Outcall massage in Phra Khanong
Phra Khanong is the point on the Sukhumvit line where the rent halves and the neighbourhood becomes recognisably Thai again, which changes who books and what they book.
- Arrival
- 30 to 50 minutes
- Hours
- 24 hours, every day
- Therapists
- Licensed, named first
- From
- THB 900, pay after
One stop past Ekkamai, and roughly half the rent. The line changes character here.
Phra Khanong sits one BTS stop east of Ekkamai and the difference between the two is larger than a single station would suggest. This is where the expensive middle of the Sukhumvit line ends and ordinary Bangkok resumes, with a canal, a covered fresh market, street food that is not aimed at visitors, and rents that are close to half what they are three stops west.
What Phra Khanong 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.
Relaxing 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.
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.
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.
DetailsOffice 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.
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.
DetailsThe main artery inland is Soi 71, also called Pridi Banomyong, and like Thong Lo and Ekkamai it runs a long way north with numbered sub-sois hanging off it. It is less developed than either, which means a mix of older townhouses, mid-rise apartment blocks and a scattering of newer condominiums built for people priced out of the districts nearer town.
Around the station itself the picture is different again. W District and the blocks beside it have brought bars, food halls and a younger crowd, and there is now a reasonable cluster of newer towers within a few minutes of the platform. That pocket books more like Ekkamai than like the rest of Phra Khanong.
The population is the most mixed of anywhere on the line. Thai families who have been here for decades, younger expatriates on their first or second Bangkok apartment, students, and a growing number of remote workers who wanted space rather than a Sukhumvit address.
For us it is a district of regulars rather than one-offs. There is almost no hotel stock, the bookings are residential, and once somebody here has found a therapist they like they tend to keep her.
Price, and the thing people get wrong about it
This is the most common question we get from this district and it deserves answering directly rather than being buried. Our treatment prices do not change by area. Sixty minutes of traditional Thai is nine hundred baht in Phra Khanong exactly as it is in Thong Lo. What can change is the transportation support fee, which applies once an address is more than seven kilometres out and is always shown inside the total we quote.
That surprises people here more than it does elsewhere, because almost everything else in the district is cheaper than it is three stops west. Rent is lower, food is lower, and there is a reasonable expectation that a service travelling further would want more for it.
The reason we do not is that the alternative is worse. A price that changes with the postcode means a quote that has to be recalculated for every booking, an argument at the door when somebody was told a different figure, and a permanent suspicion that the number depends on how wealthy your building looks. We would rather quote one figure everywhere and absorb the difference in travel.
What distance does change is the wait. Thirty to fifty minutes here against fifteen to thirty at Nana is a real difference and we quote it honestly. If you want somebody quickly, book earlier rather than expecting the window to shrink.
The treatment costs the same here as it does at the Emporium. What is cheaper is the flat you are in.
Getting an address right out here
Phra Khanong addresses go wrong more often than the districts nearer town, because there is less of the infrastructure that makes an address self-explanatory. Fewer landmark towers, more unnamed lanes, and a lot of buildings that look like their neighbours.
Lead with the sub-soi off Soi 71 rather than the building name. Out here the building name is often the less recognisable of the two, and several developments share a first word.
Say which side of the canal you are on if you are near it. Crossing takes a bridge, the bridges are not frequent, and being on the wrong bank costs ten minutes rather than ten seconds.
Give the nearest cross-lane if your building sits mid-block. Numbering on the sub-sois is not always sequential and a therapist walking down looking for a number can genuinely pass it.
Mention if there is no lift. Older four-storey blocks are common here and it is worth her knowing before she starts up the stairs with a mat.
Share a pin as well as the text if you have one. Out here it genuinely helps, whereas in the central districts the building name alone is usually enough.
What Phra Khanong books
Traditional Thai, and the local preference
Traditional Thai does better here than in any of the districts west of it except Thong Lo, and for a completely different reason. Thong Lo books it because the apartments are large. Phra Khanong books it because a higher share of the customers are Thai, and for a Thai customer the stretching is simply what a massage is. The oil treatments are the novelty rather than the default.
Oil massage and the price-aware booking
Straight oil massage takes the largest share overall, helped by being the second cheapest thing on the list. This is a price-aware district and the sixty minute session outsells the ninety by a wider margin than anywhere further west.
