In August of 1997 I was stranded in Bangkok for a week due to unforeseen complications involving a function permit. August is technically during monsoon season in Thailand and the skies over Bangkok would sometimes open to sudden downpours, causing the streets to turn out to be rushing rivers of brown water that reached up to my shins, but vanished in a matter of minutes, thanks to the city’s efficient drainage system. During my time in Bangkok, in between quests for a operating bank machine, trips to the travel agent, World wide web café and the odd Buddhist temple, I took the time to treat myself to many Thai massages. Given that the Asian Economic Crisis was in full swing, exchange prices had been particularly excellent, providing rates that enabled even a spendthrift like me to splurge on luxuries I would typically balk at. The Thai Baht equivalent of $ 3 for a half hour’s massage or $ five for a complete hour was an opportunity I could not pass up. Mind you, these have been massage clinics and schools in the backpacker district surrounding Bangkok’s popular Khaosan Road, and were either open-air street side affairs or glass-fronted shops with an open-strategy layout related to what you discover in a hairdresser.
What I read about Thai massage in the data supplied at the clinics was that it is an official branch of Classic Thai Medicine combining Eastern systems like Indian Ayurveda, standard Chinese medicine and yoga. What I experienced was a far cry from the virtually sacred New Age atmosphere of pampering and vital oils 1 finds at many Western massage therapy establishments. The Thai massage practitioners have been largely stout middle-aged ladies with strong arms, who chatted loudly with every single other even though functioning on their consumers. For me this was no difficulty, as I was looking for one thing to relieve and invigorate my muscles soon after extended days spent pounding the hot pavement, rather than a luxurious urban oasis overflowing with white towels and windchimes.
One particular factor that is great about Thai massage is the informality and simplicity of it all. It functions very best if the client is fully dressed (but shoeless), so there is no question of modesty, and no oil is employed, so you will not emerge from your therapy feeling greasy and in require of a shower. The often-used moniker “Thai yoga massage” is a extremely precise description for only containing three words. Obtaining a Thai massage feels extremely significantly like practicing “passive” yoga while getting a particularly assertive massage. Pressing and massaging muscle tissues with palms, fingers, knees and elbows, combined with the manual stretching of limbs at the quite capable hands of a trained Thai massage specialist leaves one particular feeling pretty fantastic, even if some of the techniques can be a bit uncomfortable when becoming applied. It could be advisable to let the therapist know when you really feel some discomfort, but I was young, foolish and brave and believed I’d like to get the “complete experience” my Thai massages had to offer you, which in hindsight have been sometimes a bit painful. So when asked, “do you have pain?” I stubbornly shook my head and lied.
Some years later, as part of my own massage education, I took a two-week course on Thai massage and discovered the basic techniques and philosophy behind the practice. Identified in Thailand as nuat phaen boran or nuat thai, Thai massage operates along the notion of advertising wellness by stimulating “sen” or power lines, taken from conventional Chinese and Indian medicine, but the final results felt by the recipient of the massage are decidedly significantly less esoteric. The patient lies upon the floor instead of a table like in most Western massage systems and is at times produced to sit up, stretched, pulled and prodded in what comprises an invigorating encounter and an finish result which is radically diverse from your typical spa massage.
These days, Thai massage is becoming nicely known throughout the globe and clinics supplying Thai yoga massage are springing up all over. For a wonderfully special massage encounter, Thai massage is heartily advisable.