Pampering myself

Spa treatments are incredibly cheap over in Asia, so of course I had to indulge. I went to a swanky hotel that has a spa in it called Sanctuary and had a 2 hour massage for $30. It was heavenly. When I walked into my "room," I assumed it would just be the room where you get changed and eat some fruit and wait for your masseuse to come and get you. No, this room was all that AND my room with the bed where I'd get my massage. It all came together. I had my own change room so I didn't have to worry about other naked women walking getting changed (ok, I know most people back home use the individual change rooms within the main change room, but some weird people still change right out in the open and I'm not used to that - sorry if you're one of those people - not every one's comfortable with that - hee hee). Here, take a look at some of the pics.

In the 3rd picture you can see two chairs at the back of the room. I sat here and soaked my feet first and got that amazing scrub on them and my calves, then layed down for my 2 HOUR massage! Afterwards, behind that wall where the chairs are, is my very own tub, steam room and shower. My very own! Again, no awkwardness walking into a steam room when other people are in there. I'm not a huge lover of the steam room (I start feeling like I can't breath after awhile), but I do enjoy a good 5 - 10 minutes of it. I sat in my steam for 20 minutes, so I was really sweating and ready to be done, but extremely relaxed, then had my shower and took my leave. Beautiful!

Next, my sister's friend had 2 facial certificates that she wasn't going to use before they expired, so she gave them to us. NICE! It didn't say how long they were, so I was expecting them to be about an hour, so you can imagine my surprise and delight when we arrived and they said it would be for 2 HOURS! Am I a lucky girl or what?

It was nice to be in the same room as my sister so we could chat if we wanted to, although trying to talk after they had put these masks on us was quite interesting. We had many giggles. Afterwards we talked about getting another one right before I left to come home (as this was in my first week or so of being there) but I said that I was hoping to have a tan by the end of my trip and didn't know what a facial would do to a tan. We tried to ask the girls what would happen, but it was one of those "lost in translation" experiences because they said, "Oh yes. You come back and we will take care of that tan. We will take it right off and make you white again." They couldn't understand that I would WANT my face to be tanned because they all walk around with umbrellas and big visors trying to protect themselves from the sun. Yeah, they're probably the smarter ones, but I can't help loving the look of a tan. Oh yeah, and I didn't make another appointment to go back there later. :)

Then we went for pedicures. This store had just opened and it was good, however, they didn't have enough technicians to clients so one minute you would be getting a massage on your legs, then you would wait for 10 minutes because she had run to do another client and then another technician (is that the right term for them?) would come and they pretty much played musical chairs. It was quite funny. We were supposed to be there for an hour and a half and we ended up being there for 3 hours (for $30). Luckily I had bought a new book that morning and brought it with me. It was the new Mitch Albom story (Tuesdays with Morrie) called For One More Day. It was quite good. I read it in one day, so it's an easy read. He said he wrote it because he was talking to his Mom on the phone one day and after he hung up he thought, "What if that was the last time I ever talked to my Mom." So he wrote this book about this guy who gets one more day with his Mother who had passed away a few years before and he had much more he wanted to say to her.

Anyways, I forgot to take a picture of our toes afterwards, but I had a deep purple done on mine and my sister had a pinky/purply/red done on hers. She asked a couple of days before I was going to leave if I wanted to go get another one, and although I did, I said that it wouldn't be smart as I would just go home and put socks and shoes again anyway and no one would see my lovely toes. :(

Pampering yourself can be very nice ... especially when you feel you deserve it and it's cheap. :)