A Spa, a Temple, and Some Streetfare

So I must tell you all about our luxurious yet slightly unexpected spa weekend a few hours north! My friends Steve, Diana, Jen and I embarked on a 4-hour busride last weekend to the town of Chaozhou, on the Huanggang River. Steve's and Diana's families originally came from that area. The bus dropped us off in a town about an hour away and after a huge dinner with Steve's teacher friend and her fiance, we piled into a cab and off-roaded for an hour and finally made it to Chaozhou. I say "off-roaded" because that's what driving on this highway was like - it consisted of rubble and big piles of dirt. The taxi man told us they have been working on this road for 6 years! I will never complain about an unplowed side street in the Canadian winter again after this.
So our "hotel" we planned to stay in actually turned out to be a spa. After some initial confusion as to why they wanted us to take our clothes off and bathe before we were allowed to do anything else, it turned out to be great fun! We got access to showers, hot tub, and sauna, had a bath of milk and rose petals, a full body massage, a foot massage and pedicure. They gave us these hilarious pj's to wear (see pictures) and we got to lounge around in these huge chairs, watch Asian MTV, and eat fruit and drink tea. We slept in these little cubby-holes (again, see pictures) and even had breakfast in the morning. And it maybe cost us each about $40 CAD. It was the first time I've ever been to a spa. Do they come this cheap back home??
Our time out was spent trying to get around Chaozhou. Steve and Diana speak the local dialect, but it turns out most people speak Mandarin here. I think because so many migrant workers have infiltrated Guandong Province in the last few years. We managed to visit a Buddhist Temple, lounge around pagodas at the city park, and try our luck with the local cuisine. A hilarious but tiring weekend, and it was nice to venture outside of Shenzhen and see more of China. Tomorrow I am heading to Hong Kong with my camera in tow.
I hope you all are well, wherever you are and whatever you are getting yourself into!

Lean 'n' mean in our jammies! Time for bed :D

Diana, Jen, and Steve at Xiangzi Bridge

Xiangzi Bridge in Chaozhou

Kaiyuan Buddhist Temple

Incense burning at the Kaiyuan Temple

Street scene - Chaozhou

Aahh street food! Cheap and delicious!

Yes, I ate another crab. I think this guy cost almost as much as a weekend at the spa. But it was a local specialty! The other dish is a taro paste (a staple vegetable in tropical climates) - a very gooey dessert (Chaozhou is one of the few Chinese cuisines to feature desserts on its menus).



At a rest stop on the way back to Shenzhen