Back in Phuket

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After the past 4 days I was really looking forward to go back to my palace, the C&N hotel in Phuket (I even dreamt about it).

Every muscle in my body was aching! It was time to try the famous Thai massage!

The hotel had a massage parlour as part of the hotel services, so I decided to pay it a visit and it turned out they do much more than just a Thai massage, the do all sorts. Check it out:

I didn't hide the prices on purpose, I'm afraid the photo was too bright but I can tell you the Thai massage was 200 Bath,  which is something like 4-5 euros...for 1 hour. I didn't need to think about it, I stepped in and asked for a Traditional Thai Massage.

First they washed my feet and then for my horror they told me to put these on:

Wearing these ridiculous lilliput shoes didn't inspire me much confidence on the place, nobody can take you seriously wearing those! and half of my feet were on the floor anyway! but as they say, when in Rome...

From there they took me to another room where things got worse...I thought I had touched bottom with the slippers but no...the best was still to come.

A shirt and a fat man's pants. My whole body could fit in one of those legs, you can't really appreciate how big they are on this photo. Imagine my surprise when they tell me I have to put that on!! I was starting to consider whether the massage was really worth going through all this traumatic experience but once you are commited you are commited so I decided to humor them, put the fat man's pants on and close my eyes with the hope they don't ask me to have a weird haircut before the massage or get the masseuse's name tattooed on my forehead...at this point anything was possible!

I have heard that the Thai massage may be quite painful and judging by the screaming coming from the room next door I was bracing myself for the worst. I am not sure whether it was because all my muscles were already in pain or what but I didn't feel any pain. When I came out from the massage I was feeling like someone had just beaten the crap out of meand wondering whether having the Thai massage was a big mistake but I must admit the following day I was feeling dandy. :-)

I'm not sure about the screamer next door but if the pain he was in had any relationship with the amount of screaming he was delighting us with had I been him I would seriously reconsider getting a thai massage ever again.

Another thing that is worth trying in Thailand is the cinema. Yes, it is quite an experience. Check this out

Have a look at the last one. For 400 bath ( about 8-10 euros) you get a sofa for up to 2 people. A SOFA!!!
There is a cheaper option of a reclinable chair for 140 Bath (3-4 euros) but what's that in comparison with having your own sofa... .

As in other countries like India, just before the movie, they play the national anthem so everyone stands up and so should you before  going back to the confort of your sofa. :-)

Another interesting thing I found in Thailand is that I thought Australia had the funniest road signs in the world...well, brace yourself. This is a real thai road sign, I kid you not!

One at the beginning of the street and another at the end... during the day the street didn't look too bad but I'm guessing at night it's a completely different story...

Another interesting business in Thailand is the sale of dvds with the latest blockbusters. As you can imagine everything is pirated they all have like a little shop like below

So if you are interested on anything they have, you let them know so they take you to another nearby building and you get into a room full of dvds, anything you can think of is there, literally thousands of them and it's one of those rooms you can only open from inside and it's locked from the outside. You can take you time, choose what you want and when you're ready haggle a little with the guy and pay him there in the little secret room so nobody from the outside can see what you bought or what you paid. They even put the dvds on a black plastic bag so you can't see what the content is. Current prices are about 60 bath per dvd which is about 1-2 euros although it all depends on your negotiation skills and the amount of dvds you buy.

I remember in Cambodia they used to be more direct, no secret rooms or any other nonsense. You would step into a proper shop with air con and all the dvds on display if you saw something you liked, you just paid for it and that was it.

Some more photos from Phuket
during the day

At night, there was always some show of some kind going on

And this was a pretty good thai restaurant that was just in front of the hotel. It was always full with locals and foreigners, and the food was pretty good.

It was pretty relaxing but as all good things in life, they all come to and end at some point. After Phuket it was time to go back home but that's another post for another day
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