36 Hours in Bangkok

February 15, 2018

like thai boxing and thai spices, Thai massage is not for the weak. During a 60-minute session (350 baht) at Ruen Nuad — a humble wooden house amid the skyscrapers and crowds of downtown Bangkok — you become the soft target of the masseuse’s powerful knees, elbows, forearms and fists as he or she stretches you like Play-Doh, twists you like Twizzlers, folds you like origami and presses you down like an overstuffed suitcase. All the pulling, prodding, pummeling and, yes, punching can make you feel like the dummy in a model-mugging defense class, but you will walk outside feeling as limber and light as a ghost.