Thai massage

I refer to Mrs. W.E. Paterson letter in The Jakarta Post on Oct. 28, 1994, entitled Ancient Thai Massage.

Mrs. Paterson's complaint is unfounded and unreasonable. To put the record straight, my husband is not the owner of the clinic. My sister and I are the joint owners. We are probably the only two Indonesians who have graduated from Wat Po Traditional Thai Medical School (in 1991 and 1993), and are registered as qualified instructors by the Wat Awut Traditional Thai Massage Conservation Association.

Suffering a throbbing headache, aches and pains all over her body and a most irritating sore throat that made her hoarse, Mrs. Paterson came to our clinic at about 3.30 p.m. on Oct. 20, 1994. She was under extreme stress. In the 40 minutes before her therapeutic treatment, she confided to my husband the cause of her stress and my husband in turn advised her that her treatment must be in two stages.

The first is general therapeutic massage, combining Chinese accupressure with Indian Yoga. This is to harmonize the body's yin and yang forces, release tensions from the body tissue and facilitate the flow of blood and bio-electrical systems.

The second stage is optional and unfortunately most painful as it involves the use of "concentrated internal strength" to release the inner, ingrained, tensions causing the aches and pains.

Mrs. Paterson wished only to take the first stage of the therapy. When I completed the two-hour general therapeutic massage (at the discounted fee of Rp 48,000), she told me that it was definitely the best massage therapy she ever experienced and that her headache and aches and pains were much less intense.

My husband took more than one hour to eliminate her headache completely, and to her satisfaction. The discounted fee for the one-hour specialization treatment was Rp 60,000, making it a total of Rp 108,000, but she ended up paying Rp 78,000 because my husband acceded to he request for a further discount and halved his fee.

Mrs. Paterson phoned late the next morning and informed us that her back and shoulders felt heavy. My husband told her that it would disappear in a day or two.

She called again late Monday morning, Oct. 24, 1994, and insisted on talking to my husband even though she was informed he was treating a patient.

In spite of every effort my husband made to terminate the conversation, she kept on talking and demanded to know why her back had been painful the night before. She also kept reminding him she had already paid Rp 78,000.

My husband tolerated her unreasonable demands for an explanation for nearly 10 minutes and when she again reminded my husband of the payment, my husband told her he was willing to refund her Rp 78,000, so she would have no further excuse to bother him again. When she threatened to write to The Jakarta Post, my husband told her to do her worse.

UMI WAHYUDAH

Chairperson,

Yayasan Pijit Berdiploma Indonesia

Jakarta