After our very wet trip to the Grand Palace, we retired to Simon and Vera’s apartment and waited for the family to return from their pursuits of the day. As it was Georgina’s last day of school in Thailand, we wanted to go out to celebrate. We walked across the street and entered one of the DeVere’s favorite restaurants which served both English and Thai food. I cant remember exactly what each person ordered, but I had a wonderful chicken Satay…..
The reddish sauce on the right was peanut sauce and was really tasty and the clear sauce with onions on the left was HOTTTTTT!
Michael had Roti with green curry. The Roti is deep fried bread and was wonderful!!
We wanted a family photo so they decided to do the first one in their natural pose…..
….with cell phones in hand. But they finally acquiesced to a normal family picture….
After sharing a round of desserts, we left the restaurant and the men headed to a local mall to get a phone taken care of. Vera looked at me and said… “How about a foot massage?”, to which I happily agreed. I was expecting to get the type of massage that you get with a pedicure, except maybe a bit longer. Boy was I mistaken!!!
We were ushered to a darkened room containing 8 chairs and ottomans. A big difference from the US is that every one was quiet and restful. There was no gabbing back and forth between the customers or the masseurs.
My masseur brought a pail of warm soapy water and a small brush and proceeded to thoroughly cleaned my feet. He next wrapped both legs and feet in hot towels and told me to lay back in the chair and relax.
He put his hands together in a prayer-like attitude and then it began…… the foot and leg massage was a mixture between sweet relief and searing pain!!! I have since learned that tradition Thai massage is quite vigorous……wish I had known that before I said yes!!!
At one point he used a chop-stick looking instrument to push on the pressure points of my feet. Ah the exquisite pain!!
After about 20 minutes he re-wrapped my feet and legs in towels and disappeared causing me to assume that we were done. I murmured something to Vera and she said that there was still more to come!!!!
The masseur came back with a small pillow that he put on the chair handle and used it to cushion my arm and shoulder as he prodded, kneaded and relaxed my muscles. Then he moved up to the shoulders and top of my head. Next, out came a small stool for me to sit on and lean over into the big chair so that my back could be massaged.
SO…..my FOOT massage lasted about an hour, covered from head to toe and was completed with the drinking of a cup of green tea. And all for a price of 250 Baht (about $9.00).
We returned to the apartment and spent a few hours talking and enjoying each other’s company. We really appreciated Simon and Vera taking the time to host us as their posting is over and they are returning to Australia in about a week. As a matter of fact, the movers are coming in on Monday to start packing!! Now, those are good friends!!!!
