My favourite masseuse is on a long holiday this month. She is back in her country, Thailand. She told me recently that she had not gone home for three years.
When I asked her what she was going to do during her one-month break, she replied, “I am going to eat, sleep, eat and sleep”.
In Sarawak, she has been working hard for her money as an employee of a licensed massage centre. She takes a commission for every customer she serves.
I don’t know how much she earns a day or a month because I never asked her. And I don’t know her full name. I only know her by a certain number. Whenever I needed her service, I just turned up at the massage centre and mentioned her number.
Sometimes I could not get her to massage me at all. She is good and a good masseur is much appreciated and in high demand.
Once, I turned up at the centre only to learn that I was a few minutes late. Someone had booked her for two full hours.
The massage centre employs many women of four different nationalities — mainland Chinese, Indonesians, Thais and Filipinas. The centre has an all-women workforce. Some other centres, however, do employ men of different nationalities as well. Some women prefer masseurs over masseuses.
I appreciate my masseuse because she does a good job of easing my body aches. I regard her as a sort of saviour because I often have terrible shoulder pains after long hours of sitting at a computer desk at work. So far, she is the only one who can make the excruciating pains go away and liberate me from my suffering.
Some of my friends do not believe in massages. However, I personally believe it is an effective treatment for reducing stress, pain and muscle tension.
If you are a first timer, having your body massaged by a professional masseur/masseuse can be an awkward experience. You have to strip down to your underwear and lie down with just a towel on top of you and relax.
The masseur massages your back, legs and arms only. No touching of your torso or bust.
Masseuses have been accused of snatching husbands from their wives and breaking their homes. Come to think of it, it takes two hands to clap. No affairs can start without the consent of both parties. We must remember that some of masseuses are young, lonely and homesick. They could end up getting entangled with some of their male clients whom they see regularly. It takes a strong will and strong religious upbringing to spurn a persistent man.
I’d like to share with you a story I heard about and read about when I was younger. A man who was away from home asked for flowers to be delivered to his wife every day. Unfortunately, the wife ended up falling in love with the man who delivered the flowers. That goes to show that sometimes you cannot control your heart and choose who you fall in love with.
I asked my masseuse whether she has any boyfriend. She answered in the negative.
“It is troublesome to have one, based on my colleagues’ experiences,” she said.
But I am convinced that someday, she will fall in love with someone if she stays long enough in Sarawak. Hopefully it won’t be with a footloose and fancy-free client.
I hope she enjoys her long-deserved vacation in Thailand. She needs the time away as it is not easy to provide professional massage to people from all walks of life.
