Combined Opposites

I was in Medan for the weekend to meet my wonderful friends who are working for a humanitarian organization which I was working for. We spent the weekend just to be together. We had lunch together, took pictures, and went for a karaoke and clubbing. The next day, we decided to cool down for some so called beauty treatment. My friends went for facial while I went for a body scrub.

I was asked what kind of body mask that I would like to have and I chose full detox. There were three choices and the other two had something to do with whitening which I try so hard to avoid. So, I only had one choice and that was full detox. The woman that took care of me was a bit thin and so soft speaking person. So, I changed into proper clothing that they have prepared for the “ritual”. At first, she asked me to get into a sauna machine before the scrubbing.

So, when it came to the body scrubbing, I was so surprised finding out that this little and soft speaking woman scrub me so well with strong yet gentle and rhythmic movements. In addition to that, I was so soothed with the slow-melodious Sarah Brightman singing and the aromatherapy. More surprisingly, she still could talk to me with her soft and gentle voices. Her tunes of her voice did not change while scrubbing and talking to me in the same time. She worked thoroughly for around an hour of scrubbing. It was strong yet gentle. I could feel the combinations so clearly and so awakening. Then, she asked me to bathe and changed with clean outfits that they have prepared as well.

After I changed then came the massage. Once again, I enjoyed the strong and gentle hands of this small woman. It took another hour for me to enjoy. After the massage, came to the core treatment and that was the detox process. The whole process took approximately 4 hours. I even fell asleep for one or two times. I forgot all of my worries and why I came here. What I remember was the soothing massage, the aromatherapy, Sarah Brightman and the soft and gentle voice of the small lady.

I hardly ever give tips when I came to Salon or restaurants, but since I was so satisfied I decided to give tips to this small lady. It came to my surprise that there’s a sign on the door saying “NO TIPS PLEASE”. Well, well, I guess I have found out a beauty treatment place where I can be darn satisfied without worrying of giving tips.

I have been annoyed actually with this western custom. Because the night we were karakoeing, there was a staff who came into our karaoke room bringing some small warm towels for us. When we’re finished cleaning our hands with the towels, he kept standing there doing nothing. We found out that he was waiting for the tip. In fact, the service that they gave was not like so satisfactory. It was just OK. Nothing’s special about their service. I do not really understand this. Some people can be very clever in doing business; some people are just messing with the customers. I know that I had to spend like 250 thousands for the body scrub, but it’s worthed because I spent 4 hours in there with the services and the full care from the salon staff. The karaoke took around 2 hours and we had to be charged for more than 10,000 just for a bottle of aqua and the room fee itself. It was almost a million for me to be two hours in the karaoke room.

Well, everything has to be paid. If you desire to go karaoke, then pay based on the rate.

I do not really bother about the amount of money but do you get satisfactory?

It’s all about the service and tipping sh*t.