The Shanghai Spa Escape and the Taxi Chase

Started boring enough. I thought I would go out for a walk have an agreeable meal and maybe find a massage with extra services. When I left my hotel I headed off in a different direction from the usual way I normally go. The normal way is generally packed with people and I was quite familiar with what was available there. Feeling like something different I headed out.

Not wanting any issues with the police I had a photocopy of my passport ID page and about 295 pounds or so in cash with me but no cards.

As I was walking there were a lot of ground floor girls of various quality peeking their heads out and calling me. None of it seemed interesting so I kept going and found myself on a huge boulevard which looked more promising.

One girl in normal clothes looked decent and spoke okay English. She kept following me. I could not shake her I was not interested. Then she followed me into a Marriott hotel where I contemplated going to the sports bar to have a meal but changed my mind because that would leave me with very little cash left for the night. So I left and finally wandered into the local McDonald’s.

The girl who had followed me sat next to me while I had my meal but without really saying a word. I decided I could not shake her and I was getting annoyed. I decided to go back to my hotel. I saw a cab I jumped in it. I tried to wave her off but she ran around and got in the other side.

We were arguing with the driver on where to go and she won. She said that she would take me to a nice place and promised I would have good fun. Fine. Whatever.

Taken to the Shanghai Spa

On the way there she kept trying to assure me that it would be well worth my while and there is no problem and I should just relax. She was getting flirty so I thought maybe it would be with her and it wouldn’t be so bad especially if it was with this girl.

We drove forever. It had to be at least 30 minutes. In the middle of a residential area I see a giant spa with a fountain and a driveway. The girl handed me over to some nice old lady and I was disappointed.

She took me inside and downstairs to another room. Shortly afterwards I was seated. She brought me in 10 girls who stood there and I was able to pick one out. I picked the first one as she was cute. She gave a pathetic handjob and then left saying she’ll be back for more.

I was left in the room for a number of minutes by myself. Looking around there was some water on the table with a lovely fruit tray and some other things and a very faded price list for the various items of beverages and nibbles including the fruit tray. The prices for this rubbish were not cheap until 2250 pounds. Perhaps that included the room as well I’m not sure. I thought ‘Thank goodness I’m not ordering any of that.’

The Confrontation

Two guys entered the room. One was quite well built with spiky hair and the other was a thinner taller guy who spoke excellent English. He was in a high gloss leather jacket and he handed me a bill for two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds. I said ‘What is this for?’ He said that this was the bill for everything I had received and once I paid it I could carry on.

I said ‘I didn’t order any of it and I don’t want to pay for it and I can’t pay even if I wanted to.’ I learned that this guy was half Japanese. He said to me that we’re both foreigners here and I should just go along with it and not make trouble. As the conversation got more tense the muscly guy looked more and more uncomfortable.

A little more about me at the time I had a bulky build but not muscle but under baggy clothes and dark lighting I could have looked less fat than I was. A childhood illness had wiped out a lot of my muscles before doctors determined what was happening but by then I’d lost about 50 percent of my muscle mass which I could never regain. The medicine required to keep my body in check made me swell up a bit especially in my face. Given that there is no way I could survive a physical confrontation I had no choice but to try and play it cool.

The Japanese guy kept saying ‘Stop being aggressive.’ It seemed like he was setting an excuse for other things to happen later.

I finally said ‘Look we’ve been discussing this for almost an hour and we’re not getting anywhere. I’m not being aggressive nor am I being angry. I was brought here by a stranger I didn’t know. I didn’t know what was in store and I think this awful place is trying to rip me off. I cannot pay you 2250 pounds and even if I could I don’t think it’s fair because none of this was explained clearly.’

I said ‘I can pay you 980 pounds but I’ll have to go back to my hotel first to get my card from the safe and then go to the bank and get the cash out.’

Escorted Back to the Hotel

They both went away to discuss this and came back. They agreed to my terms. ‘Thank goodness’ I thought. ‘I’m not going to be beaten or die tonight.’

They said that the muscly guy would come with me. I said ‘Okay fair enough.’ I went to the restroom with the muscly guy waiting inside with me. There was no escape path in the restroom and even if there was I had no idea where in the city I was.

