nation&culture:massageparlorsinthailand
Nation & Culture:
Massage parlors in Thailand
Massage in Thailand had its origin many years back in the palace. It was an indulgence for the senior royal members to enjoy a physical relaxation through the rubbing of the body by the young. The practice was later developed into a kind of healing for many ailments.
Modern massage in Thailand started a decade after the 2nd world war. With the increasing trades with Japan, Thailand learned to offer the Japanese style public bathing service to the ever increasing number of Japanese tourists and expatriates in Bangkok. Massage parlor or the so called Turkish bath at that time sprung up everywhere along the New Petchburi road in the early 60s. It was counted about 150 parlors along the few miles stretch of New Petchburi road at that time. This did not even include a few hundreds or so others parlors scattered around Bangkok metropolis such as the widely known Pat - Pong in Silom road and soi Texas in Sukhumvit area.
However, the name of the establishment did not actually reflect the work it supposes to render. All the massage parlors provide some type of sexual services in additional to the massage they do. Almost all customers are males of ages from 14-65. A typical standard service lasted from 2 to 3 hours. It started with a girl of your choice to give you a bath, follow with a body massage and sexual activities. The cost was from a mere US$ 0.50 to US$ 5.00 per hour depending on the type of decoration and facility of the various places then.
This type of massage parlors have evolved and upgraded into providing a full sexual service today. The charge has also gone up substantially to around US$ 50 to 100 for a two hours service session. Yet the core service remains the same. It starts with a girl of your choice to give you a bath, follow with a body massage and sexual activities.
There is also another type of massage known as Thai traditional massage in the market. It had never been attractive for a few reasons. First among them is there is seldom any sexual activities involved in this kind of massage. The second reason is all the masseuses are mature women of ages more than 35. Some of them are between 45-50 years old with over weight. Another reason is most of the places providing the services are old and sometimes unclean or unhygienic.
But with the influx of western tourists in the recent decades, traditional massage has become very popular among them. There has been a swift change in this category of massage service. New establishments are up everywhere like the blooming of the mushroom from the beaches, shop houses, department stores to the 5 stars hotel. The costs are varied depending of the place. But all are very reasonable indeed.
Thai traditional massage has never pay attention to the ears or the feet which the Chinese massage does. For the Chinese, all the veins and blood vessels eventually end at these two areas of the body. Hence, massaging these two parts of the organs freshen up the whole body. I bring up this because there is another kind of massage service in the market now called foot massage. It came with the increasing number of Chinese tourists to Thailand.
Chinese tourists came to Thailand doing a lot of walking for sight seeing and shopping that they never had done before in lives. Their legs are naturally become sore or even swollen. They do not want a body massage but a good feet massage. They introduced their homeland feet massage into the Thai market which had eventually become extremely popular among Thai recently. They are also ubiquitous and co-exist mostly with the Thai traditional massages. The cost is also similar to the traditional massages costing mostly around US$ 2-5 per hours.
There is another type of massage in Thailand came into the scene just slightly before the time of the feet massage. It is actually known as spa massage. Spa massage uses a lot of Thai herbs to massage the body. It started from a super 5 stars hotel in Bangkok about 15 years ago and spread out to other hotels and down to all sort of establishments. The spa massage comes in a full set and provides with bathing, facial, body and feet massage. It caters mainly for the well to do hi-so of local and the super rich tourist. A course of few hours spa massage can cost up to US$ 1000-2000.
So, you may see that massage can really mean anything to any person depending on what you are looking for in Thailand. It can mean prostitution in disguise or a place for socialization or a real relaxation from a good work of pressing and kneading of your body. And what ever you are looking for, we have them here in Thailand. They are all under the common trade name of unlicensed and unprotected intellectual property right “Thai massage”. So, come and enjoy.