Day 4B - Almost walk on
Trip Start
Dec 17, 2007
1
15
30
Trip End
Feb 14, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Then I decided to get a massage at the quest house. There is a massage space on the second floor which I walked by every time I went up and down the stairs so I had been eying getting a massage since I got here but I was a little chicken. I have never had a real professional massage but it was cheap about $6 for one hour full body massage. The masseurs are older, tougher looking woman. The woman was strong and was soon pulling, pushing, stretching, kneading all parts of my body. Sometimes it was a bit painful but I tried to relax. She seemed to have my body in a pretzel and towards the end she was me with her knees in my back and she was pulling my arms back in order to stretch my back. She didn't walk on my but it felt close.
After that I had lunch and then took a taxi to the bus station where I found the ticket booth and bought a VIP ticket to Phuket. The bus station is pretty new with lots of shops and restaurants. I had three hours to wait for the 5:30 pm bu so I read the paper and check the Internet again. Found my bus OK and got my bags on and then climbed up to the second floor of the bus. The VIP buses are only three seats wide and with only eight rows so there is a lot more space than on a regular bus. I had a seat in the back row which had a small problem as the seats did not fully recline.
I was expecting the bus to be full but it didn't fill up until later stops. The bus left at 5:45 pm, 15 minutes late (a bit of shock after being in Japan) and down the highways to the south we went. The highways are interesting, there are the inter lanes that are for fast movers, then a gap of grass and then the outer lanes were for local traffic. Every few kilometers or so, there was transfer lane to switch back and forth. They also had U-turn overpasses so if you wanted to go the opposite way. Along the highway were many markets, small restaurants, that were right next to the busy highway. I was hoping we would stop for food but I gave up to try to sleep when we pulled into a bus station at around 10 pm just I was nodding off. I had some sort of grilled meat dipped in spicy sauce and some pineapples all for 40 babt ($1.20) Then it was back on the bus for the journey to Phuket.
Market of the Day- All the road side markets that stayed up late for the travelers. Many of them were just a shack with stools and a light.
