage.

The setting was serene and calming with soft music, and the two lady therapists seemed friendly and professional. One thing to note for those not familiar with Thai Massage Therapists, they are first cousins to Chiropractors. They do great work and can often do miracles, but they get there through pain and torture. The youngest of the two therapists would pull, push and crack something in my foot and then laugh as I would writhe in pain. The more I groaned the harder she pushed and the deeper she laughed. She twisted, yanked and pried and with every little whimper she became more tickled. As my feet turned numb and were no longer any fun to work on, she decided to abandon them and work her way up. Next thing I knew she was twisting my arms over my head and cracking my back. This was the oddest foot massage ever. When the hour was up we paid the bill and went back to the hotel. We still had time left before our ride to the airport so I curled up on a bench to try and recover.