Out of Sight!

Today I expanded my repertoire of alternative massage. You may remember my foray into Prison Massage in Thailand back in September. Today, I went with the Malaysian Cultural Group for a...Blind Massage.

The theory behind it is that the blind have a superior sense of touch which allows them to perform a massage more attuned to your musculature. This salon specialized in Taiwanese massage, also a new form of massage for me. My masseur used oil and it was a lot like a Swedish massage with a bit of acupressure mixed in for some fun.

I have to say that I REALLY enjoyed this massage. I would imagine the quality will depend on the masseur, but our group only had rave reviews.

This sign was posted near the shoe rack.

Why do you think it is only "male shoes" that are disappearing? Apparently a customer asked where his shoes had gone and the proprietor said he didn't see a thing! (Sorry, bad attempt at blind massage humor.)

We ran into a bit of a problem when half of our group failed to turn up at the appointed time. When we called to track down the others, they were already 15 minutes into their rubdown...they had gone to the wrong place! Yes, there are that many blind massage parlours in this neighborhood!

The place we most of us went to is called Urut Tradisional PB (4A Jln. Thambapillay, off Jln. Tun Sambanthan - behind the monorail 03-227 41 337). It is run by Lee Sheng Chow, who is instrumental in training and finding employment for visually impaired individuals in Malaysia. Agnes, Au Yong, and Mr. Lawrence all come highly recommended. The price was 40rm for a 1 hour massage, how can you go wrong??

After our kneading, we got on with our eating. We went to a group buffet lunch at Jassal's.

That's when the rain arrived. The skies opened up!

I tried to wait it out, but patience is not one of my virtues. I made a run for it. On my walk dash home, I saw smoke pouring out of a store front. I stopped and saw this...

A religious ceremony with lots and lots of incense burning. I think it might have been a wedding, but I was the only guest. I snuck a quick photo.

Just a typical day in Malaysia.