Bus ride recovery

I left Koh Payam on the 9am speedboat filled with Thais, a few tourists, and two very small fluffy dogs. One was a western, well groomed, but collarless maltese. The pet of two Midwestern retires. He wore brown leather Velcro New Balances and above his red face and gray hair a ball cap embroidered with the Oldsmobile logo. She wore circulation pantyhose, Dr. Shoals slipons and black, embroidered, TJ-max capri pants. The man I assumed to be their son was slightly alternative, bearded, black cap, thick rimmed glasses, and heavy leather sandals. His Thai wife linked arms with him and petted the dog in his lap, she wore rubber sandals with Bambi Characters on them. The other scrawny puppy sat shivering in a half toothless Thai mans lap next to me. His curly hair and small frame reminded me of a new born cow. This is just an example of my people watching, an act that consumes most of my travel days. A hundred bits of fiction could start from the truth you seek in people sitting across from you on public transportation. My writing mind is training me to take notice of little details. I could describe the characters on the bus ride and the high pitched pop music that made my ears feel like bleeding through my ear plugs on my 6 hour bus ride to Krabi. But maybe you had to there..... But I would like to express my public gratitude for Steve Jobs and his grand devices that pump music into earbuds at extraordinary volumes.

I arrived in the rain, but in this country there is always an English speaker making small commissions with a cellphone. A door to door taxi appears for $1.50 in less then ten minuets. After checking into my familiar guest house I wondered to a massage parlor to try to recoup from the days travel. I choose the competition of the one I went to last time, and quickly found out this massage would be a completely different animal then my, "it's my first time" massage I got a month ago. The first half hour was a pleasant foot massage with nice stretches and lotions, but as she worked her way up my body pulling, stretching, and twisting I was far from relaxed. My mind wondered to all kinds of life tasks....bills paid, dollars converted, presents to buy....as a distraction from kneading fingers and stretching muscles. Little alerts of pain and feet and hands placed in pockets of bent limbs and pelvic bones kept my mind alert during the 90 minuets. I felt great afterwards. A lot of water, some street food at the night market, and an early night helped me recover from my recovery.

Smiles,
Amanda Mar
Krabi Town, Thailand