Family massage

In Siem Reap you can get an hour's massage for only $6, so we decided to award everyone in the family a massage. A first for the boys. We wandered around a bit, and finally picked a place more or less at random. We were sat down in chairs in the lobby, our feet bathed, and then we were escorted upstairs (through the restaurant next door!) to a massage room. The line of women sitting together on the couch outside the door watching television was reminiscent of a different kind of establishment, but...

We all went into a large room with 5 padded mats on the floor, with curtains (open) between them. We were handed towels to cover ourselves after stripping down to our undies, and stretched out on the mats. Since we were family, they didn't draw the curtains. The women fought a bit over the privilege of massaging "boy" (Declan), and he had to put up with their grinning over his unbearable cuteness (he gets this a lot here, and is dealing with it gracefully and politely).

The massages were good, though they don't have the quiet approach that one expects in the west. They chatted amongst each other, and quizzed me out our family and my work. Midway through the massage I found myself giving an English lesson, holding up various parts of my body and saying the names of them.

I will, however, always treasure the memory of all four of us stretched out on the floor together being pummelled and poked.