Spa: Asian style

So we came back to Shenzhen prior to leaving for Thailand and we were all in a slightly irritated mood at this point and slightly annoyed with each other, naturally (other than Ashley and I since we live on our own planet). After talking about it for a week, Leon suggested we spend the night at the spa in Shenzhen, which he rated a "13" on a scale of 1 to 10. Ashley and I are pretty stoked thinking that it must dwarf the Four Seasons US spas. What I didn't realize is that a "13" in China equals matching pin striped smocks and serial numbers to identify us from the mass quantities of Asians we were surrounded by throughout the entire night. What we thought was going to be really relaxing turned into a highly stressful situation out of concern that the foam underwear we were issued along with our prison outfits labeled 2251 and 2235 would result in a "full body Herpes outbreak or a mild case of foot and mouth disease" according to Ashley.

What won us over was the delicious strawberry ice cream and mini mangos that were served at the juice bar for free. In all seriousness, after getting over the initial shock of Asian spas, the trip to the spa turned out to be great. After 3 hours of massages (Thai and Chinese) by darling Chinese women, pedicures and manicures, and private sleeping rooms, we could have gotten real used to that. Everyone was so nice and the best part was that it all cost 113 US dollars in total. If I ever came back to China, it would definitely be worth taking anyone there.

As a side note, Shenzhen has the best Chinese food we have tasted so far and Shanghai had the worst, despite what our trusty travel guide book told us. The best part is that all of our meals have been under 15 US dollars for a party of 3.

All in all, everything has been amazing so far. I'm sure we are leaving out some other good stories that we'll write about later, but our minds are already in Thailand on the beach. We'll write soon...