On Footsies and Being "Sucked"

As I mentioned in my previous post, I came back a week ago from a business trip to China, Xiamen in particular. This was a very memorable trip for me, partly because I got to experience many different things for the first time in my life. In this instance, it was my first time to have a foot massage, a pedicure, and a ventosa massage - all in a single night!

We had just arrived in Shuitou, which is about 45 minutes away from Xiamen, and were having dinner with our hosts. One of our hosts informed us that Shuitou is an area known for their foot massages and that they were going to treat us to a foot massage session after dinner. I nearly hurled at the prospect of subjecting myself to a foot massage. Me - getting a foot massage?! Being the uptight person that I am, I am notoriously known for being conscious with my feet. I don't even want anybody staring at my feet, and now someone's actually going to be touching and prodding it! Bullets of sweat began developing in my body as my stress level reached an all-time high. What made this worse was that we had been travelling the whole day and I was pretty sure that my foot would be pretty funky at that time. So I half-dragged myself to the foot massage place which was just across our hotel and expected the worst.

As we entered the foot massage place, warning signs began flashing in my head saying that I shouldn't be here. The place was dimly lit and it wasn't really the cleanest of places. I still had the chance to fake a migraine and escape, but decided in the end to find my balls and subject myself to the experience. They made us all sit in these lounge chairs and served us orange juice (to calm the nerves, perhaps?). As I was waiting for the "therapists" to arrive, a flurry of thoughts came to my mind - "would they be dressed in an attire that would give away the seedy nature of the place?", "would they even have complete set of teeth?", "are they going to offer me anything other than a foot massage, that I wouldn't know how to respond to?" When the girls arrived, I was pleasantly surprised - they didn't look bad at all! Most of them were my age, some were even younger than I was (I'm 22 by the way), and they didn't look slutty at all. They were dressed in a uniform, athletic attire (shirt and jogging pants), looking as if they did jogging for a living, rather than the excuisite art of foot manipulation. My therapist looked like a healthier, better-fed version of Lucy Liu, I would have posted pictures of my therapist with this entry, but I haven't had the time to upload them yet, another time then.

Being the social animal that I was, I was naturally out of my element once again. I was pretty sure that all color had left me from the embarassment I was about to subject myself to, thank heavens that the light was already dim to begin with so I was spared the shame of the therapist seeing the fear in my face. Her being Chinese and me being the ignorant foreigner who didn't bother to learn a shred of her language, this would pose the problem with communication. And it manifested early on when she was pointing to something at my feet, only to realize that I was still wearing my shoes when she was about to start the therapy. God help me through this.

My shoes and my socks are finally off and I don't smell anything cheesy. Its funny when you think hard to will something not to happen, and it doesn't. At this point, i'm like a fish out of water waiting for whats going to happen next, as she brings a big basin of what appears to be a colored liquid. 5 seconds later, as she gestures me to soak my feet in the concoction, I find out that this turns out to be newly boiled water infused with tea. Damn, was the water hot!! Have you ever had feeling of so much heat, that you begin to feel cold at the same time? Thats what I felt. As I was mouthing the words "Hot, hot, hot" to my tormentor (therapist), all she could do was giggle at my predicament. After a few moments of pain, she started working her magic on me. She began a series of massages on my back, arms, hands, and neck that took away all the stress from the day's travels. After a few minutes, the heat of the water gradually decreased that resulted in one of the most relaxing sensations i've ever felt on my feet. After what was probably 10-15 minutes of foot soaking and upper body massages, my therapist finally set out to do what she had been trained for...the foot massage.

She told me in Chinese (not that I would understand it) to sit back and relax, as she left for a moment to retrieve her tools of the trade, which looked like something a sculptor would have used (chisels and sand paper). Shortly afterwards, she began the meticulous task of kneading my feet and subjecting it to sensations I have never felt before. As she was doing her thing, sand-papering my callouses, rubbing what seemed to be lotion while at the same time massaging my ankles, she must have noticed that I had problem with my feet (they were ugly). She called another one of the therapists to come over, a man this time. Oh no, what did I get myself into?! This man comes, along with his own tools, consisting of hooks and tweezers this time, and proceeded to work on my feet as well. I was tag-teamed!! I've heard of tandem massages before, but i've never heard of tandem foot massages! One person ( Lucy Liu) was giving my feet a massage, while the man was giving me a pedicure! I was past feeling shame at this point seeing the man remove all of my ingrown toenails in front of everybody, so I just swallowed my embarrasment and tried to salvage what dignity I had left by just enjoying myself. And enjoy the experience I did!

But the night was not to end with just a simple massage and pedicure. At this point, I would have charged everything to experience and be happy just to have a chance to experience two new activities for the first time. The man must have noticed that I really did have a problem with something, as he was talking to our hosts regarding what he wants to do to me. As I didn't understand anything, I was fearful of what could happen. When the man had the blessing of my hosts, he literally pulled me from the group and led to me to a long dark hallway, into a small, windowless room with a bed. "Mommy, please help me!!" As if this was not scary enough, he gestured for me to take off my clothes, my pants in particular! I was praying hard that I don't get raped tonight. I'm all for new experiences, but i'm not about ready to get raped by man in any circumstance. Sensing the fear in my eyes, the man took pity on me and showed me what he was going to do. He lifted up his shirt and showed me his back, and I was part-disgusted, part-amazed, and part-"wet-my-pants" fearful of what I saw: 10 huge, dark-red circles placed side by side across the whole of his back. This is what they call a Ventosa Massage. I don't know exactly what it does for the body, but from what I heard, its purpose is to "suck" out the cold air from inside the body, which causes the aches, pains, and other distresses in a person. This is done by lighting cups with fire then pressing it against the body. This would cause the skin to welt up and produce blood clots. Now that I knew the purpose of his actions, I reluctantly removed my pants (he was going to put cups on my legs as well) and lied down on the bed, in anticipation of the event.

As he placed the cup near my legs, he lit the inside with a torch, then immediately pressed it against my legs. He did this about 6 times in different locations on my leg. What I saw happening to me, took me in disbelief. My skin was literally being sucked by the cup! As the cup was clear glass, I could see the skin on my leg almost filling up the entirec up, while it was slowly turning blood red. There wasn't really any pain, it was more like your skin being pulled, stretched, pinched. He asked me to lie still and left the cups on my legs for about 15 minutes. Upon removing it, you could literally hear the pressure (imagine the sound of someone hitting a tennis ball with a racket, thats what it sounded like) come off. At this point, I thought it was over. Then he gestured that I take off my shirt as well! Oh no, he's not planning on turning my back into a human chessboard like his, isn't he? Apparently, that was his plan, as he made me lie face down on the bed and he brought out more cups for my back. He repeated the same process as he did to my legs, but this time, I felt pain. And it was painful I tell you. My theory is that since my back is closer to the spine, you have more pain receptors in the back area. To cut things short, he placed about 12 cups on my back, and I could feel my skin being pulled to its limits. I had imaginations of my skin actually bursting and all of my guts spilling out. Thankfully, nothing like that ever happened. After all was done, the man gestured to me that what he did would actually make me strong (he was flexing in front of me). And I honestly believed him, as faith was all I had at that point, dignity had left 10 minutes into the session.

And so, after my experience, the circles had turned to ugly bruises which by now have not yet disappeared (its been more than a week since). I took a picture of my back to prove to people that I really did go through it. I'm now wiser and more experienced. I'm happy to have been subjected to things I wouldn't normally have thought of doing. On a single night, i've been prodded, experienced a footsie, and "sucked". Life can't get any better than that.