If you have received legitimate massage in Taiwan, was it:
- Mostly relaxing
- Mostly painful
0 voters
Hi,
While I’m sure that someone will be unable to resist telling me where I can get my #%^ massaged in some KTV joint, I’m actually trying to start a serious thread here about legitimate massage in Taiwan, and the differences between Taiwanese massage and ordinary Western massage techniques, from a customer’s point of view.
I’m interested in knowing about your experiences and referrals, and offer some of mine as a starting point.
My Experiences:
My first experience was a partial upper body massage by a blind guy in Taipei Main Railway station. He was actually pretty good and the price was reasonable as I recall ($200 NT for 15 minutes?). He did seem to be using some deep tissue technique, but it was mostly comfortable, done in a sitting position.
My second experience was in a newly opened massage shop in my neck of the woods. They were offering special discounts to entice new customers. I made an appointment and gave it a try. When I arrived, it seemed as if no one knew I had an appointment. At about Appointment Time (AT) + 15 minutes, someone finally approached me and stuck my feet in a hot bucket of vibrating water. Wasn’t what I ordered, but it was OK after I adjusted the temp cooler to avoid having “shabu shabu” feet.
There were only a couple of other patrons, all female. The massage techs were all female, except I knew that the shop owner was male and also a massage tech. In any case, they all seemed to ignore me, despite having an appointment.
At about AT + 30 minutes, the owner rushes in and graciously motions me to a table. I fit my large frame on the smallish table and the massage begins, done by the owner. Without elaborating, the massage lasts maybe 40 minutes (was an hour appointment) and we finish up. The massage itself was quite painful. I’ve have deep tissue massage in the U.S. before, and while it was a bit painful at times, this massage was in a totally different league. I was really tempted to get up and leave more than a few times during the massage. I really ended up feeling like I’d gotten the crap kicked out of me in a back alley and also had to pay for it. I was looking forward to a relaxing 60 minutes and ended up with muscle pains in my back and neck that took almost a week to go away. It is important to say that I think this place was reputable. Everything seemed normal and mostly professional. These observations are leading me to the conclusion that this style of massage might be typical for Taiwan, and so, might be the only form available here.
Suffice it to say that what I got was not at all what I’d hoped for. The problem is that this type of massage doesn’t cut it for me and makes me think that I may have to simply skip it until I leave Taiwan.
My Questions:
-
Does all Taiwanese massage consist predominately of painful deep tissue work (with elbows, knuckles, thumbs of the massage tech)?
-
What are the cultural assumptions about massage therapy in Taiwan? I am getting the impression that men do not go to legitimate massage clinics here (they are only for women, and men’s massage is more KTV oriented).
-
If there is relaxing massage in Taiwan, that is a native form, what is it called and where is it found?
-
While I’m aware of one Forumosan who does massage (Quirk), I wonder if there are other Western-trained massage techs in Taipei plying their trades?
Thanks,
Seeker4