Bareboating and massage

[couplesynergy]

Hi, my husband and I have the opportunity to go bareboating from Phuket on a yacht in October. We have never been to Phuket before and are really looking forward to it. We have been to Bangkok and really enjoyed the massages there. We were wondering if it was possible to hire a girl and take her on the six night cruise to give us a couple of nice relaxing massages each day. She might also do a bit of cooking. We would pay for her meals and any expenses. My questions are: How do we find someone and how much would it cost us?

We also wanted to take some gifts to the local orphanage. Can someone please give me details about where it is and what sort of things would be useful to them.

Any tips about where to visit while crusing would also be appreaciated.

Thanks for your help.

Leanne

[marc26]

i dont know any orphanages, but if you find one, little thai kids love chocolate. i know its not useful, but they love it

[stevem]

Just cruise the bars and ask around. You wont be short of takers, so you will be able to take your pick. One thing to keep in mind though, you will need to pay the bar fine for the time the girl is away, and make sure that everything that you are thinking about is up front with the girl, especially the money side.

[couplesynergy]

Not too sure that I want to go to a bar for a girl because were not after sex just massages and some cooking (I am not the best cook in the world especially when I am on holidays). Would you know if we could go to a massage place and hire a girl for the week?

The TV news here keeps showing images that they say are from Phuket with lots of kids in dorms like an orphanage. We wanted to take stuff like coloring books, pencils, crayons etc.

Leanne

[void]

Hotel Metropole in Phuket Town used to have (and I presume still has) a very large massage selection of ladies who do a very good proper traditional Thai massage. Typically one or more of the ladies, who are the most skilled, have the additional job of providing refresher training to the rest, in order to maintain a reasonably high standard. This gives Metropole a reasonable consistant and good level of Thai massage. There prices also used to be pretty reasonable. Its possible there is a lady there who meets your "massage and willing to travel" requirements, but finding the particular lass, and arranging things could be very difficult.

How one finds some one who can give a good massage AND cook is a different story. Food being so cheap in Thailand, not that many lasses can cook, as many many people eat out all the time.

Plus I foresee a difficulty in contacting the person. To contact the hotel or massage establishment direct could result in an exhorbant price. Instead (to keep prices down), I think one would first need to meet the lass, and then talk to her direct. This could be difficult as many of the ladies don't speak any language other than Thai. And finally, many of the ladies in the real traditional massage places are fairly conservative, and they might be worried about their safety with a strange couple, on a boat, away from Thailand.

I think finding one or more expatriates, who have massage "regulars", may be the best way to proceed. Many times the expatriates, who are a regular at a place like Metropole, will have a "short list" of ladies who they know gives a good massage, and with whom they feel comfortable.

Another approach would be to find (one or more) expatriate(s) who have a Thai spouse, where the spouse can chat with the ladies at a Traditional Thai massage establishment such as Metropole, and find out if there is someone who might meet your criteria. Again, I see safety being a concern of these traditional lasses.

Good luck in your efforts. Maybe someone on this forum knows a way to over come the hurdles I foresee.

[JayBee]

There are several ways to approach the problem, depending on how much time and money you have to spend.

The easiest way would be to go to C&N massage parlor next to the hotel lobby and ask for a massage from Tuk. She speaks fair English for a Thai, not good but she can communicate. Ask her if she is available or if she knows someone who is and would be willing to go sailing for a week. You would have to compensate the massage parlor as well, since it is run fairly strict, and she would not be able to skip out for a week. She works 14 hours a day, 10 AM to midnight. For a traditionial Thai massage the rate is 300 Baht for 2 hours(she gets 100, they get 200, IIRC). So even without a discount, that is only 2100 Baht for the whole day.
Since they don't normally book all 14 hours, and spend a fair amount of time sitting around doing nothing, I think this would be attractive to both her and the massage parlor. I'm not sure how good of a cook she is, but she seems like the type who would probably know how to cook IMHO.

She is an absolutely A-1, top notch masseuse, has a wonderful sense of humor, and is just basically a really good person with a very even temperament(not ever moody). I think she would be great fun to have around. If she didn't want to do it(it would help if you got to know her with massages for a few days first maybe), then she perhaps she could recommend another and talk to the other ladies to see who is up for it. Perhaps the establishment could talk to the owner of the yacht to verify that everything is on the up and up.

Another option would be N.P. massage parlor on one of the Paradise sois(next door to Charlie's Guesthouse). Ask for Dtaa. She would probably be up for it. She is about the same age as Tuk (26), and is a very good masseuse, but not as good as Tuk(who is tops), but she does speak very good English. N.P. Massage is run a bit looser than C&N. If you get a massage from her, and ask for her cell number, call her later. She might be willing to tell them she is going to see her mother, and skip out for a week. But maybe not. She is Ms. Personality, always upbeat, always a big smile on her face. A big round girl, but with tons of energy. Not to be confused with Da, the pretty little one(mediocre masseuse, moody). They ask for higher massage rate there, but I never paid Dtaa more than 300 for 2 hours. Everything is negotiable. If Dtaa is working in Ko Samui, then probably one of the others would be up for it, but just make sure you get one who is a good masseuse(not all of them are). If you need to involve the management there, bargain hard with them, they seem like to the type who would ask top dollar, but take whatever they can get.

