I Had an Accidental Orgasm During a Foot Massage
Should I have tipped extra?
I had heard rumors of so-called “foot-gasms” before, but they always sounded like the wishful thinking of people with more ~interesting~ fetishes than mine. I never thought one would happen to me, especially because feet, including my own, have always grossed me out. And yet, here comes the part where I tell you why that’s not the case anymore.
In 2015, I was 29 years old and spending a month in Bali to surf and earn my yoga-teacher certification. Every morning, I’d run a mile along a dirt path from the yoga compound where I was staying to the Balian Beach market so I could stock up on chocolate, chips, candy, and anything caffeinated for myself and the other girls who couldn’t stand the strict yogi diet we’d been asked to follow. I ran the same route, each time noticing a bright-green sign that read pijat refleksi massage, framed by images of two feet.
On my last week in Bali, the sign called out to my tired, aching body. I followed
it down an alleyway, through a courtyard, and into what looked like a former temple, where I found a short, elderly Balinese man with thick, graying hair and deep-set laugh lines. He was wearing oversize athletic shorts and a polo about two sizes too big for his small frame.
“Foot massage?” I mimed in an embarrassingly dramatic gesture, pointing to my feet and squeezing the air with my fingers. He smiled, went inside, and returned with his wife, who explained that he didn’t speak English but, yes, he was a reflexology specialist. We agreed on three dollars for an hour-long foot massage, then the three of us made our way to a large wooden platform beneath a pergola.