Deep tissue for the commute
Deep tissue arrives on weekday evenings and it is a commuting pattern. A great many people here work in Asok, Silom or Sathorn and spend an hour getting home in each direction, which produces exactly the upper back and shoulder complaints the treatment is for.
Longer treatments than you would expect
The surprise is at the weekend, when the two hour bookings appear. With rents lower, the apartments here are often larger than the ones a customer could afford closer in, and a Saturday afternoon in a big flat is the setting for a long treatment rather than a quick one.
The canal, the market and the two halves of the district
Phra Khanong is not one place, and the four pockets below want quite different things from a booking.
The station side
The station side is the newest part. W District, the food halls, and a run of recently built condominiums aimed at younger renters. Quick to reach, easy buildings, and the bookings here look like Ekkamai on a smaller budget.
Up Soi 71
Up Soi 71 the district turns residential and stays that way for well over a kilometre. Townhouses, mid-rise blocks, and the longest arrival times in the area. This is where the regulars are.
Across the canal
Across the canal the housing is older and more thoroughly Thai, with more houses than apartments. We cover it, the arrival window is at the long end, and the addresses are the ones most worth describing carefully.
The market end
The market end near the station is dense, busy and awkward to drive into. If you are in one of the blocks above or beside the market, meeting in the lobby saves everyone a few minutes.
Therapists who cover Phra Khanong
Every one of them trained in Thailand and holds a Ministry of Public Health licence. You get told who is coming before they knock.
Why the arrival window is longer, and what shortens it
Thirty to fifty minutes is a real range rather than a cautious one, and it exists because Phra Khanong is genuinely further out. The BTS covers the main road quickly, but the district spreads inland from a single station and the last leg is on the road in a way it is not at Asok.
Time of day matters more here than in the central districts. The evening peak on this stretch of Sukhumvit runs long, and the sub-sois off Soi 71 are narrow enough that one delivery van can hold up a lane for several minutes. Between six and eight, expect the upper end of the window.
Late is much faster. After ten the roads clear, the sub-sois empty out and the same journey can be twenty minutes shorter than it was at seven. If you are flexible about when, booking late is the single best thing you can do for the wait in this district.
The other thing that helps is warning. An hour of notice out here is worth considerably more than it is closer in, because it lets us send somebody who is already in the east of the city rather than somebody travelling from the middle of it.
The night market, the street food, and eating before a treatment
Phra Khanong has a proper fresh market and one of the better street food strips on this end of the line, and a surprising number of bookings here are made immediately after somebody has eaten their way along it. It is worth saying what that does to a massage, because nobody else will.
A full stomach and a deep tissue treatment do not go together. Lying face down for an hour on a large meal is uncomfortable at best, and the abdominal work in a traditional Thai sequence is genuinely unpleasant on top of it. Forty-five minutes to an hour after eating is enough for most people; two hours is better if you have gone properly at the grilled pork.
If you have already eaten and you want something now, say so and take an oil massage rather than the Thai. The work stays on the back, the shoulders and the legs, the pressure is even rather than sharp, and it sits far more comfortably on a full stomach than anything involving stretching or compression.
Alcohol is the other half of this and the answer is less flexible. A drink or two is fine. Beyond that a massage is a bad idea, because the pressure feedback a therapist relies on stops being reliable and the odds of waking up sore go up considerably. If you have had a heavy evening at the market, book for the morning instead and it will be a better treatment.
Booking as a regular in a district with no hotels
There is almost no hotel stock in Phra Khanong, which means nearly everything we do here is residential and nearly everybody who books once books again. That changes the relationship in a way worth spelling out.
Your address goes on file after the first visit, along with anything awkward about the building. The keycard lift, the gate that is locked after ten, the fact that the number on the lane is wrong. You explain it once.
Requesting the same therapist works better here than in the transient districts, because the person who covered your area last week is likely to be covering it again. Ask by name and with a little notice you will usually get her.
Standing bookings are straightforward. If you want the same slot every week, say so and we will hold it rather than making you ask each time. It is also the most reliable way to keep the same therapist, since the time is reserved before anyone else can take it.
