Thailand: Chiang Mai - "You fet. Velly velly fet"

Thai massages are unbelievably cheap and unbelievably good. On the back of a fantastic massage in Bangkok, complete with herbal thai compression massage, the Big Sissa and I went for a massage around the corner from our hotel in Chiang Mai. As I was changing into the thai fishermen pants the masseuse whipped open the modesty curtain and proceeded to fold the fishermen pants for me while poking me and saying 'He he - you fet. You velly velly fet'. Whooha lady - way to make me feel awesome!

We've been in Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, for roughly one week. It has been a lovely week full of so many different experiences from climbing hundreds of stairs to a sacred monestry, to taking silver jewellry making course and making a ring, to patting/feeding/bathing/being kissed by elephants at a park for rescued elephants and hanging out with Lou Carpenter from neighbours, to just exploring the town and taking in all it has to offer.



I've observed a few things over the last week. The first observation is the large number of elderly caucasian men dating young thai women. I can understand that they may have meaningful relationships but its hard not to feel that the thai women are being taken advantage of, or visa versa, that the thai women are offering themselves for a chance at a 'better' life and therefore taking advantage of the lonely men.

The second observation is that there are a LOT of people in the service industry in Thailand. At each of the places we have stayed no less than 6 people say hello/welcome from the time you walk in the front door. Breakfast involves 3-4 people hovering around you and filling up your drink after every sip. The funniest job I think belongs to the chubby and bossy thai woman. She gets to sit behind the counter at a shop, ignore customers, boss the staff around and take the cash. Take example A below:

The woman in pink at the back applied make up in her compact mirror and bossed the girls around the shoe shop - taking no interest in customers at all until time came to take the cash. It was pretty hilar. (Note: this is the shoe shopping expedition in Bangkok in preparation for strict dress code entry into the rooftop bar - note also in the end that we could have worn thongs! oh well you can never have too many pairs of tacky bling asian shoes)

My last observation for this post relates to thai footpaths. There are a large number of obstructions that break up the footpath (phone booths in the middle, exposed wires, random steel poles at shin height, uneven footpath, excavations, and unidentified liquids that smell like a mixture of fish heads and urine). This necessitates getting around the streets in single file like ducklings following the leader, all the while being careful not to trip/step in anything/walk into any random structures. Its amusing but not conducive for conversations.

A tout de suite...coming up next = kisses from reformed drug addicted elephants, Lou Carpenter from Neighbours, markets markets markets and jewellery making classes!