By then an old very unattractive girl had joined us. She was annoying as hell and she spoke no English but loved the sound of her own voice.

Walking at the spa past a reception on the basement floor I saw another Westerner handing over a credit card saying ‘Okay try this one.’ I felt really bad for him.

As we reached the ground level by the stairs and outside I saw the girl tout that brought me there chatting with the guy at the podium. She saw me but was pretending she hadn’t seen me. By then I hated her guts and my eyes probably did nothing to hide this fact.

The Escape

I got into the front passenger seat of a regular taxi. My hotel was relatively new they didn’t know where it was so I told them the name of a hotel fairly close by which they did know.

A long cab ride with the old woman just trying to talk to me. I don’t even know why she came along and I wasn’t in the mood. I didn’t know if she was to be offered to me as a consolation prize or not once I had paid. I have no idea why she was there but I certainly wasn’t going to do anything with her.

We stopped at a Family Mart convenience store but not near my hotel or the one I said to go to. I was terrified again. There were five or six bodybuilder types standing around on the sidewalk in front of the shop. I literally thought to myself ‘Is this how it will end?’

The old lady went into the Family Mart and just as quickly the bodybuilders disappeared. The lady was taking forever so I got out of the cab to see what was going on. I could not see her in the shop. Then the muscle guy in the cab perked up but still didn’t really say anything.

A cab going the other direction stopped at a red light so I walked across the street and got in. Then the muscly guy got out of the original cab and was yelling at the Family Mart. She came running out.

It was a waiting game now. The cab I was in was waiting for the light to change. It did right before they both got back into their cab. My new cab driver still didn’t know my original hotel but I could see a landmark so I was able to direct him. But the other cab had caught us up. I asked him to go faster but he didn’t want to or didn’t understand.

Back at the Hotel

Anyways we ended up losing the first cab by chance and I couldn’t believe it. Maybe they diverted to the original hotel that they knew the address I’m not sure. But I knew the people back at the spa would probably get wind of this and they knew the name of my actual hotel and what I looked like.

Here is where I didn’t know what to do. I was safely back in my room. It was only around 1030 or 11 PM but I thought these people seem like they play for keeps. I was leaving the next day on a 1 o’clock flight so there was a window where I could be caught by these people or they could bribe the hotel with a picture of me from the spa that they more than likely had from their CCTV cameras.

I thought ‘I really don’t want to risk it.’ I left my hotel with my card and went to an ATM and got the 980 pounds as insurance in case they ever did catch up with me.

In the morning when I was ready to leave I thought ‘This moment is do or die.’ There were more cabs than normal and one of the cab drivers was yelling at me. Part of me could not figure out if it was because he recognized me and was working for the spa or he was simply wanting my business.

I left my bag with a concierge and met my co workers for a coffee across the street. No way was I going to tell them about my adventures from the previous night.

Finally in a taxi on the way to the airport everything seemed normal and I was able to now relax.

The Moral

The moral of this story is

1. Trust your gut. I had no interest in going with the tout in the beginning and I should have been way more aggressive even rude if I needed to be.

2. Never go with touts. You have no idea who they are tied to.

3. If you want something bad enough find it on your own.

I know I was very lucky. I didn’t lose my cool despite being accused of it constantly by the Japanese guy. I remained polite in the face of what was a total farce. I was lucky I was only out the two cab fares but then I also never paid for anything else that took place in the spa. I managed to hang on to the 980 pounds and that went home with me.

A funny thing happened after this at the airport. My flight was delayed for a few hours so I went to a restaurant in the check in area. There I saw a Western guy in a pilot shirt drinking some beers. I thought ‘Interesting he must have just landed and has a longer than anticipated wait for his hotel transportation.’

The Airport Pilot Surprise

Fast forward a few hours and I’m in a shop airside and I see him again in full pilot’s uniform. Thank goodness I wasn’t flying that airline that day (which I won’t mention here). Bearing in mind that was many many years ago I don’t think you’d see any pilots drinking alcohol these days. They’d get lynched wouldn’t they?