Interesting pampered life in Shanghai!

Tuesday Sept.26th.... We slept in again really late. Had lunch at home. Eway's parents were getting me to drink this interesting vegetable/fruit drink to start the day. I think it had bitter melon, carrots, and apple in it. Eway didn't like it, but I didn't mind it. She started giving me her's to drink. We then took off to downtown to check out the other side of the river. The Pink Pearl Tower side of town. We just did some window shopping and then met Ken for dinner.

Ken is an old old friend of Rebecca, Voy, and Wes'. I think he's known them since I was 6 years old. That's what I mean by old old friend. But, he's still youthful! I thought I should add that in for Rebecca.

Anyways, Ken takes us to this crazy "all you can eat" place. It's huge and yummy!!!!!! I definitely needed maternitiy pants to eat here. The counter holding all the food is enormous and is not just one counter. The counter winds around and around. It's a lot of walking, but that's good to walk so much because you are just eating so much. If there wasn't so much variety of food, I would have eaten raw oysters all night!

I tried the Duck tongue. There's not much to eat and it reminds me of cartilage. Nothing to write home about, but just on this blog.

Tiana joins us late for dinner. Ken treats us all to dinner and then gives us his membership card to his spa. Woooo hooo! So, we plan on using his card for massages after dinner.

We get to the spa around 10pm. Huge place and really fancy! Interesting experience. I was glad to get to spend time with Eway and Tiana and to get to know them better on this trip, BUT, I wasn't expecting to get to know them this much better. We got to know each other well, it was definitely a bonding experience.

The stations at the spa went like this.... We went in and were instructed to remove all our clothes and put them into the lockers. We were then given toothbrushes and go to the showers to shower and brush our teeth.

The next station were the baths... there were 5 to choose from. One was a milk bath, there was a red (rose I think) bath, 2 green baths that were bubbly and 1 more green bath that was shallow and you were supposed to lie down in it. They all had various temperatures also.

Then we went into the steam room (there was also a sauna room). I didn't want to sit down without a towel. After that laid down on some table (like a massage table) and were scrubbed down. Totally exfoliated. Totally! I had sooooo much skin removed from me, I was a little raw. However, I felt quite clean after because we had another shower to remove all the dead skin that was taken off. It was like going through a car wash. Wash, soak, steam, scrub/buff (wax job), wash again! Then we were given disposable underwear, pajamas, and slippers and sent upstairs for our massages. (I'm sorry I don't have any pictures, but this is a family friendly blog!)

We passed by a restaurant/lounge area to get to the massage rooms. This massage was very interesting. This was probably my most least favourite massage experience I've ever had. We were escorted into a very large dimly lit room. There were many beds with matresses within this room. Each bed was surrounded by meshy, draped, white curtains. So you could see people getting massaged, but you couldn't recognize who is getting massaged. Now, that I'm thinking about it. We didn't get the beds with the curtains. We were wondering if we were in a "special room" because I know that Ken brought his wife and kids here for a massage also. It's supposed to be a family friendly place. We were wondering what they had experienced.

The masseuses were barely wearing clothes. They had these skimpy short dresses on. Tiana didn't want a massage because she didn't like what they were wearing. But, we continued on with the massages anyways, because the 3 of us were all next to each other. I have to admit it was quite uncomfortable. I was glad that Tiana and Eway were close by, not just for comfort, but for translating.

They massaged us over our clothes, but some of the positions that they put us and themselves in were far too intimate. I was the only one who was walked on. However, I am larger than Eway and Tiana. My masseuse was using her heels and toes to work on my back. There were bars in the ceiling for her to hang onto. This wasn't a massage. It was a beating. I was pummeled. I think Tiana, Eway, and myself were the only girls in the massage area. There were lots of men. I can see why they liked this place. If you are tired, they have rooms that you can sleep in there. It was open 24 hours/7 days a week.

It was a very interesting place. Apparently, there's a workout room and some live shows there. We didn't check it out. We just went downstairs, got changed, and left. The service was good in the place though. They greeted you when you arrived and said goodbye when you left. Got your slippers/towels for you when you needed. It's a little shocking though, because they shout at you when they greet you and when you leave. Really loud!

I think we got back home around 2 or 3 am. I crawled into bed with my poor bruised body from the "health spa" and crashed.