Outcall massage in Ari
Ari is a grid of quiet lanes off Phahonyothin filled with cafes, small studios and people who work for themselves, which makes it the most daytime district north of the canal.
- Arrival
- 30 to 50 minutes
- Hours
- 24 hours, every day
- Therapists
- Licensed, named first
- From
- THB 900, pay after
A grid of low-rise lanes where half the district works from home.
Ari sits on Phahonyothin Road a few stops north of Victory Monument, and it is one of the few central Bangkok districts that never went vertical. The station is on the main road, and behind it in both directions runs a grid of numbered sois lined with two and three storey houses, small apartment blocks and converted shophouses.
What Ari books most
Ordered by what people here actually choose, rather than by our menu. Every one is worked on your own bed with sheets and oil the therapist brings with her.
Office syndrome massage
Targeted work on the neck, shoulders and upper back for people who sit at a desk all day. The one to book if your pain has a laptop-shaped cause.
DetailsDeep tissue massage
Slower and heavier than an oil massage, aimed at the knots underneath rather than the surface. Say the word at any point and she eases off.
DetailsAromatherapy massage
The same slow work as an oil massage, with a scented blend chosen for what you need. Lemongrass to wake up, lavender to sleep. Most people book this one at night.
DetailsTraditional Thai massage
Stretching and acupressure along the body's energy lines, worked through clothing without oil. Firm, and on tight muscles it can smart. Worked on your bed, so there is nothing to clear.
DetailsRelaxing oil massage
Long, even strokes with warm unscented oil. The most straightforward thing on the menu, and the one to pick if you simply want the tension gone.
DetailsCoconut oil massage
Cold-pressed coconut oil rather than the standard blend. Lighter on the skin, absorbs rather than sitting on top, and it is what most Thai therapists use on themselves.
DetailsOver the last fifteen years those lanes have filled with independent cafes, small restaurants, design studios, photographers and the kind of businesses that occupy a converted house rather than an office floor. It has become the district people mean when they talk about creative Bangkok.
What it does not have is hotels. There is almost no visitor accommodation here at all, a handful of small guesthouses aside, and that makes Ari one of the purest residential districts on our list. Nearly everybody we treat here lives here.
The other feature is government. Several ministries and state agencies occupy large compounds along Phahonyothin nearby, which puts a substantial civil service population into the district alongside the freelancers, and the two groups keep completely different hours.
For us this is a district of regulars, daytime bookings and addresses that need a soi number rather than a building name to make any sense at all.
The freelance clock, and why afternoons are busy
Most districts on our list are empty between nine and six because everybody has gone to work. Ari is not, and the reason is the number of people here who work for themselves or from home.
Designers, photographers, writers, small business owners and remote employees make up a large share of this population, and they are in their flats or their studios during the day. That produces a steady stream of weekday afternoon bookings that almost no other residential district generates.
It also produces a particular complaint. Long hours at a laptop in a converted house without a proper desk setup is the standard cause here, and office syndrome sells better in Ari than in most actual office districts.
The evening pattern exists on top of it, driven by the civil service population who do keep conventional hours, so the district has two peaks. The afternoon one is the easier of the two to book into at short notice.
Half this district does not commute. That is why two in the afternoon is a normal booking here.
The soi grid, and how to describe where you are
Ari is laid out as a grid of numbered lanes off Phahonyothin, which sounds simple and is mostly simple, with a couple of things worth knowing.
The numbered sois
The main sois are numbered Ari 1 upward, running perpendicular to Phahonyothin. Give us the number and we are within a couple of hundred metres immediately.
The sub-lanes
Off each of those run smaller sub-lanes, often unnumbered and occasionally unnamed, and this is where a good share of the housing actually sits. If your building is down one, say how far along the parent soi it branches.
Houses
A lot of the accommodation is houses rather than blocks, which means a house number and a gate rather than a lobby and a lift. Numbering is not always sequential.
What to send
The reliable combination here is soi number, then a physical description. The colour of the gate, the cafe on the corner, the tree outside. This is a district of small landmarks and they work better than numbers do.
What Ari books
Office syndrome, the leader here
Office syndrome takes the largest share in Ari, which is remarkable for a district with barely any offices in it. The cause is the working-from-home population: laptops on kitchen tables, sofas used as desks, and eight hour days spent in postures no ergonomics consultant would sign off.
Deep tissue in the evening
Deep tissue arrives in the evening from the government and corporate population who do commute, and behaves the way it does in any residential district on a weekday.
Aromatherapy, and the wind-down
Aromatherapy is a late booking here and skews toward the creative population, whose hours are irregular and who tend to book when they finish rather than at a fixed time. Eleven at night is a normal request.
