I went to the spa today for a quick run on the treadmill before heading in for my Thai massage. The workout room is very nice with several treadmills, bikes, weights, etc. I wasn't sure what to wear because although we are at a Western hotel, I didn't want to shock them with the small amount of clothes I normally wear when running. I opted for a sleeveless tank and yoga pants since I was just doing a 2-mile jog. I am a sweaty girl when it comes to workout out, especially when I'm wearing too many clothes. So after about 3 minutes, the gym attendant came up to me with a towel. I said yes, thank you and instead of putting the towel in my outstretched hand, he started dabbing my face and neck with the towel for me. It was a little awkward, but I figured he was just trying to be nice and get a tip. I said thank you again and he walked away. I asked for the towel again, but he wouldn't just give it to me- he was my personal sweat dabber for 25 minutes!
After I was done in the treadmill I did some stretching and started on my core exercises. While in the middle of some crunches, the sweat dabber told me to get up. OK. I got up. He pointed at my love handles and said, "You're fat here." And then to my thighs: "and here!" OK..... "I'll fix it!", he said. "For 100 rupees." I wasn't sure what kind of miracle he had up his sleeve but for $2 I was going to find out!
It turned out that he wanted to give me a personal training session, even though he probably had no qualification to do so. For another 30 minutes I twisted and turned and did leg lifts and crazy things Brian would not approve of as the sweat dabber chanted, "Faster, faster faster!" Finally, I told him thank you and gave him his 100 rupees and went in for my Thai massage.
For the massage, I was told to change into my special "pyjamas." They had asked me my size when I scheduled the appointment, and then gave me a special locker with pants a shirt and sandals all laid out nicely for me. I put on the shirt, which was basically a loose, button down pajama shirt. Then I went to put on the pants and realized they gave me the wrong size. The waist on the pants was so big I could have gotten 5 of my bodies in each leg! After looking more closely, I figured out that they were one-size-fits-all and had a drawstring. Well, it looked like a drawstring but didn't actually "draw." Hmmmm... what do I do with this string and huge waist. Bunch the front of the pants up and tie the string around it? That sounded good to me! After a few tries, that's what I did and went out to meet the receptionist. She took one look at me and said let me help you. I knew there had to be something that made more sense! She took the two strings and tied them around my waist with all of the extra fabric on top and then folded the extra fabric over so that they wouldn't fall off, but I would still look like an oompa loompa!
The receptionist took my down to the meditation room where I was treated to chilled towels and cold tea (something I haven't seen anywhere else here yet). After that I went into the massage room with the therapist and started my massage. The massage was fantastic, but not what we are used to back home! She basically used her whole body to stretch my body and massage me. She walked on my legs, bent me in crazy positions and then sat on me, did handstands on me- crazy things! it was great and I'll definitely do that again while I'm here!
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