Travel update - Bangkok

[anna_wing]

I was in Bangkok for a few days not too long ago, and noticed some very nice art on the walls of Suvarnabhumi Airport as I slogged my weary way from the aircraft door to Arrivals. Suvarnabhumi was clearly designed to ensure that all passengers get in their 10,000 steps before being allowed to leave the terminal...

The train into town is good and connects directly to the BTS, so if your hotel is near a BTS station, you aren't travelling at rush hour and you don't have too much luggage, it's actually not a bad way to bypass the traffic. Otherwise, take a taxi, insist on the meter being on, and take your chances with the traffic jams.

As usual it was hot and the air pollution was awful, but I'm mostly indoors when I'm there, and wear a mask anyway. This time I splurged on the time and booked myself the full three-hour Thai Traditional package at Asia Herb Association, which is a nice, rather upmarket massage chain with several branches in the centre of town. You get one hour each of herbal scrub, Thai massage and herbal ball treatment, which involves being pounced all over with bundles of hot herbs. They supply the disposable knickers and the pyjamas, and the treatment rooms have their own showers, so you can clean off both before and after the herbal scrub. The shower also stops you from smelling too much like a chicken being prepared for roasting, which was rather what I felt like during the scrub. Thai massage is all about feeling better afterwards, rather than while the masseuse is, shall we say, drawing one's attention to all the areas where one's muscles and tendons are tight and need stretching. I'm definitely not one of those iron women who can go to sleep on the mat. But I did feel extraordinarily light and flexible afterwards.


I do remember once at a smaller place, where there were curtained cubicles rather than private rooms, there was a chap in the next cubicle who was having such a relaxing time that my masseuse offered me ear-plugs to block the snores. She had them to hand, so obviously it's not that uncommon...I think he might have been having one of the oil-based massage techniques, which usually hurt a lot less.

Comments

[shirebound]

You get one hour each of herbal scrub, Thai massage and herbal ball treatment

Ohhhh, what a treat for yourself!

I didn't know that Bangkok was one of the cities challenged by oppressive air pollution.

[sovay]

But I did feel extraordinarily light and flexible afterwards.

That sounds really nice.

[flemmings]

Thai massage helped the tight muscles but there was quite unpleasant emotional fallout. Basically a panic attack shorty after every session

[sartorias]

Oh that sounds absolutely heavenly.

[anna_wing]

It was painful, but worth it.


The air pollution is awful. It's a huge city, so it's a combination of cars, industry, and at this time of year, farmers all over the country burning the fields to clear them before the planting of the hot/dry-season rice. The only relief is from the occasional rain from convection or the government's cloud-seeding efforts, which do clear the air a bit.

[anna_wing]

Oh dear, how unfortunate! It's not for everyone, to be sure, though massage per se is very routine, and everywhere offers different styles.

[anna_wing]

It's routine in Bangkok, though somewhere like Asia Herb Association is for tourists or the rich. But everyone has their regular neighbourhood place that they go to often. A lot of places do lunchtime specials where you can just go in for foot or leg or shoulder massages.

[anna_wing]

It was indeed. I am adding more stretching to my morning routine.

[sartorias]

*envy*

[tehta]

I'm currently in Bangkok, for a month! But not in hotel, in an AirBnB in a random neighbourhood. I have tried a few of the local massage places and, hmm, I am not sure I could sleep through it. Not because of the pain, but because the masseuses occasionally put me in very weird yoga-like poses. I think I would wake up out of surprise.

Otherwise, the food is great but it is just TOO HOT.

[anna_wing]

How lovely! The heat is currently ghastly, but you will soon be very wet, I think. There's an extra-long Songkran holiday this year, to encourage tourism so be prepared to have water sprayed on you whenever you're outdoors. Are you there for work?

I highly recommend the At Ease massage chain, if you're anywhere near the BTS. All their places are very close to Phrom Phong station.

Unfortunately I won't be anywhere near there until at least the middle of the year.

[tehta]

I am a digital nomad now, so I can work everywhere. I've packed up my old apartment and we're traveling full time, in Asia in winter and in Europe in summer.
I might try that chain! Although I think places will be closing for days on end starting about now.