News Flash: No Sex at Local Thai Massage Parlors!

Leave it to Blikk to stun us again with a penetrating report on Budapest's netherworld. Well, sort of. In an "exposé" that seems unlikely to fool many Hungarian wives, girlfriends or anti-smut and human-trafficking crusaders, Hungary's tabloid crusader last week took a look at the booming market for Thai massage in Budapest, and found... some happy and wholesome Thai girls who wouldn't even dream of degrading their profession by offering something other than just a normal and therapeutic massage.

According to the report, which was written by someone with the unlikely name of Gabi Híres (it translates as "Famous Gabriel/Gabriella"), the Thai masseuses who work at the salon Blikk visited are so happy to be here they almost never think about going home. Tui (36), Chitree (39), Tun (51) and Aoy (27), all come from Bangkok, and arrived in Hungary on December 18th of last year, before the tsunami hit. The unnamed salon on Aranykéz utca in District V is managed by a 52-year-old electrical-engineer-turned-Shaolin priest named László Demmel.

As Blikk tells it, the pay the women get is low by Hungarian standards, but they get room and board, and they all agree they wouldn't want to go back to Thailand, at least for a few years. "People are nicer here," said Aoy, who left a five-year-old son in Bangkok with her mother. "I'd love to stay here, because I make more money here than at home. I only miss my son, but when I go home for a month next year, I can see him." The women say they don't have much free time to make friends, still, Aoy has been dating a Hungarian man for a while.

As for the question you've all been waiting for, it appears the answer is no. "This massage has nothing to do with sex," said Aoy. "But not many people know this. Some ask for a massage in a special place, but we reject this request with a clear 'no,' and if the guest insists, we have him leave the salon."

Where the customers seeking a "happy ending" go when they are rebuffed by Aoy and her colleagues Blikk doesn't say, though a similar news flash from a couple of months back does spring to mind.