Thai Me Up and Unwind Me

Dusnee Thai Spa

On Monday I was in sore need to a massage, so I booked an hour-long session at Dusnee Thai Spa. My back is constantly tight and in knots. It doesn’t help that I, like many, have a desk job and spend hours hunched over a laptop. Over the years, I’ve learned that monthly massages, yoga, foam rolling, and constant back stretches help alleviate the tension that I feel. I prefer Thai massages above all other forms of massage.

A Thai massage involves a deeper manipulation of the body. A Thai massage practitioner will use his or her own body to move your body, for example using body weight on their knees or elbows to apply deeper pressure. My favorite moments are when they pull me into different yoga-like positions or when they walk on my back. This isn’t for everyone as a Thai massage can be experienced as being painful by those who prefer a gentle rubbing. Me, I like a deep massage that’s almost painful. I find that I can only relax when it hurts. The other kind of massage I frequently get is Tui Na.

I’ve been to other Thai massage parlors, but Dusnee is my favorite. They give you a loose set of pajamas to wear (street clothes are too constricting) and you lie on a mat that’s a few inches off the floor. Each room is situated like a cozy little bedroom. Sometimes there’s a magnolia or jasmine flower that perfumes the room. Instantly I’m in relaxation heaven.

Dusnee Thai Spa is on the third floor of a high-rise building in the Upper East Side. Have the address (767 Lexington Ave, Ste 303, New York, NY 10065) handy with you as there is no sign to tell you where it is from the street. A 60-min session costs $105 and a 90-min session is $155. Today and for the next 6 days, Bloomspot has a great deal for Dusnee. A 60-min session is only $50 and a 90-min session is only $70. If you click on this offer link, then I get credit from Bloomspot.

One of the things I miss about Astoria is Yoga Agora. It’s a fantastic yoga studio that practices Vinyasa yoga. A 75-min class costs $5 and you can just drop in whenever you want to. And if that’s too pricey for you, then they offer an hour-long practice that’s donation-based. No judgement from anyone if you can’t afford to give more than a dollar. No pre-paid classes, no monthly membership fees, no hassles whatsoever. It’s everything yoga should be.

I haven’t found anything like Yoga Agora in Hoboken or in Jersey City, but I did find that Devotion Yoga offers free yoga from 7-8 pm Tuesday evenings all summer long at Pier A Park in Hoboken. I joined them yesterday to get some practice in. The practice was supposed to be Vinyasa, but I didn’t really find it to be so. What I personally prefer in a Vinyasa class is a fast flowing yoga practice. I want there to be fluid flowing organic movement between poses. Understandably an outdoor class is harder because it’s difficult to hear the yoga or yogini (especially when a band is doing a sound check in the background), but my lack of enthusiasm for yesterday’s practice had more to do with the actual practice itself. I thought there was less flow and that we were in one pose and then arranged ourselves into another pose, rather than having the movements be connected with our breath and the movements organically lead into the following pose. The temperature was quite pleasant and it was nice being outdoors. I disinclined to come back again, but perhaps others would find this practice more agreeable.