Still blathering about the trip
Last evening, in the last act of insanity before leaving Chiang Mai, we signed up for an hour-long traditional Thai massage in a little place off one of the larger streets. So for an hour, Spouse and I lay next to each other on the mats, as two ladies performed what normally would be considered assault and battery and thus actionable, but since the sign outside said 'massage' instead we paid them for the privilege.
It did feel great afterwards though, even if by this morning I was definitely back to my usual kinked-up back.
Now we are back in Bangkok, and the day seems to be dedicated to commerce. First we went to a weekend market, the largest market in town, where there was everything on sale that you possibly can imagine and a few things you can't. (There was a section of vendors selling nothing but fake flowers). I bought a skirt but Lord and Master got lucky: if it wasn't for the fact that it's easier to import a nuke, we would have ended up with one of the many adorable puppies for sale.
Next: where the swanky and the teenage shop, a.k.a. the mall. Namely, MBK, one of the nicest malls in town. Same stuff for sale, frankly, only pricier and with air-conditioning. And with myriads of cell-phone cellers and available cell-phone numbers for sale. The food court was YUM though. Oh, and we stopped by a Thai bookstore where looking at the magazine racks confirmed what I knew already: the denizens of Thailand like Japanese, Korean (I discovered a FOURTH Korean entertainment mag, named simply 'Seoul), and Taiwanese dramas almost as much as I do. I bought a few entertainment mags out of curiousity and greed (one with most of Yamapi's AnAn shoot, one all about Farenheit, one awith ISWAK, and one Thai entertainment one), and the saleslady actually dragged over another saleslady just to gawk at the weirdo farang who clearly knew no word of Thai but bought Thai-language magazine with Chinese people on the cover.
Btw, people here seem to love Hanadan, if the amount of mags on it is any indication but their true passion seems to be Farenheit. There are mags on it and articles on it everywhere, and I have seen posters of Wu Chun for sale numerous NUMEROUS times. Oh, and Hana Kimi and Farenheit concerts played on screens at the most random places. :)
Next, we went to the National Museum, a rambling place crammed with artifacts but with an air of cheerful neglect and no security or proper storage to speak of.
And from then on, through another giant market selling everything from amulets, to pictures of the Royal Family, to books whose covers indicated they were of a less solemn nature and might contain what in older days would be termed 'marital aid=themed stories.'
Then, we suffered a brief relapse in spirituality and visited Wat Arun, an incredible temple where I took way too many pictures.
But I am afraid we are about to fall from grace once again. Plans for this evening include attempting to get tickets to a Muay Thai match. I'll see if I spot the undercover Lee Jun Ki :)
It did feel great afterwards though, even if by this morning I was definitely back to my usual kinked-up back.
Now we are back in Bangkok, and the day seems to be dedicated to commerce. First we went to a weekend market, the largest market in town, where there was everything on sale that you possibly can imagine and a few things you can't. (There was a section of vendors selling nothing but fake flowers). I bought a skirt but Lord and Master got lucky: if it wasn't for the fact that it's easier to import a nuke, we would have ended up with one of the many adorable puppies for sale.
Next: where the swanky and the teenage shop, a.k.a. the mall. Namely, MBK, one of the nicest malls in town. Same stuff for sale, frankly, only pricier and with air-conditioning. And with myriads of cell-phone cellers and available cell-phone numbers for sale. The food court was YUM though. Oh, and we stopped by a Thai bookstore where looking at the magazine racks confirmed what I knew already: the denizens of Thailand like Japanese, Korean (I discovered a FOURTH Korean entertainment mag, named simply 'Seoul), and Taiwanese dramas almost as much as I do. I bought a few entertainment mags out of curiousity and greed (one with most of Yamapi's AnAn shoot, one all about Farenheit, one awith ISWAK, and one Thai entertainment one), and the saleslady actually dragged over another saleslady just to gawk at the weirdo farang who clearly knew no word of Thai but bought Thai-language magazine with Chinese people on the cover.
Btw, people here seem to love Hanadan, if the amount of mags on it is any indication but their true passion seems to be Farenheit. There are mags on it and articles on it everywhere, and I have seen posters of Wu Chun for sale numerous NUMEROUS times. Oh, and Hana Kimi and Farenheit concerts played on screens at the most random places. :)
Next, we went to the National Museum, a rambling place crammed with artifacts but with an air of cheerful neglect and no security or proper storage to speak of.
And from then on, through another giant market selling everything from amulets, to pictures of the Royal Family, to books whose covers indicated they were of a less solemn nature and might contain what in older days would be termed 'marital aid=themed stories.'
Then, we suffered a brief relapse in spirituality and visited Wat Arun, an incredible temple where I took way too many pictures.
But I am afraid we are about to fall from grace once again. Plans for this evening include attempting to get tickets to a Muay Thai match. I'll see if I spot the undercover Lee Jun Ki :)