A taste of home

the driver ended up going beyond the call of duty and offered to take us to the airport to run some errands. we had to buy another ticket for a short trip after thailand before new zealand. right next to the airport in chiang mai is a huge mall. he offered to drop us off there and then we could just get a taxi back. we did it. i was so relieved when julie said she was in the mood for pizza. i just couldn't do thai food for some reason. i guess i just needed a break. it was great. then we shopped around the mall separately and met up so we could head to one last night at the night bazaar.

this time, it was serious, we had one last night to see everything and get our last minute items. so we separated and actually both had great adventures on our own. julie was in a bead shop for hours making friends with pakistani people there and ended up having to spend the night giving medical advice. i, on the other hand, was all over the place zipping in and out of booths. i did make friends with a thai guy named Don as he kept trying to sell me watches everytime i passed by. i lived it up at the bazaar and got more inspired to get a few more things. just past midnight, i thought it would be closed, but there were still some places in the bazaar open, so i just kept going. finally, it was really time to shut down, so i headed across the street and beaming in the light was a store with a sign on it saying "massage." i totally thought it would be closed that late, but to my wonderful surprise it wasn't. i went in and the room was full of people getting massages. so, i asked if they were still open and they took me in. the only thing was i knew julie might freak out with me not getting back, but this was my last opportunity for a cheap massage so i just took it- they were open after all, right?

so, i proceeded to have the best massage thus far in thailand of course, for the same price of $5 an hour. can you believe it!! the guy worked on my feet and did not know any english. all he could do was look at me and use his hands to motion as if he was holding a rock. then he said, "boom boom boom" and made the motion of many rocks. yes, i know, he was saying my feet had knots in them. duh, i felt them. that's why i was there. :) my poor little feet needed serious help with all of the walking we had been doing in flip flops.
so my massage was from 12:30am to 1:30am. since when do you get a massage that time of night??? that is pretty funny. they closed at 2am. these places are like on every corner around here.

i went back to the room and had to gently tell julie where i had been. she was tired that night and i wasn't. we had totally switched places. in fact, i went back out to go find an internet cafe that night, but they were all closed. yes, i'm adventurous, but it really feels safe here. don't worry, i'm being careful. :) so, i just went back to the hotel and we packed everything up and went to bed. mindy was coming to get us friday morning for the drive back to chiang klang.