Dirty Massage
One of the big perks of traveling in Asia has been access to cheap massages. Sometimes that has worked out well (Thailand is the hands down winner here), sometimes not so well (the Vietnamese dry rub). Our batting average is high enough overall though that we still look forward to coming back and finding a local spa. With that in mind, we finish breakfast and take a tuk-tuk to the Old City, where we figure we can find just wander around and find a place.
The going rate seems to be around $12 for an hour, so we’re all in at a spot just off one of the main streets (assuming something just wide enough for a single car with cows laying down in the middle still qualifies as a street). As a general rule, I prefer to be the hairiest one in the room when getting a massage, so I’m a little bummed that in India, massage is strictly a same sex business. Less than optimal, but not a deal killer.
The question of course, is just what is the threshold for pulling the plug on a massage? Is it being asked to lay face down on the dirty mat? Some man hands buzzing the tower? Maybe a 5 minute noogie, threatening to take the little hair I have left? The answer is none of those things. Turns out you can abuse me pretty much any way you like and I’ll still say thank you and give you a tip. Fortunately, the look on my travel buddy’s face tells me I’m not alone.
Things finally start looking up, as a short way down the road we come across a collection of street carts. We have absolutely no idea what the first one is serving, though there is pretty big crowd, which is usually a good sign. It’s served on a piece of old newspaper that you carry over to a dirty metal bench that serves as a table, but it tastes fantastic.
The only way I can think to improve upon it is some fresh sugar cane run through an ancient press by a man with no gloves and filtered through a crud-filled strainer. Ang isn’t very thirsty at the moment, so I don’t have to share.
All this activity leads up to the real reason we came into town today, which is to take a sunset boat ride on the lake and to visit one of the island palaces that is still open to the public (the other has been converted to a 5-star hotel, which at $800 per night was just slightly over our budget).