Hey all!

I’m writing this blog on way to the airport in Taiwan en route back to Launceston! It’ll take me just over 24hrs to get back – nice…

But first, here’s a pic of the mango shaved ice dessert thing I ordered… So good, mmmm…!

So in terms of my massage experience here, here’s a quick summary of the various places I tried both in Taiwan (and Vietnam on my way over):

You can generally get massages from 9/10am to 11pm, sometimes even up to 4am (!!!!) in bustling cities like Taipei. I usually prefer to go for a more legit look than, just to up the quality a bit.

Not asking for thorough information at the start usually signals to me that the scope of the treatment will be very limited.

 

First, just a fleeting (first visit!) to Vietnam, since I was put on Vietnam Airlines to get to Taiwan.

TIPPING:

There is a tipping culture for massages I had (endured) in Vietnam. And though I’m not comfortable with this, I reluctantly oblige each time because I later learned that the tipping makes up about 40% of their salary! In Taiwan, there is no tipping for the massages, but some places do add a 10% gratuity on top of your treatment bill, which is explicitly stipulated, which I think is more legit. Also in Taiwan, as you’ll see (as in the pic), each therapist is referred to by a number (in my case: you’ll see the “66”) and they’ll give you a card with their number on it, so you can easily recall them in the future, making it easy to stay with 1 therapist.

CHINESE-STYLED MASSAGE IN ASIA: “with or without oil!”

I have been asked by a client in the past, “why do Chinese massage places charge so much just for oil?”… I don’t actually know why it’s worth $15 more, but the technique is usually different.

So on a personal note: Style-wise, I have zero-problem with Chinese styled/trigger-point/’finger-point’ massage. I basically like ANY deep-release styled massage, with or without oil, as long as it is ACCURATE and WELL-PRESSURED to get to all the deep areas for me (which I need from the gym work).

These deeper styles are similar to Deep Tissue massages, but they are often accompanied with Eastern myths and mysticism… a little like the extreme foot-reflexology things you get told even in Australia. But I ignore these pseudo-science things mainly because I’ve heard it all through the years… AS LONG AS the massage delivers the pressure to the problem areas, I’m good.

In Asia, though, these massages can be done quite unceremoniously, really rough, and if you’re lucky, they won’t squirt the oil on your back like squeezing ketchup from a bottle – for me, that’s like not even trying… But back to the deep massages, I constantly remind myself to relax the muscles and breath.

And as per norm in Asia, every massage starts without any chit chat or any history of ailments etc, though it doesn’t mean that you can’t offer pointers/hints – something that I often give freely 😂.

Not asking for thorough information at the start usually signals to me that the scope of the treatment will be very limited.

So! I’ve sampled a few in Vietnam, and truthfully, most of them I’d rather forget – they were relatively weak (even with a male therapist) and imprecise. So in that sense, Vietnam was a really difficult place to get a massage, although they can be found everywhere. I even had a Abdominal Massage, and that was not so good either.

 

Next, Taipei …the biggest city of Taiwan (and capital of Taiwan, unless you don’t consider Taiwan a country …jumping over political quagmire)

Now for Taipei (North part of Taiwan)… A TOTALLY different scope! I was quite impressed with the technique from the first place I went into… Apparently (they say) a lot of celebrities go to it, it’s called ‘6 Stars’. It was a lot more expensive than what you’d pay in Vietnam, but easily, 5 times better: very firm and accurate with much more detail, just what I need!!

Will the rest of my massage be as good as the first, I did wonder.

Well, on to my second massage in Taipei!

I had only 30 minutes of free time and thought I’d try another from a different place anyway. To my surprise, it was even better than my first.

The massage ‘master’ (as they called him) has worked for over 10 years and he was good! I told him I’d promised to take friends along the next time! Fast-forward with the usual busy-ness, I managed a last-minute squeeze of the last massage with a few friends JUST 2 hours before heading to the airport – it was probably the best massage I’ve had since moving to Tasmania! Definitely my style and absolutely hit all the right spots!

24hr journey back to Tasmania?… I think I’m ready.

~for info about this and more, feel free to chat more anytime with Dan.