On Wednesday, September 27, three maintenance workers from the hotel/ hostel where we were staying came to our room to replace a bathroom fixture that we actually hadn’t been having any problem with. We wish all businesses would offer that kind of attention to detail. Especially business like, say, the mailbox rental place back in California that we’d been using for over 20 years, but which changed owners and suddenly started holding our mail for ransom unless we coughed up rent that was more than triple what we’d been paying. (We didn’t.) One of the (few) drawbacks of traveling around the world is that it’s a challenge to take care of problems like that back in the States — and there had been quite a few really unusual problems recently.

Unfortunately, our AirBnB did not offer quite the same attention to detail with its washer and dryer in the basement — it took a good half a day to do a load of laundry and get it completely dry. But we weren’t complaining, because we knew what an uncommon luxury it was even to have a washer, and especially to have a dryer too. Few of the places we have stayed even had a washer. Only a couple had a dryer. Anyway, Dennis stayed at home and caught up on the clothes cleansing while Kimberly went on a solo shopping expedition.

Later in the day, we both went out strolling. We couldn’t help but notice that Bangkok is the most modern and most western city we’ve seen in quite a while. There’s a 7-11 on just about every corner, though there’s rather different merchandise inside than you’d find in America. In some neighborhoods you’d almost swear you wear in an American city except for the abundance of motorbikes, and the fact that the traffic is on the left side.

Budget Friendly Thai Massage

On Thursday, we went for a lengthy stroll for the purposes of fulfilling one of our Thailand bucket list items: getting a Thai massage, which is reputed by many to be just about the best kind of massage in the world. It reportedly has its roots dating back to practices adopted by Buddha’s own physician; and traditional practice involves the recognition of “energy lines” in the body, supposedly some 72,000 of them.

All we know is that it was a very thorough going-over that was almost painful at times, but blissful at all times. And we felt quite invigorated afterward as we sat in the lobby and sipped the cups of tea they gave us. And the price tag was a mere 580 baht — less than 16 dollars for both us!

This was an experience that was just about worth the trip to Bangkok in itself.

 9/27-28/2022