The list of interviews with people in and around the sex industry continues to grow here on Rockit Reports. Dozens of people have done question and answer sessions for this site. Some have been very interesting.
With millions of people involved in the industry in some way or another there will always be more people to interview. Alas there are also numerous other topics and locations to cover. I have always tried to strike the best balance possible though now it seems that effort expended toward doing interviews like this is not as fruitful as effort spent writing about other things.
The recent publication of the Sex Talk book containing the interviews I have done over the years puts the icing on the cake for me. While I will most likely continue to publish at least some interviews in the future I will no longer expend large amounts of time and energy trying to track down and convince people to do interviews for this site or have the decency to make good on their promises to do so.
The following back and forth with a Vietnamese massage worker expands on a piece I published years ago about massage parlors in Vietnam. It will be one of the last posts of its kind here for some time so I hope you will enjoy.
How old are you and where are you from?
I’m from the Mekong Delta. I am 19.
How would you describe the work you do?
I do massage.
Is that it? You don’t massage penises?
Yes I do that when the customer is good and gives a tip. But I don’t have sex or anything bad.
You never have sex with customers?
No! I am a virgin. I never had sex with anyone. I am Vietnamese. We should wait until we marry to have sex.
Wow, that is surprising. Are many of your coworkers virgins?
I don’t know. They should be because none of them are married. But I don’t think they are. I hear them talk about sex a lot.
With customers?
No! We can’t do that. We will be fired or go to jail. We only do massage.
But some massage places in Vietnamese offer sex or blowjobs.
Really? I don’t know about that. I just work here.
How did you get this job?
My friend worked here. She is from my town. She told me to come here and make money for my family. I didn’t know the job until I came here.
So what did you think?
I didn’t think anything. It is just a job. I can make money.
Is it difficult?
Not really. But I stay here 12 hours. So it is a long time. When there are no customers it is boring. When there are customers the time goes faster.
How much do you get paid?
It depends. If the customer gets a VIP room I make more. If he gets a regular room I get less. Some customers tip a lot. Some are very bad. They don’t tip.
What is your average monthly income?
It changes. On a good month I will make 34,000,000 Dong. Sometimes I will make less. Sometimes I make more.
Do you feel strange about massaging penises since you are a virgin?
I am not having sex. I just do the massage. It is the same as any massage. Here I massage your leg. Here I massage your penis. For me it is not special.
But for the customers it must be special. That’s why they tip for that service right?
I guess. I don’t know. But they get excited. Some guys are too excited. They want to touch me everywhere or kiss.
Do you allow that?
No. They cannot do that here.
What kind of customers do you get?
Many kinds.
What is the average age? Do you see many foreigners? Or only Vietnamese.
All kinds of men come here. Some are twenty. Many are forty or fifty. There are many Vietnamese and Viet Kieu. There are also Koreans, Japanese, Singaporeans and some Chinese. Also some white men. The Vietnamese just want a massage. The Viet Kieu want special massages. The Koreans are rude and never tip. I don’t like to massage them.
But the Korean look and Korean guys seem popular in Vietnam now.
Maybe in drama or music. But the old Korean guys who come here are no good.
How long do you plan to work here?
I don’t know. Maybe one more year. I want to find a husband and stop this work. I know it is not good but I need to help my family.
You are very beautiful. I think you can easily find a husband. Do you think you will find one at work?
I hope so.
I’m going to assume 340 million dong was a typo and she actually makes 34 million.
I can see how she would make $1,500 USD on a good month, but $15,000 is a bit too much for a rub ‘n’ tug shop! Those are escort-level figures.
Yes it was a mistake probably based on the differences in ways of counting across boarders that at this point often leaves me frazzled. Just the other day someone was telling me about “30 ten thousands”. Then again I could have just typed an extra zero. In any event I have corrected it. Cheers.
“I am Vietnamese. We should wait until we marry to have sex.”
Did she say that with a straight face?
Absolutely! And she is hardly the only Vietnamese woman who has ever said that to me. Of course the same phrase also appears in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar with “Vietnamese” swapped out for the local demonym. When used in Indonesia or the Philippines the demonym is usually swapped for the dominant religion. “I am Catholic. We should wait until we marry to have sex”. Cheers.
I pity the man who will be the husband of a whore.
Thanks for the comment. Cheers.
The vietnamese have a saying, “it’s better to marry a whore who becomes a wife, than to marry a wife that becomes a whore.” That’s just my loose translation.
Thanks for the comment. Cheers!
Kind of harsh to refer to a girl who gives the occasional HJ as a “whore”. I never expected my girlfriends or wife to be virgins before we were together. Indeed, some familiarity with how the male body works is in the terms of reference for a partner, IMO.
Thanks for the considered comment. Cheers.