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Asia Trip Day 18: Chinese Fried Chicken (1/5/18)

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We returned to the massage parlor again to get another round of massages. Xuezhu was feeling some soreness in her traps and back, so she got a special massage. After the massage, they put a special carriage over her back. It held some smoldering logs, which heated up her back. There was a wooden lid covering them, but it could be opened or removed if it gets too hot.  We returned back to her parent's house for lunch. Her mother cooked for us vegetables with dried shrimp, and chicken with taro. The vegetables were very savory from the salty shrimp, and reminded me of a similar dish my mom makes. We then went to the mall area to get our haircut. Xuezhu usually waits until she visits China to get her haircut or colored, since its much cheaper than in US. We snacked at the KFC at the mall, because I wanted to try it out. Xuezhu told me that fast food restaurants like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and KFC were considered to be really fancy when they were first in...
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Asia Trip Day 21: Fly Home (1/8/18)

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On our last morning, we work up early to finish packing and to help clean up the house. We had to borrow one of their suitcases because we got so much more to bring back. In addition to the souvenirs and gifts, we also got a lot of medicine and antibiotics, which were often less expensive than in the US. And as mothers do, Xuezhu's mother packed her as many supplies as she could. It ended up being 3 suitcases as checked baggage, and then 1 suitcase, 1 laptop bag, and 2 backpacks as carry-on.  Unfortunately, Xuezhu's mother needed to return to work, so only her father was there to drive us to the airport. I don't think there would have been space anyways, since all of our luggage filled up his Jeep.  He waited with us for the baggage check, until we had to go into the airport security. We had to do the standard bag checks, body search, and Visa inspections. I think this airport had several more luggage scanners than in other ones; we had to do it once when w...
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Asia Trip Day 12: Day of Rest (12/30/17)

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Look at the massive forearms on this guy Xuezhu and I were physically sore from the trip in Japan, primarily in the traps, shoulder, and back from walking around all day wearing our heavy backpacks. She took me to a massage parlor, which had several blind masseurs. The building was old and a little messy. They took us to the back through several doors into a private room. Xuezhu had a blind woman to massage her, but I got a normal guy. This was my first massage, and it was quite brutal. My masseur was super strong, as evidenced by his massive foremans. He really dug into my muscles, and it felt like he was trying to crush them. It was the most agonizing when he was working on my traps and calves. The whole body massage lasted about an hour, and after that I felt battered and bruised in a different way. Mushroom! Mushroom! After the massage, we met with her dad at a restaurant specializing in mushroom hot pot. Since I was still recovering, they wanted to take me somewher...
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