Traditional Thai, in the houses
Traditional Thai does well because so much of the housing is houses. Floor space is not a constraint in a two storey home the way it is in a studio, and the stretching is chosen freely rather than ruled out by the room.
Working in a converted house
A great deal of the accommodation here is a house or part of one, frequently converted, and that produces a set of practicalities different from a condominium.
The first is the gate. Most houses here sit behind one, and somebody has to open it. There is usually no intercom and often no bell that works, so the arrival depends on you having your phone to hand.
The second is the room. A house gives you a choice that a studio does not, and it is worth making it before she arrives. An upstairs bedroom is quiet and private. A downstairs room may be larger and better for traditional Thai but is also where the rest of the household passes through.
The third is cooling. A lot of these houses are older and air condition the bedrooms only. Ninety minutes of physical work in an uncooled room in the hot season is hard on both people, so pick the cooled room or have a fan going before she arrives.
The fourth is stairs, which is the usual point. No lifts, steep stairs, and a therapist carrying her oils and linen. One word about the floor is all it takes.
Getting here, and why it takes longer than it looks
Ari looks close to the centre on a map and it is, but the arrival window here runs longer than for districts at a similar distance, and it is worth explaining why rather than just quoting the number.
The BTS reaches the main road quickly and that part is fine. The issue is the last leg. The sois here are long, narrow, two-way, lined with parked cars and full of pedestrians walking between cafes, and a vehicle moves through them slowly. A building four hundred metres down Ari 4 is not a four hundred metre journey in practice.
The second factor is that there is only one station for the whole grid. Unlike Sukhumvit, where a line runs along the main road and serves a series of districts, Ari has one stop and everything radiates from it on foot or on the road.
Thirty to fifty minutes is honest for this. The far ends of the longer sois sit at the top of that and occasionally past it in the evening, and it is worth saying which soi you are on so we can quote the right end of the range.
Therapists who cover Ari
Every one of them trained in Thailand and holds a Ministry of Public Health licence. You get told who is coming before they knock.
Setting things up when you are going to book again
There is essentially no transient population here, so nearly everybody who books once books again. That changes what is worth setting up at the start.
Send the full address once, including how to get through the gate, and we keep it. After that a booking is a time and a treatment.
Ask for the same therapist. Consistency is easier to arrange in a district like this because the same people cover it, and by the third visit she already knows the problem.
Use the afternoons. If you work from home, the two to five window is the easiest slot in this district and the hardest one to get almost anywhere else in the city.
Consider a standing weekly booking if the complaint is chronic. For a desk-shaped problem caused by working from a sofa, a regular treatment does considerably more than an occasional rescue.
Tell us about the dog. A lot of houses here have one and it is easier for everyone if she is expecting it.
The government compounds, and the streets around them
Several large state agencies occupy compounds along Phahonyothin near this district, and they shape the northern end of it in ways that are not obvious from the sois.
The ministries
The compounds themselves are offices and we do not work in offices, so nothing there is bookable. What matters is the population they bring.
Staff housing
There is a good deal of staff and associated housing in the surrounding streets, generally older blocks and houses, and that population books on conventional weekday evening hours.
The evening pattern
That is what gives Ari its second peak. Between six and nine the district fills up with people who have finished work, which is quite separate from the afternoon freelance pattern.
Access
Access to those addresses is ordinary. Older buildings, guards rather than reception desks, and a phone call rather than an intercom.
Where Ari stops
Southward along Phahonyothin the district runs toward Sanam Pao and then Victory Monument, which is busier, denser and has its own page.
Northward it reaches Saphan Khwai and eventually Mo Chit and Chatuchak, and the character stays low-rise for a while before the larger developments start.
Eastward the sois run toward Vibhavadi Rangsit and the expressway, an area of larger roads and less pedestrian life, and the arrival window lengthens noticeably out that way.
Westward they reach toward the Samsen and Dusit side of the city, which is older, more governmental and considerably harder to reach from the BTS. We cover it and it is a longer run.
What this district asks about
Two questions come up here far more than elsewhere, and both come from the same place: a population that has thought about this properly rather than booking on impulse from a hotel room.
The first is which treatment is actually right for a specific complaint. The honest answer is that for neck and upper back pain from a laptop, office syndrome is the correct choice and a general oil massage is a waste of the hour. If you describe the problem when you book rather than choosing from the menu, we will tell you which one to take.
The second is how often. For a chronic desk complaint, once a week or once a fortnight does more than an occasional two hour session when it becomes unbearable. Regularity matters more than length, and a standing sixty minute booking beats an irregular ninety.
