My iPhone alarm was able to wake me at 7am despite being up for the last 37 hours. I had booked a 9am appointment for my HK ID card application. My uncle walked me to the MTR station near his home, which is located in a high-rise building with a view of the harbor. My parents met us there. We say goodbye to my uncle and take the metro over to Wan Chai district to the Immigration Building. I want to take a commercial break and mention how convenient it is to take the MTR and buses in Hong Kong. There is a pass called Octopus where it is accepted for payment at so many places. You just load money onto the card and when you go through the rail turnstile or get on the bus, you just tap the card onto the reader, it beeps and deducts the fare from your balance, and you're good to go. They also take the Octopus card in fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and parking lots, to name a few. It beats not having to pull out coins and bills to pay for fares or stick money into a machine to buy a rail ticket.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming. We arrive at the Immigration Building and there are tons of people waiting in line for whatever they needed to get done. It's 10 minutes before business hours, so we had to stand in line as well, to board the elevator to take us to the "ID application" floor. I was here 8 months ago applying for "verification of eligibility"; first, they have to verify that you are eligible for the card. After they verify the application and supporting documents (takes a few weeks), then you can apply for the card. The forms seem to be written in a way to confuse you; last time, it had taken about 3 hours to get through the eligibility portion, going from one floor of the building to another floor, for different things like submission of forms, asking questions about the form, photocopying the visa stamp on my passport, and a myriad of "miscellaneum". (I made that word up.) I was pleasantly surprised that this time, it *only* took less than 2 hours to apply for the card. They told me the card would be available for pick-up in 2 weeks. Since I'll be back in the States by then, my mom's friend Lisa was going to pick it up for me. :) Then I can go in and out of Hong Kong at will, taking the shorter lines through immigration, and don't have to fill out the little white arrival form.
After lunch, we took the rail to Shenzhen to go to the spa (yes, this is the third time for me...). This is a city just north of Hong Kong; this required me to have a Chinese visa. My parents helped me get one through the Chinese Embassy in San Francisco. A multiple-entry visa good for one year currently costs $140. Entering China was easy. We then walked to a garage where there was ground transportation to take us to the spa. My parents have been going to a particular establishment (unfortunately I do not know the name, some "spa club") so they knew where to go for the shuttle, but I'm sure if you walked outside the train station, there would be representatives standing by with signs and coupons, enticing you to go to their establishments.
We only had about 3 hours to spend here, so my mom and I went for a 2-hour full body massage, and my dad decided to do "cupping" therapy. I actually didn't know what it was until he showed me his back many days later (thankfully). You can Google images of "Chinese cupping" if you want as I don't really want to link such images to my blog; the aftermath looks terrible, but he claims it feels great.
Mom and I were given numbered rubber wristbands which served as an electronic key for the lockers in the women's dressing room as well as identification inside the spa (your whereabouts are monitored via your number). We were also given robes, a pair of short pajamas to change into, and slippers to wear. My mom didn't want to leave her purse in the locker (which was understandable since we didn't know the level of integrity of the establishment) so I was also compelled to keep my purse too. I'd rather have left it in the locker as we were the only patrons walking around carrying our purses, plus it got really awkward having them in the shower room, as I had to find a way to cover my purse from all the water splashing around in the stall.
If you purchase a spa treatment, other amenities are included such as lounging in steam/sauna rooms, jacuzzi, and refreshments such as fresh fruit and beverages. Since we were short on time, I didn't get a chance to partake in them, but my dad said that it was good as usual. (He had already come here the week before with Lisa's husband Michael.)
