Sunday, May 28, 2006

Taking it Easy in Shanghai

After a week of Q&A with the family classes, it was time to give the family the vacation I had promised. And what city could be better than Shanghai---the East’s most Western city where it appears Chinese only outnumber foreigners 2:1.

We found many willing helpers upon arrival at the airport and after a short negotiation we were on our way to a hotel with a room for four. Along with the dead cockroach and rowdy neighbors, we made ourselves at home. Next door we found a charming establishment that served noodles and wan ton soup for breakfast and across the street was a massage parlor in which we proved to ourselves that we would endure any conditions for a cheap massage. That’s right. No matter what shoddy alley we find ourselves standing in, and no matter how dodgy the characters behind the glass doors appear, if we see massages advertised for $4, we’re going for it.

After a long day of walking and sightseeing, we lingered outside the doors of the massage parlor near the hotel. The attendants pushed the doors open and ushered us up the stairs. Like zombies, we traipsed up the stairs and were instantly swallowed into a negotiation for a “Chinese massage”. I glanced over at Jake who looked positively frightened, “You guys, is it okay if I skip it?”

I assured him that massages were about pleasure and if he didn’t feel comfortable, of course he should go.

The three of us, however, were going for it. Just one request, You can not smoke? In response to my broken Chinese, all the men in the room with cigarettes dangling from their lips nodded enthusiastically, “Fine, fine. No smoke.”
It did not occur to us that that wouldn’t make a sliver of difference. Twenty years of stale smoke had settled into that room, into the air, and into the furniture.
Before we were seperated into three smaller smoky rooms, I reminded Mom and LeaAnn of the Chinese word for “pain”. After 45 minutes of drumming, cracking and slapping we reemerged and compared our war stories. Mom told us of a potent face massage given by a woman who had recently chopped garlic, LeaAnn of her uncontrollable laughter brought on by tickling, and I described my face pressed into a smoky mat while a man drummed out a beat across my arms.

That wasn’t the only time we found ourselves in dodgy surroundings to experience relaxation and luxury. The next night, we followed man into a small dark alley because he came up close to us and whispered, “Gucci. Prada. Coach”. We followed him for two blocks further and further from bright lights and busy streets. At last he pulled a sheet aside revealing a doorway into a small room filled with knock off designer bags. While the man stood near the doorway peaking behind the sheet every so often, his wife pulled bags of shelves, said "Latest style" and punched prices into her calculator. Good times in dodgy places.









































In Shanghai, we learned that Jake is the man when it comes to bargaining. You wouldn’t know it looking at that smile.

Shopkeepers grimaced as Jake punched numbers into the calculator. He whittled them right down from the "friend discount" to "Now, you make me lose money".

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I laughed out loud...what an experience.
The one with the "Garlic fingers"massage.

6:57 AM, May 29, 2006  

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