This is the question I have found myself pondering in Bali.
I thought it would be something bigger, something more existential, something about the meaning of life, or the roots of happiness, but instead, I am wondering if I can overdose on massage.
I didn't worry about it in Thailand. Thai massage, though it can be deep and sometimes painful, feels good for my stiff body, especially the stretching. I feel that if I were able to get a Thai massage every day, eventually, I might be able to sit cross-legged on the floor without my knees hitting my chin.
But in Bali, it's a different story. The massages here use oil, creams, lotions, baths, herbs, fruits and vegetables. Sometimes I feel like I am being prepared to be put on a spit and slow roasted for a feast. Maybe that is the origin of Balinese massage traditions? Were the Balinese cannibals at one time?
One very notable difference between Thai and Balinese massage is the Thais are more modest in their approach. By modest, I mean, you are clothed, or at least have a towel or sarong around your waist.
My first massage in Bali was at Nur Salon. I was led by a young man to a little open air room. There was a massage bed under a roof and a stone tub. He told me to take off my clothes and hang them on a metal rack by the door.
"Everything?", I asked.
"Yes, everything." And he stood there watching me, I guess to be sure I removed everything.
In the past when I've had to strip down for a massage, the masseuse usually leaves the room and tells you to lie face down, providing a towel or something to cover the private area.
There was no privacy option here. He just stood there and looked at me. I don't know where he was looking because I didn't look at him. I figured if I didn't see him, maybe he wouldn't see me.
The massage was deep and used oil. It was the kind of massage I liked actually. Really deep, bordering on torture, but not quite there. I hate when someone gives me a massage and only touches the surface of my skin. There is nothing more annoying than that. I could easily get someone to rub oil on me, but this massage was getting down deep into the muscle and tissue and almost massaging my bones.
After that, I was rubbed with salt - front and back. I was now ready for roasting.
Instead, he had me stand up next to the tub, above a drain and he splashed me with water to wash off the salt. Front and back.
Then he threw this creamy white liquid on me.
"Cocounut milk?", I asked.
"No, yogurt".
Balinese yogurt has a very strong smell. I had eaten the same for breakfast.
Again, I was rinsed off and then the tub was prepared. Very warm water filled with flowers and petals.
I got in the tub, felt all of the stress and tension of my trip melt away and began to doze off, when my masseuse returned, woke me up, had me stand again over the drain, and then rinsed the flowers off of me.
My multi-dimensional healing was a bit more modest. I was told to strip to my undies and then the healer put a sarong over me. It was hot, since there was no air-con and it was noon. I really didn't want the sarong, but every time I stuck a foot out or lifted an arm over the sarong, he placed it back underneath. I wondered if his healing abilities only worked if he couldn't see my earthly body.
Yesterday I went to a place called Bodyworks. It is across from Nur Salon. I liked the look of the place and thought that perhaps there I could find some kind of traditional healing that might help with my ear. Instead, when I went in, they had pretty much standard massage services. I noticed they had a sunburn treatment. I was thinking for several days that I would do that, since I got a little too much sun too fast on my first day at the pool.
So yesterday I went there and asked for the sunburn treatment. My skin on my face had begun to peel and I hadn't been out in the sun for a few days, so my sunburn was not that bad anymore, but still, I thought it might be good for the peeling and dryness that were still to come.
I was led by a young man upstairs to a room that looked out onto a family compound. There were banana trees outside the window and I could hear chickens clucking. I didn't see anyone, but if they were looking, they surely would have seen me as I was told to strip.
"Everything?", I asked.
"Yes, everything", he said, as he stood there with a silly grin on his face and watched me.
I though the sunburn treatment started with a cold cucumber treatment and then was followed by a massage, but instead it started with a massage that was once again, deep. Really deep.
It's a good thing my sunburn had healed or it would have been quite painful.
About halfway through my massage, someone knocked on the door. My masseuse went and spoke for a few minutes to the person outside of the door. When he returned I felt an extremely cold liquid being applied to my legs. Cucumber. I guess he forgot to bring it up with him or they had to prepare it. I was not looking forward to it being applied to my back.
Instead, he went back to finishing the massage on my back, and then applied the cucumber, which fortunately had warmed up a bit and wasn't as much of a shock as I thought it would be. It felt good.
The same process was repeated to my front. Nothing was covered up. I felt very exposed. Even though the masseuse didn't touch me "down there" I still found it interesting that I wasn't even given a washcloth - or maybe a banana leaf?
When we were done with the massage and the cucumber mash, I was told to stand up and rinse off. The shower that was provided was only cold water, so Ketut (that was his name) scooped warm water from the bathtub and poured it on me. Once I was clean of the oil and cucumber, I was told to sit in the bath.
This tub was not as nice as the one at Nur Salon. I liked Nur's tub because it was long enough for me to submerge my entire body and stretch out. This one was a little short.
I laid back in the tub looking at the flowers and petals floating around me and wondered what their real purpose was. They didn't seem to smell. Was it just an aesthetic touch? Did they have some medicinal value? The just seemed to cling to me and reminded me of the feel of seaweed in the Atlantic Ocean when I was a kid. I never liked that feeling of seaweed clinging to my legs and wasn't really enjoying the feeling of these flowers attaching themselves to my wet belly.
Tomorrow will be a week that I've been in Bali and I have had three massages and one ear candling treatment. I would have had more massages, but I counted things like moving to a better hotel and going to the doctor as "treatments" as well. I am trying to limit myself to one treatment per day.
But really, there is not a whole lot else for me to do here other than get massages and eat. I can't swim for one week because of my ear infection, and even after that, I don't want to take a chance, unless I can find ear plugs. I don't want to mess with my ears.
And so, I return to my question of whether or not a body can be massaged too much. I guess I will have to just find out the answer myself.
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