Markets and Thai Massage

On Wednesday, we had students from Wat Po School of Thai Massage (http://www.thai-massage.com/) come to talk about Thai Massage. We were quite excited about the prospect of free pampering.

Before the massage, another volunteer and I headed out to MACRO, what I'd heard was similar to Wal-Mart back home. We boarded the 3.5 bhat bus (Bangkok's cheapest mode of transportation) and made the 10 minute journey. When we got there, we found that it was more like Sam's Club than Wal-Mart and made our way back to the neighborhood market, where we found everything we had gone to the store for. Lesson learned.

The Thai Massage students were suppossed to arrive at 5:00, but due to exceptionally horrendous Bangkok traffic, arrived two and a half hours late. At this point, we were all ready to forgo the whole thing, but did not want to have had them sit in traffic all that time for nothing.

Thai massage, from what I can gather, is based on specific points on your body that relate to other, some related some seemingly unrealed, parts. Some make sense, neck points for neck and head, back points for back, but others are less connected, "when I push here (putting pressure on a spot on my back), you should feel it in your eyes. Do you feel it?"

It turns out that Thai Massage, or at the very least, this particular form of Thai Massage performed by these particular students on the virginal massage recipient, is not all that pleasant. Most of us spent the session trying to hold back grimaces of pain as fingers were gouged into backs and sides. I made the smart move of saying that I had lower back pain, which lead to my lying on my stomach on the recieving end of some very painful jabs into my legs (which, in some way, had to do with the pain in my back). I hate to be a sceptic, so I'm not giving up on Thai Massage yet. I'm sure there is something to it. There is a place called Health Land that is suppossed to have amazing 2 hour massages for 300 bhat (about 8 dollars) that I just can't pass up at the price. I just hope I don't regret it!