In Which Prince Andrew Strikes a Blow for Thai Masseuses

[Little_Nemo]

@acsenray

As an aside, there are monarchies in which the monarch’s brothers are ahead of his sons. I believe this is the case in Saudi Arabia. The founder of the royal family, Ibn Saud, had more than 50 sons, and since 1964 the kingship has not yet descended to Ibn Saud’s grandchildren’s generation. 20 of them are still alive and none of them younger than 70 years old. They are not happy about the prospect of being skipped for the younger generation, and this is causing a constitutional crisis.

The ancient Chinese dynasties ran that way too. When the king died his oldest brother succeded him and the title passed down through the brothers. Only when that generation died out did the title get passed on the the oldest son of the oldest brother.

Probably created a lot of tension in the royal families with the sons of the current king knowing they were going to be passed over for their uncles and then their cousins.

[Siam_Sam]

@Little_Nemo

Could somebody explain to me why anyone would need a relaxing break from sharing a luxury yacht with a host of topless beauties?

It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it. (It was taken when I applied, and now I know who got it.)

Of course, the article doesn’t actually say the topless girls are Thai. But Prince Andrew really does seem to come here a lot, there’s always some sort of notice in the paper when he does, and there has been much speculation over the years as to why, exactly, he seems to like coming here so often, hehe.

@jjimm

In seriousness, Thai traditional massage is an ancient, respectable and respected art. I presume the articles that mentioned “masseuses” were doing it for salacious reasons.

I have Thai a friend who is a fully trained masseur from the Wat Po Thai school (the Royal Palace, birthplace of Thai massage), who would benefit from such lobbying. Not, of course, that Prince Andrew should be saying shit to anyone about immigration laws.

Yes, that is correct. Thai traditional massage really is a legitimate profession actually, and a Wat Pho training and certification pretty much guarantees quality.

However, realizing that many tourists are interested in genuine Thai massage, a lot of entrepreneurs in tourist areas have taken to just sticking up a “Thai Massage” sign and hiring “masseuses” with little or no real training just to pummel the poor suckers mercilessly. Some have done real harm. So if you’re truly interested in the real thing, try to ascertain it’s the real thing. Genuine masseuses will have certification. Best are the ones from Wat Pho. You can even go straight to the source at Wat Pho and have a massage there. (Don’t believe any clowns who try to stop you by saying it’s closed and then try to steer you into a tour or gem shop or such, no matter how official-looking they are.)

Traveling around the region, I’ve also noticed a suspicious number of “Traditional Cambodian Massage” signs in tourist areas of Cambodia and “Traditional Malaysian Massage” in Malaysia" and “Traditional Indonesian Massage” etc. Let the buyer beware!