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My name is Margo and I am a massage-aholic.
I first became addicted as a teenager on a beach in Bali when a sweet-faced
woman in a sarong knelt in the sand beside me and melted my sun-warmed
muscles.
Before long I found myself being
pummelled in steamy Turkish baths, partaking of strange soapy rituals in
Brazil and on the receiving end of some serious African body drumming in
Zambia. I prowled dark alleyways in Shinjuku in search of shiatsu; I needed
to be kneaded.
But it was in Thailand where I finally
found a culture as obsessed with massage as I was, to the point where it is
almost part of the religion. The country's oldest and most famous massage
school is set within one of Bangkok's temples, Wat Po, better known as the
Temple of the Reclining Buddha.
Mention massage parlours in Bangkok and
many people think they are simply fronts for prostitution. While the city is
obviously renowned for that genre of entertainment, genuine Thai massage --
nuad phaen boran in Thai -- has a long and honourable history. It is not
just performed for relaxation but also for healing injuries and muscle and
joint problems with techniques similar to those used by chiropractors and
physiotherapists; massage is the earliest known form of physical therapy.
Traditional Thai massage is part yoga,
part Chinese acupressure, part reflexology and, some would say, part
torture. It is generally acknowledged to be the unarmed combat, full-body
version of massage -- not just your full body, but the masseuse's as well.
Sure, fingers and hands do much of the poking and prodding, but in Thailand,
elbows, feet and knees also enter into the process. You are asked if you
prefer "light, medium or hard." As with spicy food I started out
light. But just as I quickly craved more chili on my pad thai, I soon moved
on to more pressure. Before long, I was hooked on the hard stuff. So it was,
after a particularly gruelling and stressful year, that I took myself on a
two-week pilgrimage to Bangkok, where I would lay my stiff and aching
muscles upon the massage-mat altar of the world's massage mecca.
My muscles had no secrets from Chandee,
the petite Thai masseuse who unfurled a weary body compressed for 24 hours
into an economy-class seat. It was my first day in Bangkok and I had been
walking down Silom Road, passing one massage parlour after another when I
spotted Body Tune.
The faint aroma of lemon grass oil led me
out of the screaming traffic into a cool and quiet oasis where I changed
into loose silk jammies.
Chandee started at my feet as I lay on my
back and vigorously worked her way upwards. Then she flipped me over and
honed in on the string of tension knots paralleling my spine tied by months
of sitting in the computer pose. She annihilated a lump between my shoulder
blades born of whacking a squash ball and nurtured by schlepping a weighty
camera bag. She folded my legs and arms into pretzels, cracked my finger and
toe joints and strolled like a tightrope walker from my feet up my calves
and thighs. Standing astride my buttocks she shifted her weight from one
foot to another as if mashing grapes in a vat then leaned down to grab my
ankles, pulling them up to her sides where she pinned them while I swayed
like a rocking horse.
Asking me to sit up she then attacked me
from behind. Locking my arms through hers she bent my torso from side to
side, giggling as my vertebrae cracked. With her knees in the small of my
back she pulled me over them backwards. Throughout, she deftly walked the
line between pain and pleasure, waking up muscles that hadn't been used in
years. All that for US$8 an hour.
How can a massage aficionado be expected
to stay away from a country where the Public Health Ministry sees massage as
a means of lowering the nation's horrific road accident toll by sponsoring
neck and shoulder clinics at gas stations along the highways?
It is impossible to walk a single block
in Bangkok without passing dozens of cubby-holes occupied by pliers of foot
reflexology or Thai massage. A scalp and neck massage are standard
accompaniments to every haircut and you can order a professional masseuse
complete with an aromatherapy kit to your home, hotel room or office. Within
the next 18 months, Thai Airways' business-class passengers will be able to
sleep in seats equipped with back massage machines.
Massage has always been a part of daily
life in Thailand; mothers begin regularly massaging their babies at eight
months. Those who do not learn the technique from their parents generally
enrol in the Wat Po academy, where 50% of Thais learn the skill only to
massage family members. Temples, like monasteries in the West, were once
traditional centres of learning and Wat Po was Thailand's' first university.
