Thailand is known for its cheap spa treatments and Phuket’s main streets are lined with salons and spas. After dinner one night, Molly and I decided to go get a $10 USD pedicure/manicure from a local shop. We walked into the salon and the fumes of chemicals engulfed us….imagine the smell of a US nail salon, but with no ventilation. I thought I was going to get high just from being in there. The place was packed, and there was one only woman available to do nails. She started on me, and I was thinking, “This is going to be a long night if she has to do my nails and then do Molly’s nails…” but my thought was interrupted as the ladiest of the lady-boys came out of the back room. She was about 6 feet tall, as skinny as a twig, and completely looked like a man in women’s clothing. There was no confusion as to whether or whether or not she was really a man. She had on teeny-tiny jean cut-off shorts that were probably a size 0 but kept sliding down because she had no hips to keep them up, bright red lipstick and bright blue eye shadow, and a frilly little tank top. I about died when she walked over to Molly and started giving her a manicure.
The salon did a pretty good job and the people ended up being really nice, but because of the extreme humidity and heat of Thailand mixed with the fact that they didn’t let the one layer of nail polish dry before putting the next on, our pedicures became sloppy messes when we went into the jungle two days later. On the hottest day the polish became sticky and squishy, and dirt and who knows what else was stuck to our nails. That was the first and last of my Thai mani/pedis.
There is decent shopping in Kata Beach, mostly touristy stuff but a cute clothing store pops up once and awhile. We found one such store and went crazy trying on dresses. Note that this store was probably the size of my bathroom in St. Louis, and there were no dressing rooms. We had to use the trick of putting one layer over another, then taking off the under layer to see how the outer layer really looked. I ended up buying five dresses for about $70 USD, and two of them were maxi dresses that were a little too long. The shop owner agreed to have them tailored and I was to come back and pick them up the next day, all included in the price. There were no receipts or claim tags exchanged. When we showed up the next night, she simply remembered who I was and handed me the dresses.
Picture: Molly and her manicurist.
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