Shanghai: cheap foot massages and cheaper beer
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2008
1
7
17
Trip End
Dec 01, 2008
Shanghai,
China
Thursday, November 20, 2008
We woke up the next morning to get breakfast. Eggs again. Ugh. We tried using the computers there but they were so slow. It was rather frustrating and Nathan & Frank kept telling me to "stop making a scene." These computers made me angry. We showered up and headed out to explore the city. We first started at a Temple. It was your standard Chinese Buddha Temple, complete with incense & many Buddhas. We then tried making our way to the Yuyuan Garden. This took about 2 hours, down many twisting and turning roads. There were many markets along the way, so of course this made our day. I swear I am going to come back so cheap. I will really miss haggling. Frank got some sunglasses. I forget what I got, but I am sure I didn't spend more than $5. We finally made it to the garden and it was beautiful! It was very peaceful and relaxing. I have many great pictures to share!
We were really tired at this point and were meeting Frank's friend, Rachel, for dinner. Rachel moved to Shanghai 3 months ago from Chicago to teach at the American International School in Shanghai. We really wanted dumplings, so we told her to pick the place and we would meet there around 7:30pm. She chose a chain restaurant and this displeased Nathan. He wanted a hole in the wall place. Frank & I didn't really care at all. We got a little turned around so we were about 45 minutes late. The food was great so I can see why she picked it. We had lots and lots of dumplings and wine - real wine! I was thrilled over this bottle of cab that I nearly chugged every glass. I miss wine. We parted ways and headed back to the hostel. We were tired from all the traveling, so we called it a night.
We decided to take it easy the next day. We woke up, poked around, had some breakfast and eventually made our way outside. We knew that if we did too much during the day that we would not be able to make it out that night. So, we had a late lunch, dumplings again, and just strolled around a park. It must be make-out park because there were so many couples going at it. At first, it was kind of cute and romantic, but after awhile, I was over it.
We made our way back home and decided to stop at the foot massage parlor outside the hostel. One of the Aussie guys at the hostel got one and said it was "epic". We plopped down and rolled up our jeans. I thought this was going to be a quick 10 minute thing. Nope. This foot massage lasted an hour. And it was painful. The woman rubbing Frank was cruel. She beat his ankles, bottom of his feet - you name it. And when I say beat, I mean slap the shit out of them. It was loud. My guy was pretty rough too. I had a tear in my eye at one point when he found a knot in my arch. But it was a good kind of painful. Then, all of a sudden, this man and woman come out of this back room. I noticed that there were other men lined up for these back rooms. Where were we? I don't even want to know what went on in these back rooms. We paid our 20 yuan for the hour foot beating and got out of there. We stopped next door and got some beer for the night. A big liter of beer costs 3 yuan - that's about 50 cents. You can't beat that. Being the alcoholics we are, we got a case. Everyone needs to drink 4 large beers before going out to the bars. That's exactly what we did.
Nathan was in charge of planning this night out, so it should come as no surprise that we were off to the gay district. I didn't know if much would be much going on a Thursday night, but I stood corrected. We first went to Eddie's. I was surprised by the number of white guys there. I am so used to seeing little Asians running around that all these white boys caught my eye. And there were some older white men there with younger Asian boys. Sick men. But I drank my vodka & sprite and soaked in the atmosphere. Frank & Nathan both wanted to check out Shanghai Studio. We finally found it tucked away in an ally. I ordered my first drink, a little tipsy by now. I don't know what happened but I dropped my drink and broke this glass and light fixture below. It made a loud crash and everyone starred. I was that drunk girl. They didn't seem to mind because they made me another drink, which I gladly accepted. After awhile I was done. I had reach my limit and knew that if I had one more drink, I would have the puking hangover, so I made my way back to the hostel at 2AM. We still have no idea what time Frank and Nathan made it home. You will have to ask them to fill you in on the rest of the night so I was fast asleep, or passed out. Whatever you want to call it.