On price the answer is the same everywhere in the city: one treatment list, nothing taken up front, and payment at the end. Ari sits inside the seven kilometre radius, so no transport contribution is added here at all. Being a long way up a soi costs you time rather than money.
Everywhere we go in Ari
Find yours below. If it is not here we almost certainly still come, so send the building name and we will confirm in a minute.
Stations
- BTS Ari
- BTS Sanam Pao
- BTS Saphan Khwai
- BTS Victory Monument
- BTS Mo Chit
Streets and sois
- Phahonyothin Road
- Soi Ari 1 to Soi Ari 5
- Soi Ari Samphan
- Soi Phahonyothin 7
- Soi Phahonyothin 9
- Soi Phahonyothin 11
- Vibhavadi Rangsit Road
- Soi Rang Nam
Landmarks
- Ari BTS
- La Villa Ari
- Ministry of Finance
- Phahonyothin government complex
- Ari Samphan lanes
- Saphan Khwai Market
- Century Plaza
Buildings we travel to
Listed as places we deliver to. We have no arrangement with any of them and nothing here should be read as one.
Hotels
- Josh Hotel
- Yim Huai Khwang Hostel
- The Quarter Ari by UHG
Condominiums and residences
- Noble Reform
- Ideo Q Victory
- The Line Phahonyothin Park
- Onyx Phaholyothin
- Chateau In Town Phaholyothin
- Baan Ari
Who books in Ari
- Freelancers and remote workers
- The defining group. Weekday afternoons, and office syndrome from a laptop on a kitchen table.
- Creative studios
- Photographers, designers and small agencies in converted houses. Irregular hours and late aromatherapy bookings.
- Civil servants
- The government compounds along Phahonyothin. Conventional weekday evenings, and the district's second peak.
- House households
- Two storey homes with gates and no lifts. Traditional Thai, booked long and booked often.
- Standing weekly bookings
- Chronic desk complaints treated on a regular schedule rather than rescued occasionally when they become unbearable.
Questions about Ari
- Can I book in the middle of a weekday?
- Yes, and this is one of the few residential districts where the afternoon is genuinely well served. A large share of the population here works from home or for themselves, so the two to five window is staffed accordingly and a short-notice request usually works.
- Why does it take longer to get here than the distance suggests?
- The last leg. The sois here are long, narrow, two-way and lined with parked cars, and there is only one station for the whole grid. A building four hundred metres down a soi is not a four hundred metre journey in practice. Tell us the soi number and we will quote the right end of the range.
- I live in a house behind a gate. What happens?
- Somebody needs to open it. Most houses here have no working bell and no intercom, so the arrival depends on you having your phone with you. It is the single most common cause of a delayed start in this district and it is easily avoided.
- I work from my sofa and my neck is ruined. What should I book?
- Office syndrome, which targets the neck, shoulders and upper back for the whole hour rather than spreading the time over a body that is otherwise fine. A general oil massage is the wrong purchase for that complaint and it is the most common mistake people make here.
- How often should I have one?
- For a chronic desk problem, weekly or fortnightly does considerably more than an occasional long session when it becomes unbearable. Regularity matters more than length. A standing sixty minute booking will outperform an irregular ninety every time.
- My address is down an unnamed sub-lane. Can you find it?
- Yes, with the parent soi number and a physical description. Tell us how far along the soi the lane branches and something visible: a gate colour, a cafe on the corner, a tree. This is a district of small landmarks and they do more work than house numbers.
- Is there enough space for traditional Thai in a house?
- Almost always, and it is one of the reasons the treatment does well here. A downstairs room in a two storey house has the floor area the stretching needs several times over. The thing to check instead is whether that room is air conditioned.
- Do you cover the streets around the ministries?
- Yes, and those addresses are ordinary to reach. Older blocks and staff housing with a guard rather than a reception desk, and a phone call rather than an intercom. The compounds themselves are offices and we do not work in offices, so the booking needs to be at a residence.
- We have a dog. Is that a problem?
- Not at all, and she will not be bothered by one. It just helps to know in advance, and it helps more if somebody comes out to the gate rather than calling from indoors, because a dog doing its job cannot tell a therapist from anybody else arriving unannounced.
Near Ari
Phaya Thai
The Airport Rail Link terminus. Arrivals, departures, and a considerable number of hospital beds.
Victory Monument
A roundabout with four hospitals and several thousand students around it. This district is never quiet.
Chatuchak
The weekend market. For two days a week this becomes an entirely different district from the one it is on a Tuesday.
Ratchathewi
One stop from Siam and half the rent. The canal, the guesthouses and the cheapest central beds.
Lat Phrao
One road with sois numbered past 130, and the number is the only part of the address that helps.