Kata Beach, Phuket, ThailandA beachside manicure? All kinds of services are offered at beaches. You can buy an ice cream bar from a strolling vendor, sip a Margarita at a tiki bar, or eat seafood salad at a restaurant named for a pirate. Souvenirs abound, with everything from shell necklaces to bright plastic toys being peddled on the sand. You can go parasailing, take a banana boat ride, or ride the waves on a boogie board. But a manicure?

On Thailand’s Phuket Island, you can choose personal care and pampering as your adventure activity. At Kata Beach, raised platforms sit under the trees at the back of the beach, next to the sea wall. Signs offer a Thai massage, an oil massage, a foot massage, and a tension releasing head, neck, and shoulder massage. Personal maintenance is also offered. Walk away across the sand with newly braided hair or bright red fingernails and toe nails. If your feet are roughened by weeks of sightseeing, you can have the “Remove Foot Skin” service, also known as “Young Foot” or “Clean Foot”.

Hair braiding only requires that you, the braidee, sit a level convenient to the braider. Other indulgences will start with sand removal. Stand still and lift your arms from your side while a soft cloth or brush flicks over your body. Then lie down on the platform and relax.

While you are being polished, pummeled, or both, listen to waves hitting the shore only twenty feet away. Open your eyes to watch a long-tail boat motor past on the deep aquamarine water of the Andaman Sea, past green and rocky headlands and a tiny island.

What will this luxury cost? Massages start at 200 baht, and Remove Foot Skin costs as little as 300 baht. That’s less than $7 and $10 respectively, using an exchange rate of 32 baht to the US dollar. That‘s a price even the stingiest budget traveler can manage.

You can get manicures and pedicures in nail salons, and massages at markets, curbside shops, and even in temples all over Thailand. Expensive spas strive to create a luxurious, calm, and relaxing atmosphere. But none of these is as special as a beachside manicure.

Credits:

This article was written by Cindy.

Insight Pocket Guide Phuket (Insight Pocket Guides Phuket) author: Steve Van Beek asin: 0887294367