Everywhere we go in Phra Khanong
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 Phra Khanong
- BTS On Nut
- BTS Ekkamai
- BTS Bang Chak
Streets and sois
- Sukhumvit Soi 71 (Pridi Banomyong)
- Pridi Banomyong 1 to 42
- Soi Sukhumvit 69
- Soi Sukhumvit 77
- Soi Sukhumvit 81
- Phra Khanong Canal
- Rama 4 Road
Landmarks
- W District
- Phra Khanong Market
- Summer Hill
- Wells International School
- Century Movie Plaza
- Phra Khanong Canal
- Big C Phra Khanong
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
- Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11
- Sacha Hotel Uno
- Best Western Plus Sukhumvit
Condominiums and residences
- The Line Sukhumvit 71
- Rhythm Sukhumvit 71
- Ideo Blucove Sukhumvit
- Whizdom Connect Sukhumvit
- Ideo Mobi Sukhumvit 81
- Sky Walk Condominium
Who books in Phra Khanong
- Younger expat renters
- First or second Bangkok apartment, near the station, and price aware.
- Thai households
- A higher share than anywhere west of here, and the reason traditional Thai does so well.
- Commuters
- Working in Asok or Sathorn, home late, and booking deep tissue on a weekday evening.
- Remote workers
- Chose space over a central address. Weekday daytime bookings in large flats.
- Weekend long bookings
- Two hour treatments on Saturday afternoons, which the bigger apartments out here make comfortable in a way a central studio does not.
- Market-side residents
- The blocks above and beside the fresh market, where meeting in the lobby saves everybody a few minutes.
Questions about Phra Khanong
- Does it cost more because I am further out?
- The treatment price is identical across the whole city. Being further from the middle changes how long you wait and whether a transportation support fee applies, not what the massage itself costs, and we quote both honestly rather than pretending the run is the same as Asok.
- Why is the arrival window longer here?
- Because the district spreads inland from one station and the last part of the journey is on the road. Thirty to fifty minutes is realistic rather than cautious. After ten at night it drops considerably, so a late booking here is genuinely quicker than an early evening one.
- How should I write my address?
- Sub-soi off Soi 71 first, then the building, then anything unusual about finding the entrance. Out here the sub-soi is more recognisable than the building name, and a pin alongside the text genuinely helps in a way it does not in the central districts.
- I live across the canal. Do you come?
- Yes, on the same terms and at the same price. Tell us which side you are on when you book, because crossing needs a bridge and the bridges are not frequent. Being sent to the wrong bank costs ten minutes that a single word would have saved.
- Can I set up a weekly booking?
- Yes, and it is the most common arrangement in this district. Give us the day, the hour and the therapist and we will hold it as a standing slot. It is also the most dependable way to keep the same person, because the time is reserved before anybody else asks for it.
- There is no lift in my building. Is that a problem?
- Not at all, but tell us the floor. Older four-storey blocks are common around here and she is carrying oil and linen up them. Knowing in advance is a courtesy rather than a requirement, and it means nobody arrives out of breath.
- Can I book at the same time as a friend in the same building?
- Yes. Two therapists arrive together and work in separate flats, or in the same one if you would rather. Tell us both unit numbers when you book so neither of them is standing in a corridor working out which door to knock on, and give us a little more notice than a single booking would need.
- I have just eaten at the market. Should I wait?
- Give it forty-five minutes to an hour, and closer to two if it was a big meal. If you want something sooner, take an oil massage rather than the traditional Thai. The work stays on the back and legs and sits far more comfortably on a full stomach than stretching and compression do.
- Is traditional Thai popular here?
- More than in most of the districts west of here, and for a different reason than on Thong Lo. A higher proportion of customers in Phra Khanong are Thai, and for a Thai customer the stretching is simply what a massage is. The oil treatments are the departure from normal rather than the default, which is the reverse of how visitors tend to see the menu.
Near Phra Khanong
Ekkamai
The same long soi shape as Thong Lo, cheaper rents, a younger crowd, and a bus terminal sitting at the mouth of it.
On Nut
The first affordable stop, and thousands of condo units stacked around one station.
Thong Lo
One soi, two and a half kilometres deep. How far up it you live is the whole booking.
Udom Suk
Suburban Thai Bangkok. Wide roads, family houses, and almost no visitors at all.
Sukhumvit
The road, not a district. Fifteen kilometres of it, so the soi number decides everything.