A 3rd option would be to hire a BG, who speaks English well, to accompany you to massage parlors to act as an interpreter. With this option, you might even want to take her to Phukettown, where you probably could get a better deal. The BGs tell me that Thais never pay more than 150 Baht for a massage, and I could think the rates would be lower in Phukettown than Patong.

There are tons of masseuses and they spend a lot of time sitting around doing nothing, so it should not be too hard to find one who is up for it. Lots of legit massage parlors, too. One across the street from C&N. One on the corner of Rat-U-Thit and the soi C&N is on, other side of the soi, above the seafood restaurant on the corner. One on Sai Nam Yen attached to JJ Mansion Guesthouse/hotel(1/2 block east of Rat-U-Thit), upstairs from the beauty parlor. Those are all legit places.

Last words of advice. Get a massage first before hiring anyone, to check quality. Don't expect a good massage form a pretty, petite girl. If they are a little(or a lot) stockier, they're usually better. And have a better temperament, which is real important if she is going to be on a boat with you for a week.

Good luck. It really shouldn't be too difficult. Lots of massueses and they all want to work!!

JayBee

[couplesynergy]

Appreciate everyones help thank you very much.

Another question. We were origionally thinking of provisioning the boat from a supermarket but spend three nights anchored off an island resort and having dinner and breakfast there.

As stated earlier the food in LOS is sooooooo cheap but would there be enough resorts around the bay to stop off and eat at a different place each of the six nights? What islands or resorts would people recommend? Any favourite dishes?

Thanks again guys

Leanne

[void]

Originally Posted by couplesynergy

Another question. We were origionally thinking of provisioning the boat from a supermarket but spend three nights anchored off an island resort and having dinner and breakfast there.

As stated earlier the food in LOS is sooooooo cheap but would there be enough resorts around the bay to stop off and eat at a different place each of the six nights? What islands or resorts would people recommend?

Did you check out the Google satellite image thread:
http://www.phuket-info.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7752

You can get an image of Phuket, and then zoom in and examine the coast line and the various Islands around the Island. See which Islands ones have boats around. These images were taken before the Tsunami.

There are lots of different places around Phuket Island itself.

I like Jimmy's light house in Chalong. Its walking distance from the long pier. There are also some other more local restaurants in Chaong.

Nai Harn Bay has the Le Meridien Phuket Yacht Club with some relatively more expensive, but very nice restaurants.

If you are allowed to anchor off Patong, you could find more nice restaurants than you could shake a stick at.

... I confess I know nothing about anchorage fee's. Someone else on this thread will have to "chime in" about that.

I think some of the very nice surrounding islands have not yet rebuild from the Tsunami. Its a bit harder for them to rebuild, as material can't be brought in by road. .... If your trip is not for some time, then maybe those Islands will have been rebuilt. Perhaps one of the local xpat's can bring a current status there.

[Captain]

If you are sailing in October I think you better stay on the Eastside of the island, Pang Nga bay.
On the Westside you will probably still get the monsoon winds and it may be fun sailing in those forces, but not comfortable and anchoring...
I think your biggest problem will be finding somebody who is a good massage lady AND an good cook.

[JayBee]

Originally Posted by couplesynergy

Hi, my husband and I have the opportunity to go bareboating from Phuket on a yacht in October.

BTW, what does bareboating mean? I have never heard that word before.

[Captain]

Originally Posted by JayBee

BTW, what does bareboating mean? I have never heard that word before.

Nothing to do with what you think, and if you don't think that I have a dirty mind.
Bareboating is chartering a boat without crew (no captain, cook, steward, deckhand).

[couplesynergy]

Haha thanks Captain for explaining that. Because the cruise is in October we have to stay in Pang Nga Bay so we are really not too sure what places are going to be available to us in terms of restaurants on the islands but will do some more research closer to the date.

We get to stay in Phuket at Club Anderman Beach Resort for a week before picking up the boat so I might have to stock up on my massages during that time.

This is actually an exchange. There was a guy trying to sell are bareboat holiday out of Phuket that he had paid for. He was due to go early January but obviously couldn't. The charter company gave him till the end of October to take it but he made other plans. He was trying to sell it on ebay and got no bids. We have a bareboat that we charter out in the Whitsundays Islands in Queensland. My husband contacted this guy and offered him a week on our boat sometime next year in exchange for his holiday in Phuket.

Behave yourselves

Leanne

[steve@thaib]

Maybe the boat owner will have had this question put to him before? My experience has been that most Thai girls do a passable massage anyway, so maybe you should be looking for a girl that can cook?

I would imagine that the boat owner would be able to help you out here.