Head into the red world of chinatown venturing out into the world of foot massages.
a few things of note when you go into a chinese foot massage place in chinatown
- you're in chinatown, don't expect people to speak english
- If you don't speak chinese,particularly mandarin, find someone who does
- chinese foot massage concept involves pressure points. So yes, its supposed to hurt. no more surprise. first comes the pain followed by relaxation. so its a bad then good surprise.
- body or foot. any chinatown foot massage is more likely less expensive than any Massage whatever outfit outside of chinatown. its cheap, don't complain. want better? like english speaking? go to an english speaking place.
- my friend chose this place because they have a seperate person who is a certified massage therapist to work your back and neck muscles while a different person does the foot rub. foot rubbers dont' need certs. Some places just have one person doing the whole hour rub. so in this place you get 2 masseuse's when you go in. keep in mind the tip is split between 2 people and the 30 dollars you pay up front probably doesn't go very far to begin with to pay both the guys on top of the cut that goes to the outfit.
- this place accepts credit cards.
Located about a block just past the obnoxious national american something bank (i never remember the name), you'll find a mysterious parking garage with lily foot massage on the second floor next to a banner with the mispelled "confort" lounge. walking in is a small but nice lobby. Clearly built out to compete with some of the nicer spas outside of chinatown with their attempt to break out beyond the stereotypical asian spa perception. Lots of marble tile, nice dark teak wood beam accents on top of the bamboo ceiling and lots of museum styled halogens spotlighting the rock and small plants on the walls with door frames bordered by different asian looking wooden frames. You definitely get the sense of clean and quiet. Very dimly lit, past the doors are 4-5 private massage rooms and 3 open areas with big cushy lounge chairs where groups of 3,4 and 8 can sit together. I kinda liked that. The lounge chairs are big and cushy equipped with a cubby underneath to stow personal belongings and shoes and a reclining back and convertible face hole for you to flip over and have them work on your neck and back.. with your clothes on. Yea, that was new to me too.
Going in i went for the foot massage and back/neck rub. deal was for 30 bux. The lady i had started out rubbing my head and neck, behind the ears and forehead. it was nice and relaxing. She did that for a few minutes and then went back to bring out the hot water basket. the basket had a plastic liner filled with hot water. not scorching hot but i would say jacuzzi hot. my friend didn't think it was hot enough and asked them to refill it. after a good soak, the feet were dried and with surgical latex gloves they started with the ends of my toes.. like needles poked into the toe ends, it was kind of painful at first but as they worked up to my heel, it was a little easier. After the rub, my feet was rubbed down by a hot stone and then a final scrub of towels to remove the lotion. The pain I'm told is a sign of dehydration or poor circulation or whatever. maybe so. I just know it was feeling a bit better thereafter. Afterwards, they asked me to flip over and started doing the karate chop-slap on the back of my feet and my back as you see some of the asian dudes do at the malls. That was a pretty funny surprise and it definitely woke me up.
After that experience, i would go back and try their more expensive massages. Before doing so, i would like to explore other foot massages places before deciding which one is best. read more