I ran all the way to the lake before this morning's training session so I'm pretty stuffed....ar....er.....stoked!

Yesterday morning my self and two other guys training at Sinbi went off to Patong in the morning to do some shopping. It was interesting having a look around but was a reminder to all of us of how good we've got it where we are staying. We have few tourists, food is dirt cheap and people are friendly - in Patong it's 'western overload' with even the stall holders putting on Australian or American accents to seal the deal.

One neat thing was the 'secret rooms' that the beach side markets had - the salesman would see you looking at something and then tell you he had a lot more in his 'secret room'. He'd then take you around a corner and down an alley to this room which which had its walls lined with DVDs and other items. The best bit was that the secret rooms were air conditioned. The whole experience was very James Bond-esk.

The other memorable experience from Patong yesterday was being accosted by girls from a number of massage parlors. We were working down a street, heading back to the beach to get a tuk-tuk and three of them came running out of the massage parlor and each grabbed on of us. We all struggled free and continued, which in itself doesn't make for much of a story except it happened another three times on the same road with each set of girls getting more physical in the process. The last assault saw two of us get free and Justin left behind being held back by this masseuse. Unfortunately he managed to struggle free by the time I got the camera out. I wonder how much business they actually get using these methods.

In the afternoon we went with the brothers Ali and Adam to a spa. Yes, this is not a typo I actually went to a spa. For 300baht (~$12AUD) we had a swim, sauna and an hour long traditional Thai massage in a resort like complex. In order to retain my last shreds of masculinity I declined the facial and manicure. The traditional Thai massage turned out to be quiet an experience with a demure little Thai girl pulling a number of moves on me that a professional wrestler would be proud of. I got twisted, kneed, elbowed, stood on and sat on, not to mention a few random punches, I discovered some new muscles I didn't know I had and found that some of my limbs can bend in ways I never imagined. Though I was apprehensive during the process, not being sure what manner of pain she was going to inflict next, I did feel better for the experience.