June 12, 2010
Saturday was, I think, the hottest day since we've been in Nan. So naturally, an authentic Thai massage inside an air-coditioned spa was in order.
After coffee and a delicious lunch of pad see ew (flat noodles, pork, and broccoli), we headed to the Dhevaraj Hotel, one of the bigger hotels in Nan, and located very near to school. We were directed to a small parlor to the side of the lobby. Inside the "spa" rooms, instead of a massage table, there was a mattress pad and pillow set up on the floor. I was given loose cotton pants and a button-front shirt to wear - essentially, purple jammies. The place smelled like a spa (pungent lavender) but the music was less soothing: Thai radio - always a random assortment of dance pop, re-recorded American hits, and whiny love ballads, and always played loudly. I dressed in the purple jammies, laid on my back, and the masseuse began to work her magic.
I quickly learned that Thai massages are about 80 percent yoga workout and 20 percent deep-tissue-pressure-point massage. Over the course of two hours, every inch of my body was stretched and pulled in ways I did not think it could go. At one point, the masseuse had me sit up with my legs stretched out in front of me and my hands behind my head, and essentially put me in a headlock while flinging me side to side. Other parts, like the head scratch that later turned my hair into an afro, were so relaxing that I drifted to sleep. The whole production, including post-massage tea, cost a whopping $12 - and by the end (to quote Emily), we felt like a million baht.
After the massage, we made an errand run to Tesco Lotus, which we had only been to once before by car. It was a substantial distance to ride by bike, but we were happy to have found it on our own. Plus, I now have a nice suntan going (mostly concentrated on my forehead, tops of my thighs, tops of my feet....)
We came home to a note on our front porch, addressed to "New Nan Girls" and signed "Markus, Dave and Matt, the Thaiuangpha Boys" with a phone number. The note said they were in Nan city for the night to watch the USA-England match and to give them a call if we were around. We had no idea who Markus, Dave and Matt were, or how they knew where we lived and that we keep our porch door unlocked... but since we've grown used to feeling generally clueless and flying by the seat of our pants, we called the number back.
Markus, Dave and Matt are Americans living in the neighboring town, teaching English through another foreign service program similar to PiA. Apparently they had met the former Nan girls a few months ago while visiting, became friends with them, and had learned from one of them that we just arrived. We made plans to meet later at the vaguely-described "Nan steakhouse" near the military hospital.... However, plans got muddled by a) our lack of knowledge about just where the military hospital was, b) our lack of knowledge about where the "steakhouse" was once we found the hospital and c) becoming tired and frustrated after biking around lost in the dark for too long. There are technically street signs in Nan, but directions are never (ever) given so concretely. Every place is described as "around the corner from," "to the right and then the left of," or "near the temple" - which can be frustrating when we're looking for something in particular, but always seems to lead us on an adventure and expands our knowledge of Nan's general layout pretty quickly.
As we were wrapping up dinner (we had given up on the steakhouse and stopped somewhere on our own), Markus and Matt pulled up on motorbike and met us. We all decided to head over to the riverfront near our apt. to meet Dave, have some drinks and kill time before the match started.... at 1:30 a.m. Thai time. After a few hours of trading stories about being a farang teacher in Thailand, and all the mishaps and who-knows that come with it, we made our way to an eclectic outdoor restaurant-bar called Riverside. They had live music (even at 2am! in Nan!), Changa beer, a hilarious drunk Thai man dancing at the table next to us, and television. Perfect. By halftime, though, it was clear that the place was emptying out and we were officially holding up the wait staff. Thais are never direct in telling you that you've over stayed your welcome... instead of bringing the bill and expressing that it was closing time, the waitress instead slowly turned out the lights...then the fans... then began cleaning tables with a flashlight... all without ever coming by our table. The boys were upset that we wouldn't be able to find another place with a TV to watch the end of the game, but we finally convinced them that we were being absurdly rude, and since we were apparently the only Americans actually living in Nan, we didn't want to get a bad rap around town.
The television dilemma was solved when we biked past the "police station" (sort of a guard hut along the river). Markus spotted the glare of a television screen through the window, hopped off his bike, and asked through the open door if they wouldn't mind letting us watch ("It's our team!"). The three police officers - dressed in white undershirts and lounging on cots inside the station - graciously let us inside and pulled out chairs for us. So, there we were: 3 a.m. in Nan, a bunch of 20-something Americans sitting around a shoddy television inside a guard hut, cheering "U-S-A! U-S-A!" while making broken-Thai conversation and hamming it up in pictures with three underdressed policemen ....I sort of felt my age for the first time all week.
June 13, 2010
Sunday was pretty low-key. We slept in, got lunch in town, and stopped at a cafe on the way home (mostly because it had really cool decor and we were curious). Inside, we met Nok and Ed - two young-ish Thai guys who run the cafe and speak pretty good English - at least compared to most locals we've met here. Both were wearing camouflage cargo shorts, cotton tees, flip flops and had what I imagine to be the equivalent of Thai "surfer dude" hair. After ordering Thai coffee and lychee flavored smoothies, we struck up a conversation with Nok. He told us he'd only been in Nan for one month, having come from Pai (just north of Chiang Mai). He told us about a few interesting things to do and see in Nan, and offered to help us with our Thai if we'd help him with his English. We traded "vintage" and "antique" (he wanted to know how to describe the items his cafe was decorated with: old-fashioned Coca-Cola cans and 50s style television sets, lamps, and brightly-colored vases) for "Khun bai nai maa?" (Where are you from?) and "Chan pen khun khru" (I am a teacher). He invited us to come with him and his friends up to Pua (just north of Nan) next weekend, but we explained that we didn't own a motorbike and that might make the trip difficult. We did, however, promise to come back to the cafe for more lessons.
No comments:
Post a Comment