11/3/2006 China Day 39: SUV Old Tingri --> Zhangmu, Tibet - Even Masseuses That Aren't Hookers Are Still Hookers

Today we drove 4 hours from Old Tingri to Zhangmu, the Chinese border town with Nepal on the Friendship Highway. We arrived at around 2:30 PM, and Kim and Rembi changed their Chinese RMB to Nepali rupees. NFC made a last minute decision on the flip of a coin to join Kim and Rembi on their way to Kathmandu, Nepal. He had wanted to go along, but he had some timing money hangups to work through. He had tried flipping a coin, then best 2 out of 3 the night before, but he didn't like the answer (presumably not to go to Nepal), so he kept searching for other ways to come to grips with his internal preference. In the end, he just flipped another coin (silly). But I think he made the right decision to go with his gut (and Kim and Rembi) to Nepal.

I like Kim and Rembi a lot - they're interesting and easy to get along with. But after saying goodbye to the 3 of them at the Sino-Nepali border, I was really happy to be travelling solo again - well almost. I still have to deal with our temperamental Tibetan driver for a couple days until we get back to Lhasa, but I felt free and somewhat rejuventated.

The driver and I were originally supposed to return 4 hours to Old Tingri, but he was tired, so he decided that we would spend the evening in Zhangmu and driver longer tomorrow to still be able to return to Lhasa in 2 days. I was OK with that (not that I had any other choice).

I spent the afternoon in Zhangmu fixing a problem with my China Mobile account, updating my blog, and then having dinner. After dinner, I bought some snacks, went back to my hotel room, and took a shower.

After my shower it was around 11 PM, and I decided to get a real massage (i.e. not a solicitation for sex) at the place across from my hotel. It looked like a place that offered real massages to me, but I asked at the hotel just to make sure. They said yes, I could get a real massage there. So I crossed the street (and back heeled a soccer ball to some kids playing at night in the street) and walked into the Zhangmu Spa. Prices were expensive (for China) - $16 for a full body massage, which in a twisted way, I took as an encouraging sign.

I walked into the spa and found the manager watching TV with a couple women. Neither woman was especially attractive and both seemed to be in their 30s, so in another twisted moment, I thought great, no hookers here! I explicity asked the manager for a massage sans prostitute please. He smiled accomodatingly and showed me up to a room. I thought, great, if he gives me a massage, then at least I'll be assured a real massage with no solicitation for sex. But he just turned on the heat lamp and left.

A few minutes later, a woman I assumed to be one of the women watching TV downstairs came up and asked me what kind of massage I wanted. I told her a full body massage and she said no problem, just lie face down. I asked her if I should take off my clothes and she said no, that wasn't necessary. But massages with clothes on are poor substitutes for oil massages without clothes, so I asked if I could take of my clothes, and she said sure, no problem. I left on my underwear.

She gave me a dry towel wrap massage starting with my shoulders and back, which is to say that she massaged me through a clean, dry towel. Not the oil massage I was expecting, but it was a good, real massage nonetheless, and I was satisfied with my first (real) Chinese massage. We had a very pleasant conversation while she massaged me. The masseuse was pleasant, interested, and interesting without being too pushy about conversation if I just wanted to enjoy the massage for a while.

Midway through the massage, she asked me if I would prefer an oil massage. She said it would cost $32 instead of $16, and I declined, saying it was too expensive. Then she said she would ask the manager if she could give me the Chinese price, so she left to ask him. She came back soon and said yes, she could offer me the Chinese price, 200 RMB ($25) instead of $32. Well, I really wanted an oil massage in the first place, and with her clever marketing gimmick, I accepted the oil massage. The oil massage was good - and like I expected.

When I turned over, I noticed for the first time that the masseuse was about my age and had a pretty face - kind of like my cousin Lyrice's, actually. As is my new M.O., I told her what I was thinking - that her face was very pretty. I don't remember what she said in response, but she continued with the massage. Somehow we got to talking about foot massages, and I said that was my favorite kind of massage, and she said the it was one of her specialties. She was a good salesperson. I told her I'd happily pay for a foot massage after the body massage.

She also offered to sell me some sex with a "hot" colleague of hers (not herself), but I declined several times, saying I wasn't interested. Always selling .... I never did meet her colleague to see how hot or not she was.

The foot massage was an enjoyable experience too. First she soaked my feet in a bucket of hot brown water. Initially it was too hot to keep my feet submerged for more than a few seconds, but then eventually my feet got used to the temperature and the water probably cooled off a few degrees. I asked her what was in the water to make it brown like that, and she said some medicine or cleansing agent. My feet were probably already pretty clean from my shower earlier, but it was a nice soak anyways.

The foot massage wasn't as good as the ones I had received in Thailand, but it was still pleasant. She kept one of my feet wrapped in a cloth bandage to keep it warm while she massaged my other foot. During the foot massage, our conversation continued without pause. This time, it was mostly me talking rather than her. She was really interested, and when I skipped over some parts of a story, she came back and asked me to fill it in. I really enjoyed talking with her.

So when the foot massage was over (someone told her she had another client waiting, otherwise we probably would have been talking longer while she continued to massage my feet), it was 2:15 AM. I asked her when she got off work, and if she would like to talk more when she got off work. She replied that she never got off work. When I asked her to clarify, she said that she lived and slept in the spa. When there were clients, she worked, and when there weren't, she was on break. That sounded like a dreary existence, so I asked her when she got out to shop, do errands, etc. She said that she could ask the manager to leave when she had something important to do outside. Hrm, still sounded too much like a sweat shop. I said great, could she ask her manager to leave and meet me at a bar? She said no - apparently, that didn't qualify as an important thing for her manager.

