Blind Pain

I am still in pain. Throbbing, unrelenting, raw pain. Parts of my body that I’ve never felt before are screaming in fury. It hurts down to my very soul and I’m going to have to finish writing this tomorrow.

Ok, so I’m still in agony, but I can type without increased pain. Yesterday I went to get a massage at the “Kampot Massage by the Blind,” also known as “Seeing Hands Massage.” As the name implies, the massage therapists there are blind. It’s happy because you get your massage and your $4 goes to a blind person. Horray! Don’t you feel good about yourself?! At least that’s what I was hoping for…

Apparently they’re trained in Japanese Shiatsu massage, opposed to the Thai and Lao style with which I’ve become accustomed. Now I don’t know a thing about Shiatsu massage, but even if it’s supposed to hurt to some extent, there’s no way it’s supposed to be this detrimental.

I’ve had deep work massage before from Daria, which is the classic Swedish massage where the therapist digs into your muscles to release knots. That could be painful with too much pressure, but my experience yesterday was a pain I’ve never felt with Swedish massage. This blind chick would take her thumbs and push into my body with astonishing force – often times positioning herself so that she could put her entire body weight into the push. And it almost seemed like she was targeting pressure points on my body where it would hurt the most.

At first, I just tried to not cry out in anguish. I muffled my gasp, but the body can’t lie. My neck, which the blind chick targeted first, recoiled in rejection. Now this girl was blind, but she could no doubt feel my disagreeable reaction. At this she steadied my head with one hand and jammed her thumb from the other hand right back into my neck. I couldn’t stifle my cry this time and voiced something to the effect of “yaaaahhhh!” Hearing this, the blind girl mumbled something seemingly apologetic in Khmer, but did not let up on my neck. She proceeded down my back, along my arms, legs, and feet in the same manner. Each and every stab felt like I was being impaled with a spoon. I’d attempt to smother my howl, only succeeding half the time, and my body would almost always involuntarily recoil. And the blind chick’s response was almost always the same: steady my squirming body, mutter something possibly apologetic, and then stab just as hard with better leverage.

Several times I considered forcing myself upright, announcing “No more torture – I’m outta here,” but I didn’t for a couple of reasons. Deep down, I kept thinking that as much as this hurt, maybe it’s really super therapeutic, which is why it hurts so super much. Then she’d stab again, and I’d think “therapeutic or not, this is nothing short of torture – let’s make a move.” But then I’d think about how she’s a blind chick and I’d feel bad walking out on her, even paying for the whole session… or maybe I’m just a wuss. Then she’d stab again, steadying my frantically withdrawing body and pushing harder than ever. For 60 minutes of unequivocal suffering I endured the wrath of this blind chick. At the very end she punched my back and shoulders so hard that I have bruises to show for the beating. I also have an interesting pattern of developing bruises every place she stabbed.

Seriously, WTF, ‘Seeing Hands Massage?’ This is not ok. I can barely walk. ‘See My Hands Make You Scream’ is on notice – I’ll show them (whoops! I can’t show them anything! No one can! Ha!). Sorry – I really do hurt bad enough to make fun of blind people. That blind chick beat the crap out of me.