Khmer Massage Versus Thai Massage

We arrived in Siem Reap at 8 pm after a really quick flight from Bangkok. While the flight was pleasant and the service was fine, it's still an absolute racket that Bangkok Airways has a monopoly on the BKK-REP route. We used air miles to get to Angkor for free, so I really shouldn't complain, but the actual cost of a flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap is totally disproportionate to the length and distance of the journey. It's less than an hour away by air, but truly, once you cross the border, it's a totally diff

erent world...

We got our first taste of Siem Reap upon exiting the airplane, walking down a set of stairs, and then going on foot from the plane to the international passenger terminal. There's not a lot of airports in the world where you walk across tarmac upon first setting foot in the country. The last time I did that was either in Nepal or Bangladesh in the early 90's. The airport was surrounded by utter blackness, with no lights or city in sight, and there were only two other planes in the distance. The place was pretty desolate. Immigration was a breeze and no one was even manning the customs inspection area. All my worries about getting in proved to be unnecessary anxiety......by the time we settled into our hotel room, at the beautiful Borei Angkor Spa & Resort, it was after9 pm. We called and set up a one hour massage because it was affordable and we figured we'd get a quick rub in after traipsing around Bangkok in 100 degree heat with all our luggage. We'll be spending the next two days meandering through extensive temple complexes, so it doesn't hurt to get your feet rubbed before you put them to work. The massage was marvelous and it left us thinking about the differences between Khmer massage and the Thai massage we're more familiar with.

Firstly, it would be irresponsible to offer up a critique on Khmer massage based on a single one hour rub at a resort. That's an insufficient sample size to really make any kind of valid judgment, but we'll offer up some impressions here anyway because they're fresh and we get rubbed a lot. We're massage junkies of sorts, and living in Chiang Mai has made us acutely aware of the differences between a good rub and a lousy one. Not that we ever complain. If you're paying the equivalent of $5 US dollars for an hour long massage, you're in no position to whine about a masseuse who takes a call on her cell phone while she's rubbing you, or one who starts singing along to the horrible music on the radio, or one who spends the entire hour giggling and gossiping with her friends in the room. You take what you're given and appreciate the fact that someone just spent an hour trying to make you feel better in your body. Sometimes, though, a half-assed massage can leave you worse off than when you started...

Thai massage usually follows a certain format, and while that's a big sweeping generalization, we've been rubbed enough to be able to describe the fairly predictable formula most Thai masseuses employ. It's one thing to go to a master, or to go see someone who is willing to scan and delve into your body's quirks and address your individual needs, but most of the time, when you pay for a cheap massage, people just go through a set formula they've learned. They'll start with the feet, and slowly and meticulously work their way up, pressing and squeezing along the meridians, the body's energy lines as documented and described in Chinese medicine. In Thai massage these are called "sen", and they constitute a body map that overlaps pretty concisely with what we in yoga call the nadi system. These lines are also what acupuncturists use when they place needles on the body. These energy lines are documented differently by various traditions, but each of these healing modalities use them as a reference for figuring out where to squeeze, stroke, or trigger. In any case, in Thai massage, the masseuses slowly work up the sen lines, and they tend to spend an inordinate amount of time focused on the legs. Becky and I have often discussed that it's quite different in the US, where masseuses focus more on the shoulders and back, because that's where Americans tend to hold their stress. in Thai massage, they'll prod and press deeply into your hamstrings and groin, while you're lying face-up on a mat, and then they'll eventually ask you to turn over, at which point they'll start working on your upper torso. There's a rhythm and pace to all this that feels marvelous when it's done well. The kneading and pulling will eventually progress into some deep stretches after your body has been warmed up. In these assisted stretches, the masseuse will utilize leverage and body weight to twist and contort you into a multitude of positions, while also cracking your spine, and possibly other joints along the way. The massage will conclude with you lying with the back of your head in their lap, while they rub your temples and face. Mind you, this is not what happens with sacred bodywork when someone is seriously committed to exploring your body and helping you release stress and anxiety. What I've just described is more or less the formula that's used when you pay someone in Thailand a pittance for a quick massage. You get what you pay for.

The hour long rub we had here at the Borei Spa and resort was quite unlike the Thai massages we've grown accustomed to in Chiang Mai. Firstly, we started off face down. The masseuses worked over our backs first, and then moved to the hips and glutes. Then we were turned over and they started with reflexology that progressed quickly up the legs. The touch was much gentler than what we're used to in Chiang Mai. In Thailand, there's an entirely different sense of where people's pain thresholds are. That's another blanket assertion, but one I think bears out upon examination. I briefly studied Muay Thai in my early 20's (that's Thai kick boxing for the uninitiated), and I can honestly say I've never encountered a martial art that requires a higher threshold of pain. Perhaps that's completely unrelated to Thai massage, but I do believe that massage in Thailand is less about delivering physical pleasure as it is about addressing the ailments of the body through a targeted sequence of techniques. Perhaps its the same here in Cambodia, but it felt quite different tonight. It was much gentler, much more soothing, and the sequence felt distinctly different from what Becky and I have gotten used to in Thailand...

It occurs to me, as I write this, that perhaps my perceptions are entirely wrong. A masseuse at a spa, doing one last rub at 10 pm before she wraps up her day, might just be trying a different approach after working a long shift. In that case, all my assertions are baseless, and my observations become the pretentious ramblings of someone who thinks they know what they are talking about. Perhaps that's true. But I don't think so. There's something different about the way they do things here in Cambodia, and they will tell you that Khmer massage is the source for what the Thais do today. That said, claims like that are made all over the world when one tradition claims that something similar to it is derivative. It's hard to tell. But the history of this area is one of conquest and cultural diffusion, and there's no doubt that some of the ancient knowledge ensconced here changed when it moved west. I guess after everything I've just written, I couldn't really tell you in great detail the difference between Thai and Khmer massage. Guess I'll just have to get rubbed again tomorrow to see if my suspicions hold up. Then, to verify or disprove my assumptions, I might have to get rubbed again the next day. I could get used to this country. ;-)