There was another incident that was somewhat similar, but it didn’t happen to me directly—it occurred on a day when I was working. A 30-year-old Arab man came to the parlor; he had called to book an appointment one hour in advance. He didn’t look me up and down; he was quite friendly, engaging in normal conversation, and shared that he liked Thai massage and had tried several massage parlors across London. However, what puzzled me a little was when he mentioned that his ex-girlfriend was Thai, even though I hadn’t asked. I just smiled in response and didn’t engage further.
The man said he had shoulder pain and wanted a massage that focused on his shoulders. When the masseuse came to get the client, I informed her about the customer’s specific request to help address his problem. (Sometimes, the receptionist needs to relay these details to the masseuse to prevent any miscommunication, as some masseuses may not be fluent in English. This is another reason why receptionists must be able to communicate in both Thai and English.)
After the massage, I happened to meet the masseuse who had worked on him in the kitchen. This masseuse is a Thai woman married to an Englishman and has lived in the UK for about 20 years. She told me that the man had other intentions for the massage, but he just didn’t express them outright. I asked how she knew, and she said that her work experience made it clear to her that the man had bad intentions. Initially, he requested a neck-shoulder-back massage, but when he was in the room, he refused to lie face down (typically, a massage begins with the client lying face down so the masseuse can work on the back, then turning over to massage the legs and arms). Instead, he lay on his back and asked the masseuse to focus on the inner thigh area close to his genitals. That’s when she realized what he was really after because she had encountered many customers like him before.
She also shared another story about a regular customer who always requests the same masseuse at the parlor. (At our parlor, if a customer requests a specific masseuse from a previous session, that masseuse receives additional pay on top of their daily earnings. Masseuses don’t receive a fixed salary; their pay depends on the number of clients they serve each day.) She told me that if this particular customer asks for her, I should say that she’s not available because this older male customer often harasses masseuses, though not directly. He pretends that he can’t get up on his own, so the masseuse has to help him up, only for him to pull her onto the bed to hug her. Or, while getting massaged, he’ll touch her “accidentally” and claim it wasn’t intentional.
I asked why nothing could be done about it. Both the masseuse and another receptionist told me that there’s no proof because the customer always says it wasn’t intentional, and there are no cameras in the massage rooms to provide evidence. All the parlor can do is flag this customer’s name with an asterisk in the system so that receptionists know. Then, they inform the masseuse on duty, and if someone feels they can handle it, they’ll proceed with the massage for that customer.