Tuesday morning I walked into town for a massage at Lila Massage. This is a place (actually a chain of 5 locations) that is run by a former Women’s prison director. The Women’s prison here has a program that trains the prisoners in Thai massage. The prison also offers massage there very cheaply, to give the trainees experience. I was going to go to the prison but I’d read where there are often very long waits and sometimes you are even asked to come back the next day. After hearing about Lila from our new friend Lesley, and reading about them online, I decided to try.
It’s a 20 minute walk into town, which was my morning exercise. Beautiful morning to do it, nice and cool and refreshing. The Lila I chose is right behind Dash’s Teakhouse, so I knew exactly where I was going and fearless crossed every road – the moat road was surprisingly easy this morning. You pass about a gazillion massage places on the way – but I was into the socially conscious mindset rather than the convenience mindset.
And, to be honest? It was totally worth the walk. The entrance is through a large wooden arch type structure, very rustic and Thai. You enter into a beautiful garden, where the open air cashier area is located. After choosing your service from the large menu (I opted for only the 1 hour Thai massage), you pay up front then are greeted by your masseuse, who takes you to a little area with sinks that resemble bird baths on the ground, so she can wash your feet.
Once cleansed, you don a pair of bamboo flip flops and your shoes are stowed in the shoe cubby at the door. Then you are shown to a changing room where they provide “Thai” clothes – those little pants that wrap around and tie in front, and short sleeve loose fitting button up shirt. Your belongings go in a locked locker, and off you go the massage room.
It’s a communal room with maybe 6 or 8 beds, separated by curtains. A cup of tea is provided, and once consumed, your hour begins. My masseuse put on her little germ mask (love it!), hopped up on the bed and dug in – she was wonderful – just the right amount of pressure and stretching (this was a combination push-me-pull-you and traditional muscle type massage). A perfectly wonderful experience, and I’m so glad I did it. May even go back again next week for a massage – and maybe a foot massage too!
Back home, another afternoon of reading and writing. Then dinner. We don’t do pizza, but……we had decided we wanted something different and had read rave reviews on a place up by the Warorot market. Street pizza and Wine Houzz. Hey – good combo! It’s located in a 100 year old former school with a balcony overlooking the street and some cool interior decorations. What the heck? We’ve already been horrible about our carb intake….re-entry into Asheville will be like going back on Atkins for the very first time! I’m thinking ketosis time again!
So, anyway, we navigate our way through the night market sidewalk congestion, walk up the stairs past the pizza oven – authentic – wood burning – through the wonderful high ceiling interior with the cool little pedicab, wine bottle chandelier and a nice little band…
…and out onto the balcony overlooking the street for dinner. Nice.
We started with the fried zucchini sticks. Fantastic. Worth coming back just for those – they were so perfectly done and delicious. Then we each order a small pie – Hawaiian for me, Meat Lovers for Ed – both excellent and both coming home with us for Friday night left overs dinner!
Wednesday day time….don’t know! But night time, we did go back to Tawan’s and spent a very enjoyable time sitting on the side veranda with our cheese (very small, but very good) and beer and wine.
It’s a cute little place, with lots of folks who are obviously regulars. We think think the owners were sitting at the other table on our side, because one of the girls sounded like she was in charge of everything and kept telling our servers what to do – she even got us our cheese. They were incredibly friendly and nice, and sitting in our little corner with a jauntily attired rocking horse, listening to the owners’ chatter and watching the world go by was quite enjoyable.
Home later, we heated up our left over pork concoction then settled in to watch O.J.
Thursday, we had another Law and Order marathon (helps beat the mid-day heat), then had Vietnamese for our evening meal. Pho Anh2 just opened up on our side of town, so we went to indulge in authentic Vietnamese cuisine (the owner is from Saigon). A small little unassuming store front, these guys (well, gals, they were all girls there) put out some seriously great Vietnamese food. We started with the spring rolls which were probably the best we’ve ever had. Fresh, moist, tasty – and you can see the shrimp for yourself.
Ed got his Pho jones fulfilled, while I had grilled pork with vermicelli – not Bun Cha exactly, but still oh so very, very good!
We finished out our evening at Bamboo – of course – then came home to pack for our Elephant excursion in the morning. Elephants!!!
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