Day 18 – Phuket, interviews and high end massages!
Today was a strange day. First, the good news, our legs have had 2 days off after we decided to stay in Phuket an extra night to accommodate more interviews organized by คุณบังอรรัตน์ ชินะประยูร of the Phuket Tourism of Thailand Office. I really don’t know how many different groups of media turned up, but the free cakes and coffee must have helped, because my guess was that at least 4 different media outlets turned up to interview us about our trip.
I think the fact is that they all had a look at our website and our amazing bicycle features on the front of the site and immediately their interests were peeked. We did a lot of talking about the website, our trip, and the bicycle in addition to taking a lot of photos with us on it and riding around. they also took a lot of photos of us all standing around, and sitting around, and talking around, and… well, you get the picture.
I believe Natt did an amazing job of responding to the questions which were all in Thai, spoken by a group of people all talking way too fast for me to understand much of what was going on. I have noticed that I can usually tell which stories about the trip she is telling because I know her voice and also the locations, the town names and her body language give it away. Recognizing this, I’m pretty sure I laugh and look concerned in the right places of her stories, conveying to the others my apparent proficiency in Thai language.
After our interviews, which took a couple of hours, we headed back to the hotel to catch up on some emails. While we were sorting through these we received a call saying TAT had organized a visit for us to Sukko, a very high-end spa and pampering service in Phuket. We really didn’t want to cycle out to the location (it was a rest day for the legs) but we knew that we definitely wanted to go and be pampered. So we managed to borrow a motorcycle from Natt’s friend and headed to this plush spa place.
It was over the top, and very lovely. I’ve never been to a spa like this before, it reminded me a little of the hot spring Onsen in Japan I once visited back in 2002. Sukko staff showed us the product list and asked what we would like to do, the price range of treatments started at 4,000 Baht and went up from there. I must admit that most, if not all, of the stuff on the list was way too fancy for me. So we opted for a plain old Thai Massage with a Shower/Steam Bath/Jacuzzi before the massage to ‘soften up’ the sore muscles.
It was great! I did feel pretty good just after the Shower/Steam Bath/Jacuzzi as I waited for Natt before going to the private massage room reserved for couples. In the shower room I didn’t really know what to do, I stripped off and a Thai man gave me a pair of ‘shorts’, which I wore to the shower. After the shower I did 10 minutes in the steam bath, and then 10 minutes in the Jacuzzi. I was then given clothes that resembled the uniform of the spa staff, probably because the bathrobe usually given to customers was deemed a little too small for me.
As I changed and put on these clothes I got a strange compliment from one of the bathroom attendants, I don’t remember exactly what it was but I was standing there naked trying to put on some underpants made of a similar lightweight material to free airplane socks and the attendant said something about my package. I’m going to assume it was something nice, because I really was just flustered and trying to get dressed and ready for my massage.
The massage was A1, definitely one of the best I’ve ever had in Thailand. The massage lady was maybe in her 50s and did an amazing job, and as I sit here I’m still feeling very good from the whole experience at the spa. Natt, on the other hand, was a little shocked when her massage lady, who was maybe in her late 20s, gave her naked breasts a massage. After the massage, Natt was telling me the story of her amorous massage and we both had a good laugh.
So, if you’re in Phuket and want a first class Spa I would suggest asking for Sukko Spa (www.sukkospa.com). It is worth the visit to the Phuket town side of the island to spend a few hours here and pamper yourself. I think my treatment cost 2,000 Baht (about $70) for 2 hours of relaxation. I’m sure you could spend a lot more, but compared to what you will receive in Australia for the same amount of money the treatment at Sukko Spa is sure to please.
It’s an early dinner tonight since we’ll be rising at 5:00am and getting on the bicycle at 5:30am. Our plan is to be out of Phuket and into Phang Nga before the heavy traffic starts. We have more interviews lined up with local media in Phang Nga when we arrive. It’s probably not going to be as pleasant as this morning’s interviews were since we will arrive in Phang Nga in the afternoon, sweaty and stinky from a hard day’s ride.
