Patong Foot Massage For Less Than 250 Baht?

[pete600]

The local Thais i get in the shop always tip the girls 50-100b

Its apparent that you greatly value the services of a masseuse, you feel that they are underpaid, and you feel that it is the responsibility of expats to be altruistic and "change the life" of the masseuse via extraordinarily large tips.

However, for whatever reason, you look down upon all other service providers, and consider their jobs "easy" and not worthy of an extra reward. Apparently only masseuse "kill their hands", and other workers in other industries don't suffer physical discomforts or injury on the job. You also feel that Asians are "egocentric <deleted>", and their cultural traditions regarding tipping are incorrect.

Thank you for sharing your opinions. Appreciate you enlightening everyone as to your thoughts on tipping, the value of other workers, and Asian culture.

[naiharn]

Here is a hypothetical question.

Which job would you take?

Job 1 --

Base salary x baht (same as Job 2)

Commission 100 baht per customer plus tips

6 days a week, on average 2 customers a day, must be at job 10 hours a day

Job 2 --

Base salary x baht (same as Job 1)

Commission 70 baht per customer plus tips

5 days a week, on average 5 customers a day, must be at job 8 hours a day

I agree totally with Jingthing about the huge numbers of masseuses sitting idle for what seems 80% of the day. To westerners it obviously seems like a huge waste

of resources, of time, of human beings.

However I don't see this practice changing. I think it's deeply ingrained in Thai culture.

Thais are used to having excellent service provided by people working for peanuts, who work long hours doing mostly nothing. But the workers are

always there, ready to serve any customer, and the customers know this.

This is great for tourists (no matter what time of day or evening, you can buy travel tickets, buy food, medicines, get a massage, and so on) --- not so good for the workers involved.

One other thing: when every supplier charges exactly the same price for a service, it can mean that there is price fixing going on (e.g. mafia style price enforcement) but it can also

mean that the market is a perfect, competitive market. In a perfect competitive market suppliers all charge pretty well the same price. Anyone who goes above the price gets

zero custom. Anyone who goes below the price is flooded with customers, so everyone else has to match him. But no-one can below their costs. Eventually an equilibrium

is reached, everyone charging the same price.

I've also noticed that up the coast from Phuket at Khao Lak, the standard price for massage is about 100B higher than in Phuket. Again pretty well everyone charges this price.

[Samuian]

Trust me you go out and try to get a few girls to work. Easy to get ex bar girls but you try to get a trained girl that is not looking for a BF

Do you run a legit massage shop involved in the hiring? If not, why should I trust you rather than my own experience of seeing so many massage workers in Thailand sitting around and waiting?

Well, it is both true....

My experience is just what "pete600" is pointing at, there are few who actually know their trade... and there are those "Massage Parlours" which are only the cover for the sex trade.

and yes jingthing, I think they might even only work 10% of the time, maybe less... here on Samui in Chaweng the beach road with all the tourists and resorts, features a "Massage & SPA" business every couple of meters and most of the time I can see them sitting around... so of course the other "happy End" Massage places and BB's... the Entertainment venues have become very, very quiet lately, but there is no downward movement in prices, but more desperation....

Not to mention that, when I came to Thailand, only guys, massaged guy's, usually older men, even blind.. and women massaged women, why and how this changed... yes there is a oversupply, but many aren't well trained, if at all...

And yes, Poster "naiharn" has a point there somewhere too,, it is this incredible obedience towards their employers... they drive a car and have a nice house and do nothing but leeching, while the girls, transferred their lives into their Shops, see bar scene just the same, they often live in conditions which are subhuman, share one room with as many as possible, cook together, eat together, comforting each other and get together as if it is a family, absolute, unquestioned solidarity, very strange.... but they do and keep up with it, sometimes I get the feeling that they might think it's their karma and don nothing about it...are they trained to behave like this, to be obedient, whilst exploited?

indeed strange, very strange, and the price fixing is mafia style... someone who tries to undercut and makes immediate profits from this... is history...

greeting form "the don" or here Puu Yai - who ever this is, he has usually several businesses in this market.... and looks that no one does something he hasn't approved of... in this sense it's still feudalism..!

And that is ingrained, specially with the rural folks, they depend on them, they think, they haven't come to the conclusion yet, that it's exactly the other way around... try to discuss this with your better half...if she is just ordinary Thai, she will either not want to discuss this or blink and insist that it is "Thai"... and nothing wrong with it, we farang don't understand..!

Edited August 13, 2010 by Samuian

[ilyelol]

i talked to my massage lady. She says that only farang(not all but a big majority) dont tip well. Thais only come to her once or twice a month.. but they always tip at least 100baht.

I then explained to her that some cheapskates teachers/aussie/germans and british guys were making up lies on the internet about thais tipping very badly for massages (maybe those thais are used to happy endings or cheap soapies?) which is why people thought that tipping 20baht or nothing is standard.

She told me that after doing this overseas and for many years in spas and her own place.. only people from other countries than those ive listed(minus arabs and indians) tip well. Americans and canadians tip the most after that its japs and the other nice european countries. She says she doesn't expect tips but that every tip she gets is just a blessing and she is truly grateful.. although tipping less wont make her treat your worse on your next massage. (but i guess tipping a lot gets you way better massages out of the motivation and feeling of gratitude it gives her)

So please tip your good massage ladies well.. and rot in hel_l you cheap bastards who tip 20baht.. 100baht is just 20mins of work at mcdonalds for god's sake.. cant you spare that for someone who's nice and deserve it?

[Jingthing]

McD's workers make 300 baht an hour? I don't think so.

[ilyelol]

3 years ago base salary for cleaning the floors at mcdonalds was 9.75$/hr

If you don't make as much right now, you should be back in your country instead of being here and leaching off the poor asians and trying to get people to undertip hardworking massage ladies.

[Jingthing]

3 years ago base salary for cleaning the floors at mcdonalds was 9.75$/hr

If you don't make as much right now, you should be back in your country instead of being here and leaching off the poor asians and trying to get people to undertip hardworking massage ladies.

Actually I don't make anything. The massage ladies make more than I do. Despite that, I will live where I choose, thank you very much and make comments about tipping as I wish as well. It's OK to voice your opinion, but you can't order people out of the country. BTW, I don't think people should undertip, I think they should figure out a reasonable tip and tip that or more. What is reasonable is something each individual is going to have to figure out in this up to you culture.

About McD's wages --

I think they typically pay minimum wage to start and in the many US states that is much less than 9 dollars an hour. They also don't like to offer full time hours so that they can avoid paying benefits.

Edited August 14, 2010 by Jingthing

[LivinLOS]

3 years ago base salary for cleaning the floors at mcdonalds was 9.75$/hr

In Thailand ??

No they dont.

Thais tipping 100 baht on top of a 250 baht massage ?? Not the ones I know.

[ilyelol]

3 years ago base salary for cleaning the floors at mcdonalds was 9.75$/hr

In Thailand ??

No they dont.

Thais tipping 100 baht on top of a 250 baht massage ?? Not the ones I know.

That's because the ones that ask 250baht are usualy happy ending places or touristy place with girls that have fake diplomas.

The real good massage are in spas or the 150-200baht places outside of patong/rawai

100baht massages places probably don't get much tips too cause they're usually awful as well.

[Gonsalviz]

What exactly do they massage with their feet?