Massage in Ho Chi Minh

Ashikatahonpo Massage

Address: 8A/2D1 Thai Van Lung Street,Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, HCMC,

Vietnam

https://www.ashikataspa.com/

I had envisioned getting daily massages throughout the 3 week trip to Vietnam, but was wholly unprepared for the sheer number of massage shops that littered District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City.  The fluorescent, neon lights emanating from every storefront and the incessant urging from salespeople, spa menus in hand, was more than I had bargained for, especially fresh from my longest flight ever and now operating 14 hours ahead of what my body was accustomed to.  Having spent decades in the service industry, I am unable to simply ignore people who are just trying to do their job, so walking down the streets became an exhausting ritual of smiling apologetically and repeating ‘no thank you, no thank you’ under my breath, carefully stepping around the shopkeepers on the cramped sidewalks.  

Our hotel housed its own spa as many hotels in the city did.  After a few hours of walking around, disappointed with the spa options, we had resigned ourselves to getting massages at the hotel even though I knew we would be overpaying, sometimes by more than double, compared to non-hotel prices.  Would the massage really be twice as good at the hotel, or was it the literal price I had to pay for a calmer atmosphere and less aggressive sales tactics? My thrifty mind was toiling over this value-based quandary. 

Hours later, I spotted a handsome, professional looking building with a spa menu poised on a brass podium.  The wood and brass motif of this building had an elegance that most other shops lacked.  It had large wooden doors, tall windows, and I was surprised to find that the prices mirrored the other shops on the streets.

As I lingered over the menu, a man dressed in a black uniform came outside and greeted us warmly.  After a short back and forth, my husband and I agreed to get a 45 minute foot massages that were about 250,000 VND, or $10 USD, and the man showed us inside and sat us down at one of the seating areas.  Warm yellow light shone from recessed fixtures, and the dark brown walls paired with brown leather furniture and natural wood tables, it felt very much like an upscale experience compared to the often garish decor of your typical nail salon-esq vibe of most of the other spas we passed that day.  The man confirmed our preference for english menus and brought over a few hardbound books. Already sensing I might return for another service, I flipped through the menu feeling great about the prices in the menu and the differing length of services to choose from.

We stuck with the 45 minute foot massages, and we had the option of paying cash or card.  I believe there was also the option for a QR code that appeared to work much like Venmo or Paypal as we continued to see these signs at a lot of establishments throughout our trip.  As using credit card at times could incur a 2-3% fee, we got the gist that this fee was sidestepped by this alternative mobile payment option for locals.  As we were not set up for this, we opted to pay with a credit card and he brought over the card swipe machine, confirmed  again verbally the services we wanted, and ran our credit cards.  I appreciated having paid for the service ahead of time as I have had experiences in the past where add-ons would be offered during the service and I would be uncomfortable not knowing the price or if the price might be inflated when it came time to pay.  This gave me a peace of mind as haggling over the price of an already experienced experience can be immensely uncomfortable and sap the enjoyment from even them most wonderful services. 

After we finalized payment and answered specifics about preferred gender of our practitioners and preference of massage strength, the man then led us to  lockers where we swapped our footwear for slippers and led us to a small elevator, informing us our masseuses would meet us upstairs and he pushed the elevator buttons and sent us on our way.  Once alone, my husband and I looked at each other in anticipation as we had no idea what to expect.  When the doors opened, we were each greeted by our practitioners and entered a seemingly large room that was partitioned off with floor to ceiling curtains.  Like the lobby, the room was dimly lit and exuded calm with its dark brown curtains.  It was impossible to know how many separate cordoned off areas there were but my guess would be there was space for around 6 massage areas.  Under the massage table in my ‘room’ there was a basket where I could put my things, and I laid on the table as instructed.  My masseuse proceeded to wash my feet with a damp cloth and a warm basin of water before commencing my foot massage which made a ton of sense but was unexpected.  She worked all the way up the leg as well, and I was already very much looking forward to coming back and trying a full body massage as I was very happy with the outcome of this excursion.  About half way through the massage, a woman popped in and checked in to make sure everything was ok. I got the sense that she was a manager of some kind and it was her duty to make sure my practitioner and I were understanding each other correctly. I assured her everything was absolutely wonderful!

After massaging my feet and legs, my masseuse fetched fresh warm water and proceeded to wash down my legs and feet.  I was blown away by this small gesture because in all my pedicures and massages I’ve had in my life, I have never experienced the ‘end of service’ wash down and I was delighted as I knew I would not be staining my pants with oil, slipping around in my shoes or attracting all the dirt and dust from the streets as it whipped up onto my would-be oily legs as we walked around.  To my surprise, she also sat me up and massaged my head, neck and shoulders, stretching my spine a bit and loosening my shoulders before the experience ended. When she was finished we thanked each other and I gathered my things and she led me back to the elevator where she bid me farewell. She handed me a small laminated tag with a number on it with which I could rate the service. 

Back in the lobby I swapped my slippers for my sandals and the kind gentleman that had initially checked us in showed me the boxes where I could rate my experience, dropping my token into whichever box matched my satisfaction with my service.  My husband was already in the lobby enjoying a snack of candied ginger and hot tea.  I was promptly brought my own tea and I thought to myself what a wonderful way to unwind from a service before thrusting back into the chaos of the city.  We commiserated on the loveliness of the foot massages and quickly agreed that we would come back the next day for full body massages.  Vietnam is not traditionally a tipping culture, however, I was surprised to see while flipping through the menu again a little disclaimer at the bottom of the page that gratuity was already included in the service fee.  I am unsure if gratuity is typically included in massage services but it was a nice surprise as throughout the trip we never stopped second guessing if we were overtipping or undertipping as even though it was not customary, having both came from the service industry we always felt compelled to tip wherever we went. 

The following day we returned for full body massages and the kind man was happy to see us again and checked us in, answering our questions regarding the varying types of massages.  We went with 60 minute Aroma Massages that were 400,000 VND, the equivalent to $16 USD. This time we were given sheets of paper with drawings of the human body like you might receive at eastern medicine practitioners, and he made notes regarding what areas we wanted the most attention or had sensitivities, and noted the level of pressure we wanted where.  We were each given a set of keys and left our footwear by the lockers and stored our personal items in the lockers and were sent up the elevator again, each of us getting off at separate floors as the changing rooms were not on the same levels.  The set of keys we were given had a corresponding locker in the changing room where I changed into the cotton outfit waiting for me in the locker and my masseuse was waiting for me when I exited the space and led me to my massage table.  

I was impressed with my masseuse as I like hard pressure and he was a small and slim young man but had powerful hands.  He was very communicative and checked in with me regularly as I tend towards expressive breathing and grunting during my massages. 

Because I have experienced asian foot reflexology massages where you are massaged in this manner in a non-private space, this format of shared space separated by curtains but audible to those around you, I was non-plussed at this setup and was completely comfortable.  However, this was a first for my husband and he was less comfortable with being able to hear the moanings and groanings of other people getting massaged nearby.  I did point out to him that as a woman, being in a more open setting while getting massaged by a stranger did feel safer than a private room in an unfamiliar place, and he quickly understood that sentiment and I think was humbled yet again at another example of the ways women-identifying humans must navigate life differently than he.  He did still enjoy the massage despite the lack of privacy, and as we sat together drinking our tea and enjoying our candied ginger after our massages, we wondered what new adventures awaited us as we made our way inland to Dalat that evening on our overnight bus.