The front entrance to Lady Naya Villas. We were standing here waiting for a Grab when a scooter went by with 2 people on it. Check it out!
We started the day with some sunshine. However, before we were done breakfast the skies opened up again. It’s starting to look like a massage day today.
Yesterday was overcast but it didn’t rain all day which allowed us to walk 5.7 km. We made a couple of trips up the hill and even walked to the Little Persian Restaurant where we had Falafel Wraps for supper. They were delicious. We sat around for a while and ended up visiting with the only other patrons in the restaurant. He was from Iran and she was from Belarus. They live in Thailand full time. Interesting talking to them. The woman from Belarus spoke perfect English. And, yes, she has heard of Alberta and their Covid fiasco.
With the outlook so rainy we decided to book a Thai massage. We messaged Pa, the therapist Gary had last time, and we ended up booking for the two of us at 6 pm. Not exactly our ideal pick of times.
Once the sun came out we ordered a Grab to take us to the Big Buddha. It cost ฿172. We did wonder if we would ever be able to get a Grab back to the villas when we were done. It’s a long way to the Big Buddha up a twisty road! In the end after walking around the Big Buddha site it cost us ฿600 to get a taxi back to Rawai, it was cheaper than Grab at ฿638. Once they have you up there it’s a captive market. Literally. It’s a mile up and miles from anywhere!
It’s a very interesting structure. It is giant! We got a few good pictures and some video while we were there. We also purchased a tile as a donation to help maintain and rebuild the Buddha. You write your name on the back and it will be used on the upgrade. We also were blessed by a monk. He does a chant and places a bracelet on each of our wrists, Linda’s on the left wrist and Gary’s on the right wrist. He then did a blessing using some palm frond tied together and dipped in water. We both were bowing our heads trying to keep our glasses dry!!
We had the taxi back from the Buddha drop us at Thai Food by Tookky. An order of chicken satay and vegetable spring rolls and a couple of soda waters helped to fill us up a bit. The weather started to look rather threatening again, so we headed out hiking down the road to the massage place. We had to break out the umbrellas shortly after we started and walked thru a gentle rainfall, thankfully the sky didn’t open up. While we were a bit damp when we arrived they weren’t too worried we were a few minutes early. Both our massage girls, Pa and Fang arrived just minutes after we did and before we knew it we were getting our Thai massage. They did an amazing job!! The owner Oi, told us she owns the Sports Massage across the street also and opened Herb Massage this year. Herb Massage is very small, only two massage beds and two chairs. She uses Herb Massage as a teaching spa and actually lives in the back. She said it is very convenient to be able to be back and forth between the two locations. While she said this was a teaching spa, we certainly never felt the massage therapists were anything but proficient. We both had excellent massages and will be back again!
After our massage we hiked home, stopping at our favourite little locally owned shop to pick up some more soda water. His wife was on the till tonight and she warmly welcomed us, her husband was in the back part and he called out his greeting. They certainly recognize us and know us. We’ve totally wiped out their supply of locally produced candied peanuts and brittle and they’d had to restock the water and beer cooler multiple times after our visit. We are happy to support a small local business who has likely found it very difficult in the past year with fewer tourists and less money in locals pockets.
We had a good outing, we always wondered if it was going to rain on us. Weather! The other unknown is whether you can get a Grab or not. Now we have been here for a while, we are re-thinking the whole rental car idea as we have seen how the traffic moves. Red lights are just a suggestion and if you slow down you best be putting your 4-way blinkers on. Maybe we’ll rent a car next time. Driving on the left side of the road is backwards for us.