Since arriving in Hanoi five days ago, I have received eleven massages. Usually I visited two places a day, although one day I even went to three.
Local Spas
There are two traditional local spas that I discovered during my stay last autumn and became very fond of. To be honest, unless Westerners are extremely passionate about massage, I do not think most of them would choose places like these. In fact, I never saw a single foreign customer.
They have baths made with boiled Vietnamese herbs, steam baths, and body scrubs. However, there is no culture of carefully covering your body with towels like in Japan. At least on the women’s side, everyone casually sees each other naked.
If you want a truly local experience, it may actually be very interesting.
For me, the massages are extremely strong. Even when I ask for softer pressure, it rarely changes.
If you pay more, you can get a private room, which is reasonably clean. But once you enter the shared rooms together with local Vietnamese customers, the atmosphere becomes much rougher and more local. The hygiene standards would honestly never be acceptable in Japan.
This time I experienced both, and the difference in skill and sensitivity between therapists was surprisingly large.
Normally I almost never get angry during treatments or ask to stop halfway through. But this time, there were moments when I had to clearly say something, and I even ended one treatment early.
Still, I do not think they fully understood what the problem was 😅
I kept thinking, “wow… the difference can really be this big.”
I also tried another local spa with a very similar treatment flow.
And once again, Hanoi style massage defeated me 😆
And please… do not use your smartphone during the massage 😅
Face down does not mean the client notices nothing.
I came to the conclusion that with local spas, it is definitely better to choose the more expensive option.
There is one therapist I have now visited three times. She has her own unusual, slightly acrobatic techniques. Even when I ask for softer pressure, her massage is still extremely strong, but honestly, I think everyone should experience it once.
You would never find this kind of treatment in a tourist spa.
The More Expensive Tourist-Friendly Spas
One day I visited a spa in Hanoi’s Japanese area. Normally I do not intentionally go there, but I considered it part of the experience.
As expected from a place aimed at Japanese residents and tourists, the service was much more polite than elsewhere, and the spa itself was very clean.
I originally went for a shampoo massage, but I also received bodywork. What impressed me most was how skillfully they used herbal balls. I genuinely learned something from it.
The shampoo treatment itself also felt wonderful.
Another spa I visited was located in the middle of the Old Quarter, a very touristy area with extremely high Google reviews.
It certainly had a fancy atmosphere, and I could understand why tourists would enjoy it. Personally, however, it did not leave a very strong impression on me.
Be Careful with Neck Massage
At this point, I have started calling this “Hanoi style.”
There is an enormous amount of neck work. And it is often very aggressive.
Many times, other fingers were also pressing directly against the carotid artery, which can honestly be dangerous.
When I felt pressure there, I actually placed my own fingers in between to protect it. Eventually I told them not to work on my neck anymore.
The persistence was remarkable.
This also happens frequently in Thai massage, but I strongly recommend avoiding techniques where the neck is twisted. It can genuinely be dangerous.
No matter how aggressively people attack the neck, it does not remove tension. Usually it only creates more.
The Instructor Who Wanted to “Change” Vietnamese Massage
Last year I received lessons from a Vietnamese instructor. It was not body massage training, but I suddenly remembered something he once told me.
“Vietnamese massage is too strong. I want to change that, which is why I teach.”
Now, after this trip, I finally understand what he meant.
He was also deeply interested in Japanese shiatsu.
In the End, There Was Only One Choice
In Vietnam there are spas where blind therapists work. At the company where I studied, blind therapists were also employed, and one of them even became my practice model.
In Japan as well, blind practitioners were once strongly associated with traditional anma massage.
For my final massage in Hanoi, I eventually chose a spa run by blind therapists.
It turned out to be the best massage of the entire trip. And more importantly, it was genuinely gentle.
During the treatment, I almost felt like crying. I have never experienced that before.
Perhaps my body had simply become exhausted after receiving so many rough and overly strong massages 😭
I was so moved by the experience that I am thinking about going back to see her again before returning to Japan.
It reminded me that gentleness is also technique.
