Day 12 - Matt Gets Beaten Up By A Girl

Thailand has its fair share of unusual sights. Today we tried to tick off one of the Chiang Mai bucket list points of getting massage in a women's prison where they train soon to be released inmates to be masseurs so they can get a job when they are freed. Sadly despite getting there early they were booked beyond our departure bus time so we were directed to the ex-inmate massage centre round the corner. We had breakfast first with our new found friends Teresa and Rob and booked in for an hour Thai massage. We were sent to change into lovely burgundy scrubs (easier to navigate than the black pants once I got a set that wasn't 2 pairs of trousers) and laid in a communal massage room. A slightly different experience to our Bangkok essential oils and soothing music massage from last week. I think I got lucky and although my masseuse was hard on me Matt got one of the stronger ladies who gave him a bit of a beating - I couldn't possibly speculate what crime she might have committed before her prison training. I still can't not giggle when my feet are touched and at one point thought she was going to detach a limb but it was amazing, and for about £5!

After that we checked out and said goodbye to out lovely guest house hosts Paul, Ay, Ta and Freya. (Oh I forgot Paul kindly took Matt on the back of his moped to get our bus tickets this morning, I did not volunteer for that). We caught the 3 hour bus to Chiang Rai. The bus was fine and I caught up on my sleep and podcasts but beyond that it's been a fairly quiet day. We're in a guest house which actually has a shower area as opposed to a wet room which is a nice change though still a lack of wall hooks - I wouldn't have thought I'd miss hanging things up so much.

We went to the night bazaar where I bought some hippy trousers and found a source of wine which was neither stupidly expensive or mixed with fruit juice - oh happiness! We watched some traditional Thai acts, well some dancing, instrument playing and a guy singing Elvis covers whilst eating dinner and figuring out the next few days.Read more