One of the hosts guided Mom and me to a couples room upstairs so that we could have our massages done together. He brought us some water as well. A few minutes later, two women came in and took our massage order. One of the women was able to speak Cantonese so that made it easier. Before they started the treatments, she telephoned someone, maybe a central desk, and told them our ID numbers and massage order. Then the meat tenderizing began. I got the Cantonese-speaking therapist, who was slightly beefy (a hint of things to come) whom we'll call Helga here, and my mom had a slim Mandarin-speaking therapist. I asked Helga if I should take off the pajamas and she said no. Huh? She managed to massage a lot of my body through the pajamas and without any oil or lotion. It felt a lot like what you'd think "therapeutic" massage would be, quick hard strokes that got down to business, not very peaceful nor relaxing. There were several times where my mom had to tell her therapist to be more gentle. I just took the abuse. When Helga was massaging my feet, she commented that I could have my dry heels polished, but I declined. Mom told me later that if I had wanted it done, a guy would come into the room and slough my heels while I was being massaged! For an extra fee of course. Maybe next time. After an hour of clothed massage, we were asked if we wanted to have massage with oil. We agreed and then we had to take off our pajama top. When Helga massaged my arms, she commented that my hands were very smooth. Okay, obviously I do not do manual labor! What happens next was amazing...after my back was massaged with oil, Helga gets onto the table, sits straddling my behind, and rubs my back so quickly that the friction created an intense heat up and down my spine. It's almost as if the oil warmed up, like those "warming" lotions/gels if you're familiar with those or perhaps a muscle cream from the drug store. Crazy. It was already weird enough that she's sitting on my butt and grunting from the effort. After some time, the phone rings...2 hours was up. The ladies present a form with our massage order on it, as well as a line where tip was to be added. There were 4 values available to circle, something like 30/50/100/200 yuan. I believe our massage cost around 120 yuan each, and we gave a generous 50 yuan tip each. The final total, including a service charge, ended up costing around US$30 each person for a 2 hour massage! Super cheap and helped average out all my spa treatments in the past week. I didn't even get a chance to enjoy the lounging/jacuzzi/refreshments, else it would've been an even better deal. Sorry no pictures to share as I didn't want to be targeted as a tourist.
We look for my dad and the place is huge; there was a large dimly lit room with what seemed to be a hundred recliners set up in front of TV's with people lounging and having other treatments done such as foot massage. The reason why I knew the numbered wristbands were locator devices was that when we asked the host where to find my dad, she asked what number he was, went to a computer and pulled up a list of all the numbers and location of each. The host was unable to locate my dad's present location as he was last clocked in at the treatment room and hadn't "ordered" anything else since. Eventually we catch up with each other, take care of the bill downstairs, and shuttle back to the train station. We have dinner at one of the nicer Chinese restaurants there. During the meal, two people were screaming at each other at one of the large 10-person round tables. Turns out that they were: 1) drunk, and 2) trying to talk to someone on speaker on their cell phone. Speaker phone? In a restaurant? It totally ruined the nice atmosphere and everyone was throwing glances at them. I figured they were newly rich who hadn't learned manners yet. After dinner, we cross back over to the Hong Kong side. I went through the "Visitors" line and filled out the little white form. The immigration officer looks at my passport and asks me if I have a HK ID card, and I said not yet, I just applied for it today. He told me that I could've used the HK residents line as I already had an ID number issued to me (it was affixed as a sticker on my passport) and that I didn't need the smart card itself as long as I went to a counter with a live person manning it, versus using the automated card readers. Ohhhhh! That would've been nice to know. I wouldn't have had to fill out the arrival form either. This information would be useful later. Since I was already in the Visitors line, he took the form and stamped my passport anyway.
My parents and I take the train to Hung Hom station and then a bus to our neighborhood, where we parted ways to go "home". Fortunately, I didn't have a long way to walk to Uncle's home; it started raining right when I got into the building. Tropical rain...it's great when it happens at night, like in Hana. I also want to note that it had been unseasonably cool in Hong Kong; it hardly reached 80 degrees F, which was definitely not the extreme humidity I was expecting. Good that it's not that hot, but bad because all I packed were hot-weather clothes.
Tomorrow is going to be another early day...I have to meet my parents at 4am to take an AirBus to the airport and meet our tour group. We're flying to Hangzhou, China!
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