Pea gets a massage from Goldie, an on-call therapist in Siquijor, while asking her about the business: training, pay, what clients ask for, nude foreign clients, and requests for "extra service." Goldie explains what she earns in high and low season and how she handles inappropriate offers, and Pea adds her own commentary as a trained massage therapist herself.
Goldie's background
- Trained for three months at TESDA, the Philippine technical school
- A massage therapist since 2018
- Now works freelance and on call. She used to work at a spa
Clients and pay
- Mostly Filipino clients, but in high season mostly tourists, and specifically male foreigners
- Charges an average of 500 to 600 pesos an hour; midnight calls go up to 700 or 800 an hour because it's so late. Pea calls that reasonable
- High season: 3,000 to 4,000 pesos a day, with her best day at 5,000
- Low season: 500 to 1,500 pesos a day
The massage itself
- Pea asks for a mix of medium and hard pressure
- Pressure-point work on the feet. Pea describes reflexology where therapists press a hard wooden stick into the skin "to the point that it's actually hurting, but it hurts so good"
- Clients mostly request foot and back massages, sometimes whole body
- Stretching, similar to Thai massage. Something cracks. "Oh my god, that feels good"
- She applies a mentholated balm like Tiger Balm to relieve muscle pain, then oil, and finds knots. Pea calls massage "my guilty pleasure, my vice"
- Filipino massage starts from the bottom and works up, while in the West they usually start with the back
Nudity
- Foreign male clients often come in fully nude. Goldie got used to it working at the spa, where most clients were foreigners
- Female clients usually aren't nude; some keep underwear on
Goldie's secret to keeping customers happy
- Read what they want. If they want to chat, chat. If they want silence to relax, just do the massage. Pea agrees a therapist who keeps talking while you're trying to relax is annoying
- Women are the chattier clients and talk about their husbands and boyfriends. Pea: "Why am I not surprised?" Goldie admits sometimes she just laughs along even when she doesn't know what they're talking about
- Men chat too, and mostly ask if she has a boyfriend or is single
Inappropriate requests
- Some clients ask if they can do the massage nude with her nude too. She refuses and says she only does professional massage
- She does get requests for a "happy ending." She always says no, even when they offer a lot of money, and tells them maybe another therapist would. She says she doesn't personally know any who do
- Biggest offers she's had: a motorbike, paying for school, an apartment, and becoming his "other woman" (mistress)
- Who asks more for happy endings: Filipino men more than foreigners, and mostly married men
- Pea: "I thought when you get married you get tons of, you know, unlimited sex, but obviously not." They want a mistress and a massage therapist too, plus a motorbike and an apartment to go with it
- When a nude client is visibly aroused, Goldie pretends she didn't see it and keeps working
- Pea asks if she ever just smacks it and says "down boy"
- Pea's tongue-in-cheek take: in a perfect world, a happy ending would be a standard part of the massage. There would be no wars, guys would be less stressed, and wives would say "thank you, because I don't have to do that later." "Oh, well. In a perfect world"
- Some clients want to massage her after their session. Her answer: "No, no, no. Just only you"
Pea's own credentials
- She's also a trained massage therapist. She was about to take her licensure exam when COVID hit and everything closed, so she never got her license
Wrap-up
- Pea is melting and calls Goldie the best. If you're in Siquijor, contact Goldie
- "I'm falling asleep. If I'm awake next Friday, maybe I'll have a video for you... Go away now"
Outro bit
- She compares herself to a massage therapist relieving the stress of life in a new country and hitting "all the trigger points of local culture and customs," and asks viewers to subscribe and become patrons
- Closing line: "I promise I won't rub you the wrong way. Unless you ask me to"
