Ancient Thai Massage

Thailand is great because you can get just about any beauty or spa treatment for next to nothing. A one hour manicure/pedicure costs about $11, a one hour facial costs $15 and a one hour Swedish massage costs only $10!!! We knew about the cheap prices of treatments out here before we came and were pretty excited about it (okay maybe me more so than Jeff). While it is fun to get the traditional treatments at a great price, I think its even more fun to try out new things you don't see in the US. We have a copy of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" and noticed that "Ancient Thai Massage" was one of the entries for Thailand. We were intrigued by the fact that a spa treatment made it into the book, so we were excited to try it out.

There are literally hundreds of salons in Pattaya that offer Thai massage, and since we are lazy we tried out the one directly across the street from our hotel :) When you arrive you are taken to the massage area which is just one big room with curtains set up as dividers. They show you to your area and draw the curtains for you to get changed. Normally when you get a massage you strip down, jump on the table and cover up with the sheet. The set-up for a Thai massage is slightly different. Instead of being up on a table, you lay on a mattress directly on the floor. Instead of being mostly nude under a sheet, you change into a pair of pajamas and lay uncovered on the mattress. Once we were ready the masseuse came in and started. We are used to Swedish massages where the masseuse uses oil and is constantly massaging the muscles. Thai massage is a completely different experience. The masseuse sits on the floor and moves your body into different positions. She then puts her whole body weight agains your different pressure points or uses the palm of her hand to strongly massage a certain muscle. Throughout the hour you are constantly being stretched and moved into different positions, some of which hurt more than others. There is a little bit of Swedish style massage involved at the end when they give you a good shoulder rub. We weren't sure how we would feel afterwards, and it definitely wasn't that traditional "muscles feel all relaxed like jelly"feeling you get after a massage back home. You feel certainly relaxed afterwards, but you also feel like you just worked out because of all the stretching and pulling. It was an interesting experience, and we plan on getting the massage again. For $6 how can you say no!