eat drink seth liz

After two days of hiking Mt. Huangshan's unforgiving granite path, our feet needed a good soak. We found a hot springs spa nestled in the misty mountains, next to a Best Western. We were the first ones at the spa at 9am, and had to wait a bit to use all the pools, which the staff were filling with steaming hot spring water. There were about 15 pools, none of which were filled with pure unadulterated spring water. For some medicinal reason that was lost in translation, one of the pools was filled with cheap vodka heated to 40C by the spring water. Others were filled with green tea and flowers, and one with red wine (which smelled like rice wine with food coloring). Our favorites were side-by-side pools, one with milk and the other coffee grounds. We're not talking about Starbucks, or Peet's, or Zingerman's, or even Green Mountain Coffee. This was a tiny pool filled with 15 canisters of Nescafe! We could pop from one pool to the next very easily, but after the coffee pool it was necessary to rinse the grinds away.

One of the VIP pools (30RMB extra) contained a few thousand "kissing fish" which feed on flakes of dead skin. You pay for the privilege of being eaten by hundreds of tiny fish, jockeying for position around your cuticles and heels and toes. One must be diligent about keeping them out of your swimsuit. The feeling is ticklish, not painful.

We lifted this stock photo from the internet. Our spa was much fancier.

Bonus video: on the top of the mountain we both had brutal foot massages. The boys often preferred to beat rather than rub our feet.

On the last day we took a taxi to the notoriously cute village of Hongcun, which has an 80RMB entrance fee. Inside you can see authentic village houses and authentic village people trying to go about their lives, ignoring the hoards of tourists. Our taxi driver waited in the parking lot while we toured the village. (We strongly recommend hiring a driver for the day.)

Before our late flight back to Shanghai we hung out in Tunxi (15 minutes from the airport). Tunxi has a beautiful old shopping street, which is a great place to go if you have hundreds/thousands of dollars to spend on Chinese antiques.