On our last day in Chiang Mai we booked to do a Thai Massage course focusing on the back, back of the legs and shoulders. We loved it and felt that we learned so much as well as received a very good massage for most of the day!

Our teacher took it in turns to teach us each part of the massage working through a booklet we could take away with us. Each time she would demonstrate on one of us and then we would practice on each other so often we received the same thing twice! We thought this would be really useful for us when we move on as so many times we have wanted or craved a massage and given bits here and there without really knowing what we’re doing! Now we felt we would be able to do something with a little more purpose. Along with Thai massage techniques we picked up some stretching moves that work together with the massage. A full body massage often covers, hands, feet and face aswell as the rest of your body. It was also good to learn of the traditions of this massage.

We chose Namo for our massage course and they also offer half day to one week massage courses along with daily yoga drop in classes, they have good sized teaching and yoga rooms in a well-thought out space. The course cost 1100 baht each starting at 9am and finishing at 3pm. We had an hour for lunch which wasn’t included in the fee unfortunately but we did go to a great vegetarian place called Om pretty much opposite the Eastern gate on the inner wall side, it was so good we decided to go back there for dinner that night!

That same evening we took an overnight bus to Bangkok which left Chiang Mai at 7.30pm and we were really surprised to find that it wasn’t full, this mean’t we were able to spread out and have a double seat each. It was a very good journey with one stop, eventually arriving in Bangkok early at 5am. It only cost 300 Baht each with pick up – a bargain!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom 3)