Well, OK then, I said. How about I leave her my phone number and she could call me if she wanted to hang out after things died down. She said sure, that would be great, but she wouldn't be done with her next client until 4 AM at the earliest, and she might be tired afterwards. I said no problem, I would go to sleep first, and if she didn't feel like it afterwards, she didn't have to call me.

I slept for a few hours, and around 4 AM, she sent me a text message - although I couldn't read a word, because she sent it in Chinese characters, which my American phone can't display (it just shows black boxes), not to mention that I couldn't read most of the Chinese characters even if I could see them correctly. So I replied by SMS in pinyin that I couldn't understand her message, could she send it again in pinyin? She called back instead, and said she hadn't wanted to bother me in my sleep. I said it was OK, did she want to hang out? She gave plenty of reasons for us not to meet, but it didn't make sense to me that she would send me a text message only to not meet, so I asked her to reconsider, and eventually she did.

When I went down to the spa, the manager unlocked the door and let me in. This time he was really friendly and asked me to hang out with everyone, who turned out to be him, a masseur, a masseuse, and Luo Lan, the woman who massaged me earlier. I was a little confused as I didn't expect a whole welcoming party, but Luo Lan rescued me and said we were going to talk upstairs for a while and then we would come to talk to them in a while. The conversation was just a good as before.

After about 30 minutes, the manager came up to see if we wanted to hang out with everyone else downstairs, and I said sure. Downstairs, we drank some beer and got to know each other. I had to drink a shot glass of beer as I met each person, so I was quickly drinking the most, although a shot glass of beer is not much alcohol. We continued our drinking and talking, and eventually the 2 men started drinking while playing paper-scissors-rock. I suggested that they arm wrestle for drinks instead, so that's what they did. But they wanted me to guess who would win, also for a drink. I guessed wrong, so I drank with with masseur, who lost.

Then all of a sudden it was my turn! Whoops, I hadn't thought of this! The manager wanted to arm wrestle me right-handed. It was close, but I beat him 3 times in a row. We tried 1 time left-handed, but it was no contest, since he is right-handed. Then the other masseuse wanted to try, and the manager laughed and said he would drink a whole bunch of drinks if she could beat me 2-handed. The masseuse first tried 1-handed to gauge my strength, and I was surprised by her 1-handed strength - it was pretty good. But of course she lost that one, so 1 drink. I wasn't sure I was going to win the 2-handed competition against her though, because I had had several drinks, but mostly because what the fuck is 2-handed arm wrestling? How do you put your 2nd elbow on the table and not use your body weight? (You don't.) Well, we gave it a shot anyways, but she lost, actually easier than 1-handed I believe.

I thought that would be the end of it because my hand was pretty sore now. But the manager wanted another try right-handed. Ok, how could I refuse. I had him beat again, but this time his elbow was elevated off the table and the others were laughing at him, so I laughed too and let go. I think then he pinned my arm and counted it as a win, so I drank my shot glass. I think he was happy, so that's fine. By now it was around 6 AM, so I said bye to everyone (one more round of drinks with each person), and Luo Lan and I went upstairs to talk again.

We talked until 8:30 AM, and then it was time for me to get ready to head to Shigatse with the driver. I went downstairs to pay for some of the beers we had drunk together that night (20 RMB for 2 beers) when I was given a great shock. They wanted me to pay 100 RMB for Luo Lan's companionship for 1 hour. Ok, they gave me a break on the time, but what the fuck??? She called me to see if we could hang out, it was after hours, and I was just talking with a new friend in a spa. Ok, I guess you could consider it a spa/brothel because there are hookers somewhere around, and in a brothel you might have to pay for companionship, but not in a spa! And fuck - I don't neeed to pay for companionship!

I looked at Luo Lan, but she didn't rescue me this time. She just smiled at me in a way that I couldn't tell if it was a friendly, supportive "I'm sorry, but there nothing I can do - that's just the way it is" smile or if it was a smirk. She had never mentioned any fee for coming to hang out with her the 2nd time tonight - just the beers, which I didn't mind. If she had, I never would have come, as I thought I was coming to hang out with a friend, not to pay for unneeded companionship instead of sleep. In any case, I was dumbfounded for a while. I considered refusing to pay and telling them I would wait for them to call the cops, but I had a feeling I would be on the losing end of that tactic in this country.

So instead, I looked at Luo Lan, and then the manager, and asked them again if that's the way it really was. They said it was. I made a joke and said OK, but my fee for hanging out with Luo Lan was 200 RMB per hour, so they owed me 100 RMB. The smiled, but insisted. I looked at Luo Lan long and hard, so, so disappointed. Disappointed beyond words. Afterwards, I thought of something pithy that I would have wanted to say - "Here's your 100 RMB ($12.50). You'll never be able to buy a friend as good as me for that though." But that's not what I said. I just told her that the money was nothing to me, but I was so, so disappointed in her. I paid the 100 RMB and 20 RMB for the beers, and left, dejected.

I went back up to my hotel room to collect my bags. When I came down, I still couldn't believe it. So I went back into the spa, and asked them to summon Luo Lan. She came down and I looked at her again and said, "I paid you your 100 RMB right?" She looked at me and said yes. I said, "Then I want to ask you to give me back my 100 RMB, because I want to know if you liked me more or my money." Without hesitating, she gave me back my 100 RMB, but then she turned to go without a word. I didn't know what to think this. I was happy that she returned the money, but I don't know why she left like that.