My Bangkok temple tour had been cancelled when they tried to reschedule the tour, so I slept in then caught the free breakfast. Between cups of the thick, strong and awful coffee I alternated platefuls of pancakes and fried rice. Christmas music haunted me over the radio. I thought I'd miss out on the jingles and the lights by coming to Thailand, but a Christmas tree sat in the hotel lobby. I assume this was catering to the tourists from America and Europe, but our celebrations of Christmas are so unreligious, I guess we could export the festivities to Buddhist countries.

I'd heard a little about Thai massage before coming to Thailand, so when I noticed signs for "Traditional Thai Massage" in the lobby, I jumped at the chance. First I was given a pair of faded white and mint green striped pants several sizes too large to put on. Then the masseuse pointed my toes downward and upward. This was exactly the same movement recommended in the in-flight magazines for long flights that I had repeated many times the day before. Soon the massage moved away from actions that could be performed in an economy class seat. The masseuse pulled on my toes, cracked my fingers, pounded my legs and arms and even stood on the back of my thighs while pulling upward on my feet. One of the final "moves" (I say this because the whole experience felt more like wrestling than a massage) involved putting me in a full nelson to swing my torso around and cracked my lower back.

I did at least feel looser afterwards.

Nabeel arrived around 1pm, and we took a cab through Bangkok's afternoon traffic to Wat Pho, a Buddhist temple in downtown Bangkok. Someone tried to tell us that it was closed today, but we ignored him and found the entrance. Inside, Nabeel took me to the onsite Thai Massage School, for a more intensive version of this morningÕs activity. Done by the professionals at Wat Pho, I can only describe as Thai massage as being somewhere between wrestling and kneading bread. Bordering on painful, the masseuse drove her fingers through the backs of my calves nearly to the bone, or applied her foot to my thigh until I could feel the muscles sliding against one another. I would be sore the next morning.

Next we took a tour around the grounds, learning about the Chinese statues, the 7 Buddha positions, the best colors (red and gold) and the Po tree itself (from India, and the species the Buddha sat under when he achieved Enlightenment).

We then walked over to the river and hopped on a boat for a tour of the waterways near sunset. Afterwards a while Tuk Tuk ride took us to Khao San road. Khao San road is the backpacker hangout of Bangkok. We walked the street for a while, people watching, taking in all the tourists and locals, all the buying and selling. We settled into the Sidewalk Cafe for dinner and I had my first Pad Thai in Thailand.

After walking around Khao San some more and bargaining with the street merchants, we hunted out a cab that knew how to get to Comfort Suites. The first cab driver answered "Yes" to everything we asked, even "Where is Comfort Suites?". The second didn't seem any better, but then a Thai-English speaker talked to the driver and said we would be okay. Trusting him we got in. Just a little bit later the driver asked us where we were going. Eventually he handed his cell phone to us and we repeated "Comfort Suites" to the person on the other end of the phone and handed it back to the driver for him to get the directions. We repeated this a few times, but finally made it to the airport and then doubled back to our hotel.