合艾泰式按摩／李明熙
旅遊網站說，若沒有在合艾做 SPA，等於白來。合艾的大街小巷都有按摩中心，男女技師坐在店外以中英泰馬拉文落力拉客，泰式按摩價錢一般是 300 銖兩小時。唯獨冷眼一瞄店內格局，就缺少了曼谷街頭舖那種燈火通明的感覺，總覺得是「邪骨」。事實上，合艾的按摩業蓬勃，全靠鄰國馬亞的「骨精」推波助瀾。當然巿內亦有不少酒店提供正檔的 SPA，但價錢是街舖的四倍。
我們在晚飯後找了近一個小時，都沒找到合心水的按摩中心，唯有放棄，決定走上全巿最高的旋轉餐廳喝一杯。餐廳位於 Lee Garden Plaza Hotel 的 33 樓，因合艾有游擊隊攻擊的前科，所以入大廈時要經過安檢。在升降內我們看到 7 樓 Health Massage 的廣告，馬上轉移目標。看看門口的價目表，再瞄一下坐在大廳的中年女技師們，能在酒店內以街邊價格屹立，水準應有保證，決定每人來個 90 分鐘泰式按摩。
我的技師身型份量十足，是位客家泰國人，廣東話「識聽唔識講」。首 30 分鐘按腿，接著 30 分鐘腰背手臂，最後 30 分鐘頭頸肩，幾乎每一刻都清楚感受到，她把整個人的體重壓在我身上。我的骨骼柔韌度，隨著她的吐納而改變，慢慢為了減輕受壓，我開始跟隨她的吐納節奏。記得對上一次做泰式按摩是十年前的事，感覺像是被人打了一身，不好受。今次做完竟然輕微流汗，肌肉關節長年累月的痛楚完全消失，似是做了一場瑜伽，身心舒泰。離開時，我把口袋內最後的泰銖雙手奉上，作為小費。再在門口拍照，向大家推介。
A Border Crossing Mistake/Kimberlogic
Crossing the border from Thailand into Malaysia was easy and straight forward, but we made one of the biggest mistakes ever while traveling. For this border crossing, we took a minivan that sat about ten people. A minivan is faster than a standard size coach for driving time and also for border crossing due to the fact there are fewer people to wait for.
We always travel light, no matter where we go or how long we stay. There are many reasons we do this, but the main reason is for the convenience and freedom we have with only carrying a backpack. We can always manage our own bags, we can take the stairs if we need to and if we cannot drop our bags down before exploring a city, it isn’t too much of a hassle.
Our mistake was made when stamping out of Thailand, before entering Malaysia. The driver of the minivan told us to leave our bags in the van; no need to bring them through immigration. We never check-in luggage when flying, on large coaches we keep our bags at our seat, but being on a minivan with less room, we had to put our bags in the rear to make enough room for all of the passengers. Our bags were the first loaded on the van, so needless to say, they were the most difficult to get to behind all of the suitcases. Without thinking about it, we left our bags in the van as we got stamped out of Thailand.
After being stamped out of Thailand, we got back on the minivan and headed to the Malaysian immigration office. This time, all luggage had to be carried in case the Malaysian authorities wanted to search it. We were never searched and we had a seamless time crossing into Malaysia. While in the Malaysian immigration and customs office, there were numerous signs and warnings about what items are permitted and not permitted in the country. As with many Southeast Asian countries, drug trafficking is punishable by the death penalty; the customs office does not let you forget or miss this.
When we got back on the minivan, Ming Hay and I both looked at each other and we knew we had made a huge mistake by not keeping our bags with us the entire time. What were we thinking!? In the time it took us to get stamped out of Thailand, anyone could have put anything into our bags.
To make matters worse, as we drove away from the Thailand-Malaysia border, we were pulled over by Malaysian police. Not being able to speak Thai or Malay, we had no idea what was going on. We kept our fingers crossed that nothing was in our bags, but we were scared.
Luckily, we did not learn our lesson the hard way. The authorities sent us on our way without searching the vehicle or our bags. When we arrived at our destination, it was clear that there was nothing “extra” in our bags. We had a complete lapse of judgement for a moment that could have cost us our lives. Lesson learned.
