Well, the stomach cramps have sadly not been washed away by a thousand consumed bottles of water, but today is my birthday and nothing will stop me from enjoying myself!
I've never celebrated a birthday in a foreign country before. I've also never celebrated away from family and friends, which is only partially true for this birthday. I am fortunate to have our high school buddy and our favorite Canadian couple all visiting Bangkok around this day, so we get to celebrate as a group and really experience Bangkok - "the city of angels." I will never understand who calls the city by this name. Irony doesn't begin to define it.
My special day starts with 3 hours of pampering at Divana Spa. I've never had a spa day before, and Asia seems like the best place to try it. The spa is surrounded by a lily pad pool and bubbling fountains. In the lobby I am served cold tea with a cold towel rolled up over a fresh piece of lemongrass to make it smell nice. I choose from five oils to select my aromatherapy theme, lavender is my choice for today.
I am given my own room complete with massage table, shower and a beautiful deep square tiled bath. I am also given my own masseuse for the days treatments. The day actually progresses rather slowly and I can luxuriate in lavender aromas and the touch of a caring woman, who works out all my knots from months of bad mattresses. I get a foot scrub to start, followed by a long body scrub to rid my skin of Bangkok dirt and backpacker grime that turns out to be massage number one. Then I have a sauna experience in the shower - an "herbal steam." This is promptly followed by a warm milky bath with rose petals. I haven't experienced a bath tub in 10 months, and boy I miss it! Next is snack time, my favorite: banana and yogurt with honey and some more of their fantastic tea, which has a very unique flavor I can't name, except that it reminds me of Cheetos for some reason - but trust me it's sophisticated and refreshing! After my snack I get a long, long massage with my lavender oil. This is simply the most heavenly treat I have ever given myself, and it costs only about $100, in the States it would easily have been quadruple or more.
My wonderful husband surprises me with birthday cake when I am reluctantly released. The kind ladies at the spa even light a candle. We are served beautiful dragon fruit bowls as a refresher before we venture out into the real world.
We meet up with the crew for a spicy Thai dinner and then back to our hotel for Changs on the rooftop. After the sun has set, we make our way to the famous Khao San Road - which resembles a crazy low-budget Asian Las Vegas with neon lights competing for attention. We drawn to an Irish bar because everyone outside has a tower of beer on their table. Ten minutes later we are all drinking from a tower of beer. The night is quickly becoming awesome. By the time we leave our beloved beer tower empty, there are plenty of vendors on Khao San entertaining us with their wares. Two of our party have become very interested in a cart selling crispy grasshoppers, fried grubs, and deep fried cockroaches, among other disgusting "treats." I will neither reveal the names of those two people nor what they ate. But I can tell you it was a real laugh to watch this all go down. After the bugs and some Pad Thai from a more respectable food vendor, we head to The Club for some dancing. Early in the morning, we all make it home, despite some very convincing ladyboys who offered x, y, and zoo not appropriate. Altogether, the most memorable birthday I could imagine. Hats off to the fearless friends who joined us, especially considering half of us were afflicted with the dreaded wombat stomach (don't ask).
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