“Alex Can I have Asia for $1000?” “Rubber mallet, Black & Decker Headlamp, Open Flames and Lionel Richie”

Alex: What is the difference between a foot massage in China compared to one in Vietnam!

Here in Vung Tau, Vietnam a 60 minute foot massage is only 1000 dong ($5).   We weren’t sure to expect the first time we had one and there were definite surprises, but it was a blissful experience.  We sat in padded chairs with green tea served to us as we felt the warm ocean breezes and listened to the street sounds of Vietnam.  The massage started with a warm foot bath followed by an acupressure/ massage on our feet and calves.   Following our foot massage our arms, neck and head were attended to before we were guided to the massage tables for a back rub.   Yes- they include a back rub with the foot rub!  The massage therapists jumped up on to the tables and straddled our backs before starting the massage, once we were over that surprise it was a very relaxing way to spend an hour.

Fast forward two weeks later to Shanghai during a rainy and cold week and I decide to venture out for a Chinese foot rub.   There is a building across from our hotel that is advertising foot and back massages and looks “legit” so I decide to give it a try.     No one speaks English but I am shown a menu which shows  that a one hour foot massage costs 100 Yuan ($16).   I am introduced to my therapist, Ping, and escorted to a dimly lit private room with an overstuffed chair, a stool and an antique looking Chinese basket next to a foot basin.  I sink into the plush chair for a very soothing warm soak in a wooden foot basin and a neck rub as a “Best of Lionel Richie” soundtrack plays in the background.   I find myself humming to “Stuck on You” as the massage therapist then sits in front of me on a stool, places  my feet on his lap reaches into the basket and pulls out a Black and Decker head lamp.   OK, so the room was dim but really do you need a head lamp to see my feet?   In the glow of the headlamp  I flinch as I watch him unroll a leather packet filled with what looks like straight edge razors .  He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Chinese but he motions for me to calm down.    Ten minutes later the bottom or my feet are as smooth as a baby bottom and I am glad he had the head lamp so he could see what he was doing,

I am relaxed; happily sipping tea and listening to Lionel sing “Hello” when he reaches into the basket again and pulls out a pair of small rubber tipped mallets.   At this point I trust him but still nervous as in my head I play out the scene of “Misery” where Kathy Bates takes a hammer to James Caan’s ankles.   With a rubber mallet in each hand he gently hits my feet and calve muscles and I have to say it actually feels good and I relax and close my eyes again.  


After the “mallet treatment” he continues to massage my feet and then I hear him reach into the basket again and I flinch in anticipation.   I am determined to relax and keep my eyes closed, because what else could happen at this point.   I hear a spray, the “wooosh “ of flame and my eyes pop open in time to watch him take a small glass consumed by a flame and stick it right on the bottom of my feet.   I feel heat but the flame is extinguished immediately which creates suction in the cup that he glides up and down the bottom feet.   I later learn this is called cupping therapy and is like the inverse of massage as the pressure from the suction draws the muscles upward.   He repeated this a dozen times and that was the end of my first (but hopefully not last) Chinese foot massage.

Both massages were an experience I will never forget and any time I hear Lionel Richie playing it will always bring back memories of Shanghai, Bing, headlamps, razors, flames and rubber tipped mallets

Cheers to Good Travel and new experiences wherever you are