massages in bangkok run from sublime to supremely painful. price does not affect which end of the spectrum your experience will fall into.

our friday night massages were fantastic. for the price (200 baht per hour...app $5us) you can't expect massage tables, so we told the masseurs to go easy on our backs and just focus on feet, legs and arms. they obeyed our instructions fabulously. when i was laying down, my masseur placed her knees on my feet and ground them around....it was dee-vine.

last night poor mc didn't have such a great experience...he almost faked a charley horse just to get out of there.

we had a good night though, we went to the night market and browsed around. the number of knockoff dvd stalls has increased 2000 per cent since i was last at that market in 2002. (magcharles actually visited that market in 1990..but claims there were no booming beta stalls there. let's believe him.) at one point, mc and i were at one of those tables and i felt something land on my foot.

oh crap a rat! i thought.

and for some reason, i did not scream, or shake my foot...instead i looked down and almost melted with relief when i realised it was only a kitten. if looks had anything to do with it, a direct descendant from the heavily male cat insolently grooming himself a few stalls down.

after the night market we wanted to hit the silom district. Although there is a night market in silom/patpong, the quality of goods tends not to be as high in this area, and we were pretty shopped out. our taxi driver thought we said patpong, which is where the live action shows are. nothing like getting an eyeful while just watching the doors open and close!

mc and i still had indian and a massage on the agenda so we didn't want to get too caught up. instead, we were looking for a nike shop, so mc could get a running singlet. i had seen a very cute size small one in hong kong, "how's my running? call 1-800-run-nike" and wanted to get it for him in his size.

we didn't find it, but we did find several suitable ones. then it was time to hit boots to get charles' beloved KING OF SHAVES products.

by the time our massages were over, it was well into the morning and our curry place was closed, so we took the boat back to the hotel and ordered room service and watched something's gotta give.

this morning we raced around: haircuts, massages, stall shopping, the long anticipated curry, and then we lay by the pool. finally it was time to depart. and here we are, at don muang international.

it has been a great weekend. we have spoken with sebastian every day, and hearing  him say to lita when she reports to him that his mummy is on the phone,

my mummy?

creates another crack in my heart. we went to a birthday party on saturday. thursday before i left he dictated the card to me and it went like this...

i hope you have fun being one. i hope you like playing on the playground. i am glad you are my friend. i hope you have a chocolate cake.

and it was. sebastian was thrilled, and by the party's end, very full.

Comments

[Elaine]

Oooh, I'm so jealous! I haven't been in BKK since April -- a couple months too long, as far as I'm concerned (though I did get in two trips to Bali, my other addiction).

Know what you mean about those Thai massages! I go to Wat Pho for them. Once I had one so painful I was groaning. The masseuse looked at me with a truly evil grin and said, "No pain, no gain." Ha ha ha. I thought I was a farang wimp until I saw a couple of Thai women groaning too...

Enjoy your return to HKG..

[Maureen Lyons]

It has all sounded wonderful, honey. Very thankful you both had the opportunity for some R&R. Welcome home and were four small people delighted to see you?!

Much love, M xox

[joeinvegas]

Chocolate cake? Did I hear someone mention chocolate cake?

[Dooneybug]

$5/an hour!?! Whoa, that's amazing! Glad to hear they were good.

[Karen]

You are in Bangkok again? You lucky little devil.
So - when are you coming to the US?????!!!!!! :)

[Maggs]

Wow, that’s cheap for a massage! Thank God my hubby gives them for free. You’re lucky to get away for a weekend with hubby. I couldn’t leave my precious baby. Not that I’m over-protective or anything… : ) I think it’s great that you had a ton of medical tests done. I get a physical every 6 months but not so intrusive as yours.

[tess]

hi everyone -
typepad is upgrading during our waking hours...tess is unable to post. very ticked.
apologies.