By Frank Claeys

Once we went on a trip to Guangzhou with a German colleague. After a hard day’s work a person has to relax. So we all go to the massage parlour in the hotel. In these kinds of parlours they have every service; you can get your ears cleaned, your nails cut, a Chinese massage and many other treatments. Usually the food and beverages are included in the price. Everything is relatively cheap. 

In these parlours the time seems to stop. No one is in a rush, you are there to relax. Lots of people even fall asleep and end up staying the night there. This is very cheap: you are saving hotel costs while getting all the service. You walk in there in the evening and before you know it, it is the middle of the night. For the Chinese massage we had to go into separate rooms and lost sight of each other. It was already past two a.m. when I realized I did not want to take any chances for the next day though, so I went to the hotel reception to ask for a wake up call.

No problem. ‘Room number?’ I show my card and in return the guy from reception picks up the phone and dials a number. After a while he gets a response and says: ‘it’s for you’. “Why?” I ask surprized. I answer the phone and it is my German colleague. He had gone to his room half an hour earlier. We woke him up. ‘I’m sorry mate, I’m down at the reception. I asked the guy from reception for a wake up call and he phoned you.’ I give him the phone back and tell him that he has dialled the wrong number. He probably had the room next to mine..! I show him my card again and ask for a morning call, a wake up call for tomorrow morning to wake up. ‘Ok’, the guy says and apologizes. This time he dails my number and waits. After a while he turns to me and says: ‘They are not picking up’ …

Luckily the instruction manual of the alarm clock in my room is not in Chinese, I’ll manage. 

Frank Claeys