Saigon is dotted with countless massage parlors of varying degree of legitimacy, though it is never very hard to find sex services in the city. Vietnamese massage parlors are widespread and common across the country. The reporters who wrote the article in question went undercover and took jobs in some of these places to see what the training and work was like.
To their credit the reporters do seem to have spent a good amount of time embedded in the industry, getting to know the people involved, and not trying to push too hard to get some kind of preconceived story out of it. In the end they came up with some info that would interest anyone who wonders about the scene. To work as a masseuse, one needs a license but most, if not to say all, massage parlors fake papers for their massage employees.
Meanwhile, new employees at massage parlor TN had to learn erotic massage first. At this parlor, we were told by a manager named Ngan to wait in front of a massage room at 10 a. Through a glass on the door we saw a man lying comfortably in the bath tub and being meticulously washed from head to foot by a scantily-clad masseuse.
Suddenly, the customer looked at the door, spotted us and grumbled some words. We were ordered to retreat right away. We were panicked upon seeing a technician performing oral sex on a fat client. According to Trang, the net income a massage worker earns from her tips is around VND18 million a month, after deductions for all the fines and costs.
A rule of thumb in the massage industry is the younger and more beautiful masseuses are, the bigger tips they receive.
