My first day in Thailand I woke up at around 7am. I'm here at the guest house with a girl named Rachel, a fellow AJWS volunteer from Palm Desert. Rachel and I met up at the airport in LAX because we had the same flight all the way to Chiang Mai. The Green Tulip Guest House came well recommended and is really a cute place. Very clean with a very nice English speaking staff who are eager to help you, feed you and show you where to go.
After breakfast, Rachel and I sent out on a walking tour of some wats (temples) recommended by Lonely Planet. Entering a wat is similar to entering a Catholic church somewhere in Europe - as you walk in, you're struck by the ornate beauty, gold everywhere and pious people (in this case, monks) going about their daily routine as if you and the 20 other tourists didn't exist. One very interesting thing, and something I've actually quite enjoyed, is that you take your shoes off and leave them along the stairs leading up to the wat. This is true in many places you go - our guest house for example is "shoeless." I like it because I don't think that we would ever do that at home (in fact, I know we wouldn't). People would be too worried about others stealing their shoes! And admittedly, that was my first reaction, "but what if someone takes my flip flops?!" but I quickly accepted that it was unlikely to happen...no one wants my worn, rubber sandals.
We continued walking and very quickly lost our way. Street signs here are unusual to come by and, as we soon discovered,
perpendicular to the streets, not parallel. But we had nowhere to be and figured we couldn't wander too far so we just kept walking. For lunch we stopped at a little corner restaurant. I love it because all the shops and restaurants are open air, with just roofs and retractable garagedoor-like walls to close up at night. The menu had English on it, so we at least knew which meat we were ordering! We both ordered a curry dish upon being assured it would not be spicy (he let us taste it first because we didn't believe him). We were enjoying our food and quietly celebrating our first meal in Thailand, when I noticed something suspicious in my bowl. At first I thought it was a little pebble...then I noticed that this little pebble had wings! And, not only did it have wings, but it also had six little legs - three of which were floating around, unattached, in my curry. Using my chopstick skills, I fished out the dead little fly and his three other legs, placing them on a plate beside me. Rachel and I could not stop laughing and to be honest, I ate most of the rest of the curry! Oh well...
Feeling full and aching from our long plane ride, we decided to treat ourselves to a Thai massage. We had heard about the skilled women at the Chiang Mai Women's Correctional Facility who give massages as part of their rehabilitation program, so we decided to head over in that direction. As we approached the prison I turned to Rachel, "So what do you think they are in prison for?" She didn't have an answer, neither did I. The prison was very nice. It had a little cafe outside, which the women ran and it was surrounded by palm trees and greenery. We followed the "massage ->" signs and walked up to a dark cement building. A young couple were exiting the building outside, choosing their shoes from amongst the pile. "It's very nice" they assured us in Irish accents. We were escorted into a small, air-conditioned room with about five thick mats lined up in a row. There were several masseuses working on people who were wearing what looked like lime green and teal hospital scrubs. A lady took us into a little changing room in the back, gave us each a pair of the fashionable scrubs and showed us where the lockers were. After changing we went back out into the main room.
Now, usually when I have gotten massages in the past, I've spent about 15 minutes filling out consent forms and health forms, specifying my experience with massage, medical history and various aches and pains. Not this time. I laid down on a mat next to Rachel's mat and the lady began massaging and stretching my legs. Thai massage is very difference than say a Swedish massage. They stretch you in various ways and work a lot with their forearms and elbows. They incorporate their own bodies into the massage. At one point I found myself being flung backwards from a sitting position onto the masseuses belly so that I was actually laying on top of her...it was very bizarre but I enjoyed it.
After the hour massage, we paid (less than $6!) and started off to find our shoes, which we soon discovered were covered in water because it was now raining harder than I've ever seen in my life! We decided to wait it out until it let up a bit, but it became clear that it was not going to stop, so we decided to walk. Rachel had a compact umbrella in bag so we huddled under that and tried to quickly walk to the next main street to find a songtow (taxi-
bus vehicles in which you hop in the covered but open back with other passengers - I found this picture to the right online) and after several minutes we finally found one. We climbed in and watched out the back as people maneuvered through the streets, which had turned into rivers at this point. Looking out the back of the songtow I felt like we were in a boat, the water was about two feet high at some points! When we got back to the guest house I was completely soaked - my hair, my shirt, even through to my secret passport/money necklace. We had plans to go to the nightmarket, but could barely step outside because of the rain. It rained all night, but when I woke up this morning, it was beautiful :)
