June 27, 2006
We're in Qiqihar (pronounced chee-chee-hair, which seems odd to someone completely unused to Asian languages) after yet another bus ride of about 4 hours. The ostensible reason we're here is because there's a nature reserve 30 kms away that is the breeding grounds for the endangered red-crowned crane. Really it's just another place to see, though we rarely need an excuse for that.
After arriving, we found the hotel where we wanted to stay and proceeded through the complicated business of checking in without a mutually intelligible language. At most of the hotels in China a breakfast buffet is included in the price. So we were totally prepared for two small paper tickets that came with our key when we checked in. We were not, however, prepared for the two plastic tickets that also came with the key. We stopped at the desk on our way out for dinner to 'ask' about them and ended up completely side tracked.
After much giggling by the desk clerks, we were pointed to another area of the large lobby. When we got there, a very nice young man took our tickets and indicated we should sit down in the plastic seats in front of a large desk, where we were clearly supposed to remove our shoes. There were some other people sitting already, wearing plastic flip-flops. As we were trying to figure out what was going on, the same attendant returned pairs of shoes to each of them, which made me exclaim to David, "I think it's a shoe shine service." David was extremely skeptical of this idea, quite rightly as it turns out.
After our shoes were taken away and we were each given a little key the attendant motioned us to follow him into an elevator. David and the attendant got off at the 3rd floor, but I had to stay with a woman who was going further up. The two of us got off on the 7th floor and I followed her into a changing room with several female attendants in simple uniforms. I'd decided by this point that maybe it was a free massage. We get calls in our room every night asking if we want one, although I think the "massages" are aimed at David since the phone is often hung up whenever I answer. Walking into the changing room I realized that the enormous marble tiled room that led off from the changing room had several shower heads and decided that instead of a massage, it was a Turkish-style bath, similar to the one I went to with my friend Samira in Morocco. I walked over to the locker that matched the number on my key and opened it up and then was watching the woman who I'd followed out of the elevator for ques as to appropriate behavior. When she took off her skirt, I took off my pants; she took off her blouse, so I took off my shirt; our socks followed and then I realized that it wasn't exactly like the hamam experience in Morocco--we weren't keeping our underwear on for the sake of modesty.
While telling myself that American body image issues were clearly out of place, I took an extremely long shower. It turns out massages were available, as was being thoroughly scrubbed down by one of the attendants, but there was a price list on the opposite wall and without my glasses, I couldn't see if I had enough money with me for any of the extras. Also, I wasn't sure how long David would be, and didn't want to keep him waiting too long. As it turns out he was not overly impressed with the set-up, so he was down earlier than I was and then we departed for our much delayed dinner.
One of the most rewarding, though painfully learned, aspects of traveling and living overseas is the ability to give up control. Sometimes you just have to believe that the strange people around you aren't going to let you come to any serious harm. Trusting people with whom you can't converse is really difficult, but it's also often the only way to have a truly good time. Or in this case, be really clean for awhile.
-Leah
