Today was great. It was sort of my last day as a pure tourist before I have to move into my apartment and start thinking more about school, and books, and learning, and stuff. I started the day right with a huge plate of self-proclaimed “sour sausage” scrambled with eggs and tomatoes. It was pretty delicious. I only got a few bites that were genuinely sour.

The big thing today I guess was that I worked up the courage to go and get a Thai massage. Not only have I never gotten a massage in Thailand, I have never had a professional message at all. And before you worry I steered clear of any “massage” places. There is a huge spectrum here that ranges between massage parlors that advertise with scantily clad women at the tinted doors to old blind men who perform massage inside Buddhist temple compounds. In my case, I went to a fairly middle ground. It was pretty nice really. The woman who massaged me was in her late fifties, yet stronger than I am. They had me put on traditional thin Thai pants and shirt as the woman got ready to do her thing. Thai massage is a little different from the spa type American thing (at least the one I imagine and have seen pictures of).

Here they are really going after your tension and problems with gusto. I was literally folded into a number of possess to induce stretching, popping, and cracking. A few times I giggled thinking about how the woman could, if she were so inclined, potentially snap, crackle, and pop me to death. While there are no pictures of this event, these pictures from the door are actuate.

After the massage, the women realized I could speak Thai and this turned into about an hour-long Q and A session. It was pretty fun, and overall, a great day.