Trying out Hilom

Before this year, I had not tried going to a gay massage parlor. But since I see nothing wrong with trying something new that’s relatively harmless (so drugs are a no-no for me), I decided to go to one such place early this year. The lucky spa I chose was Hilom and the choice was because I read the blogs of the two guys that own the place and also because of the heavy promotion by their blogger friends, like Migs, CC and McVie. I was especially sold on the fact that the owners of Hilom tried to position their spa as an upscale version of the seedy places that I see in movies like Masahista

My verdict? I don’t think I’ll be going back to Hilom anytime soon, or to any other gay massage parlor for that matter. After trying the service, I can tell that gay massage parlors are definitely not for me. If I want to have a massage, I’ll go to the “legitimate” spas instead.

If you’re asking, no, I didn’t avail of the “extra service”. I went to Hilom fully expecting to get a nice massage and maybe just get teased a little bit. The thing is, I find it very uncomfortable mixing money with sex. My personal view of sex is that it is most pleasurable when done between two consenting adults with no contractual obligation of any sort. Payment for sex is an obligation and so, I don’t like that.

My experience in Hilom, at least with the particular masseur I had, was that the massage was rushed and that he was fully expecting to get paid and to do additional service. Instead of haggling for the price of the extra service, we ended up haggling on whether there would be one in the first place with him cajoling me for it and saying that he needed the money among other reasons. I ended up just giving him a very generous tip (considering the forgettable massage that I received).

Furthermore, the managers (I believe they were Derek and Gardo then), performed their duties quite perfunctorily. I didn’t feel as welcome as I would have hoped and this certainly did not help alleviate my discomfort and apprehensions at visiting the place.

As for the facilities, Hilom’s interior decoration was pleasant enough. The shower room though is quite cramped (being under the stairway) and I really don’t like getting a body massage on my belly on a plain mattress: either you tilt your head to one side and possibly strain your neck, or you keep your head straight and suffocate on the pillow.

Have you tried Hilom? I’ve read tons of comments left at Hilom’s website or blog posts about Hilom from people who’ve gone there. The comments are decidedly mixed with some saying they’re looking forward to going back to Hilom after returning to Manila while others criticizing every shortcoming (there’s plenty such negative comments on Migs’ blog post).