The Day of Unknowns

At the beginning of today the only thing we knew was that at the end of the day we were going to be on a beautiful beach in Krabi, in the south of Thailand. The rest would become the unknown destiny of our day. Our flight wasn’t until the late afternoon, so we had some time to enjoy Chiang Mai before our departure. And since we didn’t have anywhere to be this morning, last night we agreed to try to sleep in. We managed to sleep until about 7:45am, which was not quite an "enormous sleep", but a treat indeed.

After breakfast and some packing, we got into a tuk tuk outside our hotel and headed into the old city of Chiang Mai to explore a little more.

We ended up adding another one to our list of rare and surprising experiences. No we didn’t get tattoos (although I think Jennifer really wants to), we had Thai foot massages given by female prisoners – well, ex-prisoners actually. Yep, this is how the story of our day goes.

We had heard about the government program in female prisons to teach the women hireable skills to make it easier for them to re-integrate and support themselves legally after their release. We thought this sounded like a good cause to support, and yeah, we were a little curious. We found the massage centre at the prison, but they were fully booked for the day. Apparently it is so popular that people (tourists presumably) line up down the street first thing in the morning to book their appointment for that day. Who knew! It probably helps that it is 200 bhat (the equivalent of $8 CAD) for a one hour massage.

The uniformed woman at the desk informed us that the massage spa down the road employs ex-prisoners after they are released. We had walked past it earlier and remembered it looked respectable, and by this point we just really wanted a foot massage! We found the Lila Thai Massage “Spa” and within minutes were in our chairs for our one hour massage.

At first this seemed like an exceptionally long time to have only your feet massaged (there was no shorter option), but when you see the extent of the technique it makes sense. For me, I learned a lot from this experience in a way I couldn’t have predicted. This style of foot massage, which distinguishes all the pressure points on your feet, is a good way to practice being in the moment, with whatever arises. Some of the pressure points felt uncomfortable, some of them felt good all the way up to the top of my head, some of them hurt like crazy, some of them tickled, and some of them simply felt neutral. Perhaps most interesting were the pressure points on the tips of our toes, which can trigger feelings in your entire body – all my life I’ve been walking on these feet and I had no idea they were so complex!

Our therapists were very friendly, but overall the experience had some subtle nuances. For instance, photography was strictly prohibited, presumably to protect the privacy of the women. Also, there was a sign on the wall that said something to the effect of: “Dear Customer, If you see the women speaking to each other during your treatment, acting inappropriately or making you feel uncomfortable please report it to the front desk”. As Jennifer said, apparently they aren’t quite out of the woods yet!

After our foot pampering we hopped into another tuk tuk and headed back to our hotel to do our final pack-up and check-out. Fortunately we still had enough time for lunch, so we borrowed bicycles from the hotel and headed to a restaurant our guide had recommended.

The restaurant, Whole Earth, had an extensive offering of vegetarian dishes on their Thai/Indian menu. We ordered several dishes to share and really enjoyed all of them.

The restaurant was on a quaint property that felt like a secret garden tucked away from the hustle and bustle. We had found yet another gem.

Then came our journey to Krabi. The two hour flight from Chiang Mai to Krabi was uneventful. During the flight it occurred to us that we had really no idea what to expect as far as our transfer from the airport to our hotel. We knew it involved a drive and a boat because the hotel is not accessible by road, but we had no idea what the distance or travel time would be. We trusted that it would all work out, but we had to admit we were a little out of our element with the unknown.

From here, each step in the journey got more interesting than the last. We were picked up in a van from the airport and had a 30 minute drive to a pier. When the van stopped not quite at the pier, our driver pointed at a motorbike with a side car that was apparently waiting for us. After looking at each other and shrugging we got out of the van and into the side car that our bags were now being placed into. Our driver took off in the van and we were being transferred now by the motorbike, to what we assumed was a boat. Fortunately our assumption was correct and after we were transported down a long pier (not accessible by car), we were greeted at the end by a very slick transfer boat (that Papa would be very impressed by). The rather old gentleman who drove the motor bike then carried our 50 pound bags down a treacherous set of sagging concrete steps to the boat.

We then got on the boat and took off out into the dark unknown waters, assuming this would be our final transfer before our arrival at our hotel. Not quite! The water in front of the hotel was presumably too shallow for the boat, because we were met about 100-150 feet beyond the waters edge by a cross between a dock and a pontoon boat, being dragged by a tractor driven by yet another person responsible for getting two Canadian sisters traveling together to our hotel. Once the dock/boat was on shore we stepped off and were greeted by two very friendly and welcoming hotel staff who escorted us to the lobby where they had lovely lime coconut refreshments waiting for us.

During our boat transfer, although it was dark, it was very clear that we are in the midst of pure paradise-like beauty. Once settled into our pavilion with room service on the way, we took a quick walk down to the beach and were awe struck and giddy. We can't wait to see what awaits us when we wake up tomorrow morning and see this beautiful place in daylight.

With love to our friends and family,

Laura & Jennifer ❤❤