What The Hands Know

A massage tells you something about a culture that a guidebook never will.

I have had Thai massage regularly — it comes with training Muay Thai, a sport that requires maintenance. I have had a blind massage in Cambodia, where trained blind therapists work on you with a skill that stops you in your tracks. And just this morning I had a Kobido facial massage in Melbourne.

Each one is completely different. Each one tells you exactly where it comes from.

Thai massage is purposeful and at times brutal. It stretches, compresses and manipulates the body with a directness that takes you by surprise the first time. You emerge feeling thoroughly reorganised.

The blind massage in Cambodia was something else entirely. The therapists were trained through programmes that give employment and dignity to people who might otherwise have very little of either. What struck me wasn’t the novelty, it was the quality. Without sight, the hands develop a sensitivity that most therapists never reach. They find things you didn’t know were there.

This morning’s Kobido came courtesy of my wife, who surprised me. Aline (French, with Laotian roots) was visiting Melbourne staying with her sister Claire, massage table set up in the living room. My wife simply said go.

Kobido is Japanese facial massage — ancient, refined, extraordinarily detailed. Every movement is deliberate. The pressure is minimal but the attention to the face is total. Aline carries two cultures in her hands and it shows.

If you’re ever in Paris, seek her out at facialistealineinparis.com

Travel takes you to extraordinary places. Sometimes the most extraordinary thing is a pair of hands that know exactly what they’re doing.

Paul Mercuri
Wake Up Here Founder

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