At one time sciences and humanities were taught amid the spires where
saffron-robed monks stroll in the heart of Bangkok's old city. Archeology,
literature, medicine and the other disciplines eventually moved to other
venues, but the teaching of traditional massage and herbal medicine lingered
at Wat Po. In 1836, when King Rama III became alarmed at the dwindling
numbers of massage practitioners he passed a royal decree that all their
knowledge should literally be carved in stone so it would not be lost. The
60 stone plaques depicting pressure points and the energy lines believed to
flow through the body remain to this day at a pavilion near the massage
school where visitors line up for treatment amid the aroma of herbs.
Many Thais believe the best massages are
given by blind people, that their lack of vision enhances other senses such
as touch and perception. An hour's drive outside of Bangkok, on a quiet maze
of country roads still plied by rickshaws, is a massage school run by the
Foundation for the Blind in Thailand. Father "John" Somchart, a
Catholic priest, oversees the two-year training of young men who come from
villages across the country to learn life skills and massage technique on
the tranquil grounds. Many arrive with no education at all and for the first
year are taught everything from personal hygiene to computer skills. The
entire second year is massage training and graduates are among the most
skilled in the country. To learn physiology and anatomy they use dummies and
a wall chart of the human body in which raised thumb tacks mark the pressure
points and grooves indicate nerves and energy lines.
As a no-frills part of daily life,
massage in Thailand has yet to develop the many gimmicks and frivolities of
Western spas. But they're working on it. The signature Mandara Massage at
the Royal Orchid Sheraton's spa is a remarkable combination of Japanese
shiatsu, Thai, Hawaiian Lomi Lomi, Swedish and Balinese performed by not
one, but two young Thai women. The massage was done in tandem, each sweeping
stroke from my ankles to my shoulders was done in unison as if they were
performing a body concert. It actually felt strange at first -- four hands,
four elbows, four knees.
As I sampled a broad cross-section of
Thai massages, I learned that quality often has little to do with price.
Just as a US$1 bowl of green chicken curry at a roadside stand in Bangkok
can be as tasty as the same curry at a first-class hotel for 10 times the
price, a US$4 foot massage in the lobby salon of the old Vietnam-era Grace
Hotel can be every bit as satisfying as the equivalent in a costly spa. The
difference is atmosphere, decor and level of peripheral pampering -- just as
you might prefer your curry without traffic fumes and flies. To get more
bang for your baht at local massage parlours look for posted assurance they
have been authorized by the Thailand Department of Traditional Medicine.
I had one more stop to make on my massage
pilgrimage, a little more than a two hour drive south of the capital in Hua
Hin on the Gulf of Siam. This is where Thailand's royal family lives most of
the year, in a beachside compound alongside resort hotels and golf courses.
Recently, the country's first health resort, called Chiva-Som, was voted the
World's Best Destination Spa by Condé Nast Traveler magazine.
Chiva-Som's massage and treatment menu
fills a hefty booklet. This resort offers more ways in which to be
par-boiled in steam and hydrotherapy, baked in saunas, scrubbed, pummelled
and coddled than any other location in the country. On top of that is a full
schedule of activities from yoga and meditation to Thai boxing and ballroom
dancing.
I strolled through gardens, past
lotus-studded ponds and exquisite classical Thai-style pavilions to the spa
where my body treatment had been scheduled for early morning. Since I had
only had one cuppa I chose the Thai Coffee Scrub made from locally grown
Thai coffee beans and pumice. Then I was covered in a warm mash of papaya
purée to cleanse my pores. Wrapped in a sheet of plastic foil, I was told I
would marinate for 20 minutes. Next was the Thai Herbal Massage, in which
the masseuse pressed a muslin bag filled with hot steamed herbs up and down
my energy lines.
After two weeks in Bangkok I could not
picture ever managing enough stress to meet another deadline. I moved calmly
through my day, noticed I had taken on that slow Thai sway when I walked,
slept like a log. I had achieved massage nirvana.
- Wat Po Thai Traditional Medical and
Massage School; e-mail WatPoTTM @netscape.net; foot massage course, US$85,
15 hours over three or five days. Thai traditional massage course US$166, 30
hours over five days
- Mandara Spa; Sheraton Royal Orchid;
tel.: 02-639-5476;www.mandaraspa-asia.com; 50 minute Thai coffee scrub
US$42.85; 60-minute Mandara (two masseuse) Massage $95.
- Chiva-Som; www.chivasom.com; from
US$345 a person, double. Includes all meals and a daily massage.
- National
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