Day 41
Today is not a good day. To start with I dye my hair and most of the bathroom pink (it looks like a flamingo massacre) and know I'm going to have to spend tonight scrubbing. Next Ben fancies a Thai massage, so after doing a bit of research we head off to Green Bamboo for a 5 star massage according to the reviews.
We begin with a warm feet wash, so far so good and then it all goes a bit down hill. We are taken upstairs, we change into some cotton pyjamas and lay down, this is when the torture starts. Ben said I hurt so bad as I needed it so much, I call Bullshit and just think they are a little sadistic. She's starts with my feet and works her way up to my head and it's agony, she might get a few nice clicks but I'm silently (though not always) screaming the whole way through, each area hurt more than the last and I actually felt myself fight her off when she when down my back. It was 100 times worse than the leg massage in Hong Kong and I could have sobbed when we finished. Ben, of course, loved it.
To cheer me up and to soothe my now throbbing muscles, we head to the cinema to watch Unbroken (ironic). However, the bad day gets worse as we are pulled over for not wearing helmets, a shock to us as we weren't offered any when we hired the bike and hardly anyone seems to wear one. But the police officer doesn't care and takes Ben's licence until we pay a 500 baht (£10) fine. We head to the rental place and get some helmets, they just laughed when we told them, and head off to find this police station from the poor directions that the cop gave us and Google. The directions seemed easy enough but after and hour and half driving, we are completely lost and about 2 miles from the city. After getting 3 lots of garbled directions, we arrive, hot and sore from the uncomfortable bike and the fines gone down to 300 (£6). We head down the road when we get the sinking realisation that the police station is actually only 5 minutes from the massage place earlier and should have only taken 10 minutes to get to. Not cool.
We finally get to the cinema, 3 hours later than we wanted, and console ourselves with drinks, sofas and Hollywood. Unbroken is another good film that I would recommend you seeing, and amazing it's a true story. Afterwards we grab some bleach and a box that could fit a toddler in for my purchase and in true Thai style we drive home with it in the back of the bike, blocking everything. Just another day in Thailand :)
Day 42
It's our last day in Chiang Mai today and it's going to be a relaxing one after yesterday's mess. The first thing to do is go shopping for all the vintage dresses I'm going to fill my box with. Ben, weirdly, doesn't want to come with me so I set off out on my own. Thing is though, although I've got my full bike licence, I've only actually ridden a twist and go once before and that was a long time ago. These scooters balance very different to what I'm used to and it took a few goes to get my wobble right and I'm still not sure I can do u-turns.
There are two shops right next door to each other and I could have bought half of their stock. I wander round, piling my arms with dresses whilst the owner stares at me a bit confused. I settle on 21 items from the two places and stuff the bags onto the bike and wobble again back to the apartment. Lucky they all fit in the box and the next task is working out how to get it on the back of the box. A whole reel of rope later and I'm walking, Ben sets off looking like a true Thai and heads off to UPS, where he gets a good deal on the box and it will arrive home end of April.
All smug with ourselves, we go off for some lunch at a delicious restaurant near Ristr8to and then head to a cafe called Marble Arch to catch up with our blogs and emails and things before we head to Laos tomorrow. It's a London themed cafe but soulless really with bad covers playing over the speakers. We put up with karaoke Elton John for as long as we can handle (about 2 hours) before we head off out to find some dinner. This time we head to a Canadian restaurant we spotted a few days before, and I had poutine for the first time, it's just really gravy, cheese and chips but the sauce is so darn tasty. I'm definitely making this when we get back.
Without us realising, it's gotten dark outside so we start to head back as we've got to clean the apartment and pack before they come and pick us up in the morning. After a slight detour to an ice cream place first, of course.
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