Learning that we would visit Asia, our Thai friend from Canada highly recommended us to visit the city of Chiang Rai.
Therefore, we took a side trip from Chiang Mia and visited Chiang Rai for three days relaxing and enjoying its slower pace and nice scenery.
Chiang Rai is a much smaller city than Chiang Mia therefore we were glad to see that the basic infrastructures such as hospitals, training schools, banks and quite a few of nice resort hotels, restaurants and yes, the ubiquitous massage centres, everywhere.
Wherever we travel, we would like to contribute to the local economy as much as we are able. However, neither are we drinkers, casino goers nor serious shoppers; the only way we could spend money is buying their services and dining at the local cafes and restaurants.
Our Thai friend from Canada highly recommended us to try the Thai massages and we took his suggestions to heart. Though a much smaller city than Chiang Mia, Chiang Ria has numerous massage centres and cafes as well.
Tryng to help the local business and vendors, we gladly taste the food at a few of the resturants, enjoyed our coffee/ tea breaks at the cafes and did not hestiate to shop at the small vendors on the street as well as getting some massages from the local centres.
Not too far from our hotel, we saw a few massage centres during our walk to downtown. We chose a massage centre close to our hotel and went for a two hour massage. This was our way of trying to help local Thai people by bringing them some business and contributing to their economy. Both my husband and I went for the traditional Thai body massage as well as a foot massage.
Half way through the massage, my masseuse climbed on the massage table straddling herself over me, giving my body a strong deep massage. I couldn’t help but started laughing as I remembered well how western movies and TV shows depicted Thai massages. In North America, shows often exaggerated the Thai massages experiences as scary and painful episodes by showing the masseur/masseuse jumping on top of his/ her client's back performing some sort of Kung Fu moves and making the client screaming in agony. It was just pure comical stuff! Seeing these comical images in my head and finding my masseuse kneeling on top of me, I couldn’t stop laughing my head off while lying there receiving the treatment but in a much less exaggerated manner. The masseuse was beside herself when I was laughing out loud and couldn't stop chuckling for a good few minutes. She couldn't figure out what was going on, what she did and why I was laughing so hard. It was just hilarious!
I finally stopped laughing and explained to her the reason so that she knew it was not something she did that caused this unusual behabiour from her client.
The massage was therapeutic and relaxing and our muscles felt more relaxed with less tension. The two hours flew by in no time. We enjoyed it so much that we went back for another session the next day before boarding the Green Bus going back to Chiang Mia.
RT, Massage Centre
Chiang Rai, Thailand
Therefore, we took a side trip from Chiang Mia and visited Chiang Rai for three days relaxing and enjoying its slower pace and nice scenery.
Chiang Rai is a much smaller city than Chiang Mia therefore we were glad to see that the basic infrastructures such as hospitals, training schools, banks and quite a few of nice resort hotels, restaurants and yes, the ubiquitous massage centres, everywhere.
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