What an interesting and beautiful bus trip to Chiang Rai from Chiang Mai

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I woke up early at 6am to study and get ready for my massage course exam after a poor nights sleep punctuated by nightmares about massage, like the sleep I’d get the night before an exam in the A level exam period, when passing exams seemed to be a matter of life and death. I was really not looking forward to the final exam. We’d covered so much material so quickly, and in the evenings I would fall asleep really early as I was so tired so I didn’t get to meet anybody outside the course.



The girl I was working with was becoming insufferable, she was bossing the teacher about, giving both of us instructions, taking over the teacher’s job and was verbally aggressive to everybody. I realised that the course was doing me more harm than good. My body was aching (all the other students had the same symptoms, my skin was sore and I didn’t want to do more exercise (so far I’d done more exercise per day than I do during a week of jogging and more postures than I’d ever done in yoga. So far I’ve managed to look after myself really well and that isn’t going to change.



Whilst the course didn’t really suit me, I would be interested in continuing massage. I’m still having different massages and trying them at different parlours (always from professionals and non-aggressive people) I’m hoping to try aromatherapy massage soon. I would need to test thai massage on friends back home but I think if they’ve read this I’ve just lost any possible recruits.



Chiang Mai itself was as crowded with people taking photos as La Louvre is in Paris, it was a hub for adventure trips like a ski resort, lacking in character like Belgium and there were as many people offering tuk tuks or taxis as people were in Tangier, in Morocco. I am sure though that I didn’t see the real Chiang Mai and if I had have had chance to see it by bike I would have appreciated it much more. Unforunately the tour was fully booked.



I did have one very interesting encounter there. I met an elderly couple in my local restaurant. All three of us were united by the fact that we were discerning about whether the water on the tables was drinking water and that we were all trying to avoid spicy foods. They started telling me their stories. They came from Hawaii and were touring south east Asia. They told me how they did 7 countries in Europe in 10 days, climbed the pyramids in Egypt and had seen the most amazing fireworks in Hong Kong. I thought if seventy odd year olds can race through south east Asia maybe I need to up my pace a bit.

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Photos

thai green tea
In a restaurant whilst I was looking for the Rock Bar