How strange, or even weird can massage get?
Most people in the western world are used to professional, clinical massage therapy, done by a licensed therapist in a clean and professional environment. The therapies are mostly variations of Swedish massage, Deep Tissue massage, Sports massage etc.
However there is an entirely new world out there with very different kinds of therapies. Let’s start with the more infamous ones like massage as come-on for not so professional services.
Here in Asia they call them “Happy end massages”. I leave it to your imagination to figure out what that means. Let’s just say that only men take advantage of this variation.
This happens to be a huge industry in many countries, especially in Asia. In some Asian countries it is hard to find a massage which is NOT a happy end massage, but really a strictly professional massage.
But this is not so strange yet. Here in Thailand, where I live, there are some pretty unusual massage therapies, like an elephant massaging you by stepping on your back. Or a type of cupping which leaves your back looking as if you have some serious skin disease.
Snakes, snails, wooden hammers and other massages
Or how about someone tapping on you with a wooden mallet. And then there are the fish tanks where the fish eat your skin – well, just that part of the skin which you don’t need anymore. Even Thai Massage in itself can look pretty strange if you see a therapist holding onto bars and walking all over someone’s back.
And then there are the blind massages. The blind are trained in government subsidized programs to become massage therapists. I have seen many such places in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, and I have tried them out.
But all this is not the end of strangeness. It gets even better – or worse depending on your point of view. There are massages where the therapy consists of snakes slithering all over your body and other quite bizarre techniques. How about snails crawling all over your face?
Here is an article from the Huffington Post with pictures
of some of those weird massage therapies.
To see all the juicy pictures click on the article!
Unusual Massage Therapies From Around The World
I am not sure if the people who get such massages really believe in their effectiveness or if they do it because it is so bizarre and it makes for a great photo.
Personally I prefer the “normal” massages. But that’s just me. If you like an elephant stepping on your back, you can get that in Thailand, no problem. Let me know how it was, because I won’t try it.
Maybe I am conservative, but I like the real, traditional, hands-on, done by humans type massage therapy, in my case primarily Thai Massage and its many therapeutic applications.
But if you are an adventure seeker, by all means have some snakes slither over you or some snails crawl over your face, whatever tickles your fancy…
The author, Shama Kern, has been living in Thailand for well over a decade. He is the founder and director of
Thai Healing Massage Academy and the creator of 20 Thai Massage online video training courses.