When you're feeling down, get beat up!

Cao Gio (fire cupping) is a long-standing healing art in Vietnam, as it is in many other parts of Asia. The technique involves having your masseuse prep your back with about 10 minutes of acupressure focused on the complaint area(s). When you're all warmed up and ready to go, she preps her first glass jar by rubbing the inside with a swab of alchohol, which she then lights with a small torch and promptly lays on your slightly oiled skin, causing a leech strength suction that stretches your skin to the limits. Once she's done placing her whole collection of about 30 cuppers on your back and arms, she places a warm towel over the cups that now create a nice table for two. It's a strange yet cool sensation as she slides her hands up and down the glasses that now encase your skin. I guess it's meant to stimulate the circulation, as if the rest wasn't enough! As that part is cookin', you get a nice leg and foot massage, probably to take your mind off an almost unbearable skin stretch. Periodicaly she reaches over to ensure that the cups are tight and doing their job by giving them an extra twist. After about 20 minutes, she starts pluckin' away, like picking mollusks off the sea wall. Little do you know that by the end of the treatment you'll look like, (quoting Thien).."you got hit by a tennis ball machine!" The circle tattoos will last about a week, they say. It's been about 5 days and I'm still bearing the marks. But I must say, it really is a pick-me-up when you're feeling a bit sluggish or fluish. My session extended into an hour-long combo of Shiatsu, Thai and Taiwanese acupressure techniques that stretched, pulled, pushed and kneaded away any tightness or stress in the body. And all of this for an unreasonable $110,000 dng (apx. $8.50 USD)!!! At home a similar treatment has cost me upwards of $120 for a 90-minute session, without the cupping! What a deal..... I'm definetly going back, but next timewill be for a foot massage, which includes a 20 minute session in an herbal steam and sauna, a jacuzzi with mineral salts and your choice of essential oils, a half-hour foot reflexology targeting specific ailments, topping off the gour long treatment with a parrafin dip. All of this for a very affordable price: $15 USD/60 min or $20/90min. Defenitely a must for any hard working local or tired traveller.

The clinic is called Ngoc Anh and is located at 31/1 Nguyen Binh Kiem, Q.1, HCMC http://www.tanngocanh.com/ & http://www.ngocanhspa.com/.