Suited and Booted

Ooooh I'm feeling a bit delicate this morning after a late night on the Chang beer, we didn't get in 'til 3am courtesy of a tuck tuck! They should have tuck tuck's in England. Hull is a nightmare place to get a cab on a weekend and it's not uncommon to be waiting well over an hour in the freezing cold after a night on the toooown! Here tuck tucks line the streets at all hours of the day and night, you often see the driver slumped in the back seat catching 40 winks before his next fare. It usually costs 60 baht (1GBP) to go anywhere in Chiang Mai, for tourists anyway, it's probably 20 for the locals!!

We haven't being doing much this week, just spending our last days of freedom relaxing by the pool and chilling out. The sun is out every day here and never a cloud in the sky, we have also seen some magnificent sunsets. Unfortunately we don't get up early enough to see the sun rise!

We have also been to get measured up for some new "Saville Row" style attire. I'm not sure if anybody knows but in Asia (mostly Thailand I think) they are fantastic tailors and can make you anything to wear with any fabric of your choice. We went in a couple of days ago to select some styles and fabrics, the shop has Armani catalogues etc and you just pick out the style you like, chose your fabric from the many different types they have in the shop and then they do the rest. Once we had told him what we wanted he measures you up and draws a small diagram of the specific requirements you have, this includes how many buttons you want on the cuffs of your shirt, if you want a back pocket, pocket with buttons, slits at the side of your shirt, rounded bottoms to your jacket etc etc. They really do go into the most intricate detailing to get the garment just how you want it. We arranged to go back the following night to see how our clothes were shaping up. Within 24hrs they had made us 4 shirts and 2 pairs of trousers, we then had to try them on to make sure that the fit was OK and to check the cut of the trousers. When I tried mine on I have to say I felt like a million dollars. The fabric we chose for our suits is Cashmere and the cut of the trousers was just amazing. I have never had anything made to measure before, I don't suppose many of you reading this have either. I normally buy my suits from Next straight off the shelf, opting for the best fit from the small selection they have. Having something made to fit though really is something special, and if you ever get to Thailand I would definitely recommend it. My trousers were a little bit big around the waist and baggy around the crutch, so the guy marks it all out with chalk where they need to be cut and sends them back to the anonymous seamstress. They came back another 24hrs later fully altered and perfectly fit. I was that impressed with the cut and quality that I ordered another pair of trousers and a shirt. I did enquire about having a wedding dress made but he said that it would take longer than a week so I didn't bother. We have both got Cashmere suits each, an additional 3 pairs of trousers and 5 shirts and it came to less than 300GBP. I'm sure my new suit will get me the job that I want when we get back ;o)

Matt went for a Thai massage the other day as he has been suffering with a bad neck for quite a while now and pain killers aren't giving him much relief. I left him in the shop as it was going to be over an hour that he would be in there. He looked like a child whose mum is dropping him off for his first day at school ;o) It wasn't one of the "dodgy" massage parlours, maybe that's why he looked so worried?!? He came back over an hour later like a new man, he was bending, stretching and full of beans, telling me how good he felt and going into detail about how they bent and stretched him this way and that way. He also said that all the pain in his neck had gone and that he could almost turn it 360 degrees. Definitely 3 pound well spent. But the effects were to be short lived I'm afraid, yesterday he woke up complaining that his neck was aching again, and he's never shut up about it since. Now I know where the saying comes from "what a pain in the neck". Anyway he is going back for another one tomorrow so we'll see if that cures him.

Massage and pedicure are so cheap here, as is hair dressing, dentistry, opticians, plastic surgery, handbags, sunglasses... No wonder they call it the land of smiles!!

2 more sleeps and then we are on our way...