How two Vietnamese guys beat the crap out of us....
When a REALLY SMALL (physically) young woman, tells you that she will get a SMALL commission, if you'll let her walk you to the massage parlor, instead of just giving you the brochure, it give the word 'small', a whole new context.
You look into her soft brown eyes and you really want to help her.... So of course you say yes...
She leaps onto her feet and walks fast, zigzagging down side streets, weaving her small frame between the scooters which are tightly parked on every stretch of available sidewalk.
Occasionally, she throws a look over her shoulder, to make sure that you are still following her... Or have you changed your minds....
We start laughing...
Joking that the reason a 75 minutes foot massage cost only $9, is because it is actually located on the border with Laos, and not within the city limits of Saigon at all...
But she eventually stops, wait for us to catch up, and ushers us into a second floor of a massage place where I sigh with relief, when I see that our massage therapists are two strong young men.
I have gotten massages all over the world.
The ones I disliked the most, were given by Asian girls who had tiny hands and long fingernails.
Those massages felt like somebody was just rubbing oil all over my skin for an hour.... Occasionally scratching me with a sharp nail.
A good massage therapist, can rejuvenate your whole body.
We got massages from the blind, who are said to be more intuitive, and from old grandmothers, as well as from pretty girls, shirtless hard working guys with iron hands, and many more.
In Asia, None of them of course, not even the very best ones, are licensed.
Massage, especially foot massage, is a natural inclination in the culture.
Young children often massage the feet of their mothers, fathers, and grandparents.
It is common for a young boy or girl, to 'walk' on the back of her father, after a long day of planting rice in the fields.
Some of them give massages that are beyond good.
They know the landscape of our body, where we store tension and how to press or 'drum' on your body, right at the correct spots, and with exactly the right kind of pressure, to releases the emotions and energy that are stored in these muscles.
Without a doubt, the best foot massage I ever got, was in China.
But I got some very good ones in Thailand too, and so I gladly relaxed in my armchair and was intent on letting my therapist do his job.
The fact that he was a man was a GREAT sign.
We were warned about the massage places in Saigon which are nothing more than sex trade fronts.
But this was a clean place, with a large communal room filled with armchairs, and we were the only ones there.
A good reflexology massage, usually hurts.
A serious thumb pressure on sore spots at the bottom and around your feet, can bring tears to your eyes.
When you start silently crying from the pain, they will thrust into your hand a colorfully drawn map of your feet and its pressure points, and how they correspond to your organs, chakras and meridian lines in your body.
You know that this is good for you.....
You have gotten a massage like this after long walks and after being on your feet for days...... and it released all your pain and fatigue.
But this is REALLY painful.
These boys are merciless....
They poke their iron fingers into your skin and it feels like needles and pins and little painful hummers....
You want to tell them that you did NOT fight the war against their country..... definitely did not injured or killed their fathers,........ but these boys do not really care who is responsible for what...
You are their prisoner here...
And they are instructed to take no prisoners.....
The tears on my face, makes them laugh with joy...
Now they KNOW that they are doing their job well....
A 75 minute foot massage, includes a back massage, arms, head and the whole length of the leg, including your poor butt.
When they twist your knees and knuckles and you hear some strange cracking sounds... when the guy puts his whole body weight on your spine and jump and pushes hard on your back...
When you hear another scary crack....
You start to meditate....
You start thinking about the nature of pain...
And how it always borders anger.....
Pain and anger really do go hand in hand....
If you lay there in meditation, you are able to notice how emotions originate...
How they form their energetic shape out of nothingness.... In a reaction to a sensation... A translation... A quick judgement... And a quick decision... And here they are.....
From the minute a sensation of pain rises up.... I noticed that it has a sense of 'ownership' attached.
I started thinking how it might feel, if I let go of ownership of it....
If I did not feel that it is MY PAIN....
That he is twisting MY arm..... cracking MY ribs...
What if I'll surrender ownership of my body AND this PAIN, and would not claim it as MINE?
It sure did make the pain less sharp.
I can tell you this much.
It also did not automatically called for the rise of anger, which always follow pain.
You may ask why anger? What anger?
Well, mostly anger at myself, for not asking him to take it easy, touch me more gently, or why the fuck did I subject myself to this at all?...
But meditating during a massage, is not the same as listening to your aches and pain, during a Vipassana Meditation retreat.
During a massage, you are constantly asked to turn over, and new emotions comes up all the time...
Until finally......they declare the massage over, and you are allowed to fork over the small fee and a huge tip....
Since the guys let you know in no uncertain terms, that they do not get paid a salary, but ONLY tips....
Do I feel better the day after?
Not really....
I have pains I did not have before the massage, and black and blue marks in many places over my legs and arms that were not there before....
