Arrived - Having a Massage

After a long flight, you want a cookie. Something to give you the feeling the 20 hours in the aluminum can was worth it. In Bangkok the cookie is the Royal Palace and Temples.

The tour company picked us up at the airport, and whisked us away for lunch. There's a lot of buffets in this town. I kept it simple, some chicken curry and rice. Later, a little ice cream. It was nice to have a sit down meal that felt normal, although I haven't had curry in over a year, since I left Bangalore.

Then, it was off to the Palace and Temple complex. This is the sort of place that makes you grateful that someone had the great idea in the 19th century to put a photographic plate in a camera obscura, and later George Eastman figured out of to make film affordable to the public, and then later, someone started making great lens, and then we got digital photography... because you're going to want to shoot everything with your digital camera. The temples have roofs of gold leaf. The walls, railings, even the tile on the ground is made with an eye on detail, and no one skimped on their job. This made that long plane ride worth it.

But wait, there's more! Before dinner we had a two hour Thai massage. I get a massage most weeks back home. It involves a Chinese guy going deep into my rock hard back with the skill of a surgeon. A Thai massage is completely different. You change into loose-fitting clothes, which are provided. Then, instead of you doing yoga, they do yoga to you. They bend and stretch your body. They twist you into several varieties of pretzels. If you've ever been a beginner at yoga, you know it can be painful. The Thai massage will have you confessing to crimes you've never heard of, which no one is asking about. That the end of the two hours, you're limbered up and ready to eat dinner.

So if you need a cookie after a long flight, try a palace and massage.