Jules, waddling in pain next to me.... Asks me if we can agree not to get another massage on this trip....
He does not think he can take it......
I readily agree...
You look into her soft brown eyes and you really want to help her.... So of course you say yes...
She leaps onto her feet and walks fast, zigzagging down side streets, weaving her small frame between the scooters which are tightly parked on every stretch of available sidewalk.
Occasionally, she throws a look over her shoulder, to make sure that you are still following her... Or have you changed your minds....
We start laughing...
Joking that the reason a 75 minutes foot massage cost only $9, is because it is actually located on the border with Laos, and not within the city limits of Saigon at all...
But she eventually stops, wait for us to catch up, and ushers us into a second floor of a massage place where I sigh with relief, when I see that our massage therapists are two strong young men.
I have gotten massages all over the world.
The ones I disliked the most, were given by Asian girls who had tiny hands and long fingernails.
Those massages felt like somebody was just rubbing oil all over my skin for an hour.... Occasionally scratching me with a sharp nail.
A good massage therapist, can rejuvenate your whole body.
We got massages from the blind, who are said to be more intuitive, and from old grandmothers, as well as from pretty girls, shirtless hard working guys with iron hands, and many more.
In Asia, None of them of course, not even the very best ones, are licensed.
Massage, especially foot massage, is a natural inclination in the culture.
Young children often massage the feet of their mothers, fathers, and grandparents.
It is common for a young boy or girl, to 'walk' on the back of her father, after a long day of planting rice in the fields.
Some of them give massages that are beyond good.
They know the landscape of our body, where we store tension and how to press or 'drum' on your body, right at the correct spots, and with exactly the right kind of pressure, to releases the emotions and energy that are stored in these muscles.
Without a doubt, the best foot massage I ever got, was in China.
But I got some very good ones in Thailand too, and so I gladly relaxed in my armchair and was intent on letting my therapist do his job.
The fact that he was a man was a GREAT sign.
We were warned about the massage places in Saigon which are nothing more than sex trade fronts.
But this was a clean place, with a large communal room filled with armchairs, and we were the only ones there.
A good reflexology massage, usually hurts.
A serious thumb pressure on sore spots at the bottom and around your feet, can bring tears to your eyes.
When you start silently crying from the pain, they will thrust into your hand a colorfully drawn map of your feet and its pressure points, and how they correspond to your organs, chakras and meridian lines in your body.
You know that this is good for you.....
You have gotten a massage like this after long walks and after being on your feet for days...... and it released all your pain and fatigue.
But this is REALLY painful.
These boys are merciless....
They poke their iron fingers into your skin and it feels like needles and pins and little painful hummers....
You want to tell them that you did NOT fight the war against their country..... definitely did not injured or killed their fathers,........ but these boys do not really care who is responsible for what...
You are their prisoner here...
And they are instructed to take no prisoners.....
The tears on my face, makes them laugh with joy...
Now they KNOW that they are doing their job well....
A 75 minute foot massage, includes a back massage, arms, head and the whole length of the leg, including your poor butt.
When they twist your knees and knuckles and you hear some strange cracking sounds... when the guy puts his whole body weight on your spine and jump and pushes hard on your back...
When you hear another scary crack....
You start to meditate....
You start thinking about the nature of pain...
And how it always borders anger.....
Pain and anger really do go hand in hand....
If you lay there in meditation, you are able to notice how emotions originate...
How they form their energetic shape out of nothingness.... In a reaction to a sensation... A translation... A quick judgement... And a quick decision... And here they are.....
From the minute a sensation of pain rises up.... I noticed that it has a sense of 'ownership' attached.
I started thinking how it might feel, if I let go of ownership of it....
If I did not feel that it is MY PAIN....
That he is twisting MY arm..... cracking MY ribs...
What if I'll surrender ownership of my body AND this PAIN, and would not claim it as MINE?
It sure did make the pain less sharp.
I can tell you this much.
It also did not automatically called for the rise of anger, which always follow pain.
You may ask why anger? What anger?
Well, mostly anger at myself, for not asking him to take it easy, touch me more gently, or why the fuck did I subject myself to this at all?...
But meditating during a massage, is not the same as listening to your aches and pain, during a Vipassana Meditation retreat.
During a massage, you are constantly asked to turn over, and new emotions comes up all the time...
Until finally......they declare the massage over, and you are allowed to fork over the small fee and a huge tip....
Since the guys let you know in no uncertain terms, that they do not get paid a salary, but ONLY tips....
Do I feel better the day after?
Not really....
I have pains I did not have before the massage, and black and blue marks in many places over my legs and arms that were not there before....
Jules, waddling in pain next to me.... Asks me if we can agree not to get another massage on this trip....
He does not think he can take it......
I readily agree...
