Get Lost Daily

Portuguese influenced food,  big casinos and new beautiful sites were not a tough persuasion for us to take the boat from China to Macau! We booked an EVA Air ticket from Macau to Seoul and had a day to spend!

We didn’t gamble but we did eat some bomb Portuguese food and got to know a little bit of Macau by foot.

We took a ferry to Macau from China and G drew me a little picture

Inside the Venetian

From the ferry there are free shuttles to each desired Casino

The restaurant we ate in

famous for their cookies the store was packed and we helped ourselves to some samples and gifts for my moms friend in Korea.

jerky

cookies

All of Asia there are what looks like playgrounds but are in fact for exercise. Quick intermission to get some calories burning!

The town was quiet because of Chinese New Year. But it was still beautiful and fun to see.

Gian takes amazing photos with that little Canon

After our big meal we came across an outdoor restaurant that only makes 1 thing. Fresh bread stuffed with pork, and amazing milk tea. we were full and sad we didnt have room for the meal and helped ourselves to a small forceful snack.

There’s nothing like fresh bread

Back at the Venetian. It was drizzling and time to catch our flight.  Macau is beautiful and I would love to go back.

I love Asia because they love Hello Kitty like I do.

Ukranian Parliament throw down? so crazy

“Zhàoqìng, lying on the Xī Jiāng some 110km west of Guǎngzhōu, is bordered to the north by lakes and a series of limestone formations that together make up the Seven Star Crags (Qīxīng Yán). The Dǐnghú Shān (Mt Dinghu) protected area to the northeast is one of the most attractive scenic spots in Guǎngdōng.” -Lonely Planet

We read it and said hey why not. Because Chinese New Year was just around the corner.. train tickets to everywhere were sold out. They DID have standing seats for those 12 -120 hour train rides.. I don’t think so. They even sold little fold seats at the stations for those that had those standing tickets. the seat was the size of my ankles…

So in order to get MORE of our experience in China.. we went to Zhàoqìng.

We just need to get to.. this place.

Success!

Us trying to find a place to stay in the lonely planet and everyone trying to help it was funny and frustrating because everyone wants to look at whatever you’re holding and help and or take you in their cab.

need a lift?

What this little city says is their little eating delight. This wrapped pyramid is filled with sticky rice and beans and deliciousness.

it’s steamed hot soft and amazing.

Setting up for Chinese New Year celebrations

Another beautiful day in China! It’s fog and what we just expected the air to be like.. but it’s mostly fog.

What you would commonly see in Asia.. people just straight digging for gold. FOR NUGGETS! they don’t eat them like my students but they definitely have no shame and just dig away. I’ll never forget in Vietnam a woman was calling me to come eat at her cart on the street as she was picking her toes.. I almost fainted.

Not that this guy was picking.. but it just reminded me of another filthy habit that was always in my face

we went to go see one of the sights which is an old wall that is still standing with people living on both sides

Kittens for sale

Sit and stand straight ladies.. or this is your future.

Gian took some amazing photos

no they were not eating these cats.

the old and the new

We wanted to go see the towers along the water and decided to hop into his ride. It was slow.. loud and smelled of exhaust but what the hell.. why not

For some reason.. just like SF.. we could not get a cab to stop for the life of us.

Whoop There it is!

we tried to go inside.. but that’s not an option

We heard there was another tower and when we went to go see it.. it looked.. EXACTLY like the other one..

along the ledge around the tower was just broken glass

Just some sheep on the move.

We got back to the hotel area and hit the street food. I was having a lot of stomach problems. Everytime we switched countries.. without fail i got sick.. G was fine! But sadly for me.. I was only a rice/starch diet.

They sell these amazing breakfast/egg type little sandwhiches.

Foreign tourists dont really come visit Zhàoqìng so we were the only non-Chinese in that town i believe. People were so nice and kept laughing at Gian for taking pictures of everything haha.

His sesame balls were hands down the best I ever had.

THE BEST i tell you

Gian’s yummy little pasta salad.

Blurry but dude was just walking around with a plastic bag jacket?

Mango smoothie thingie? SURE why not!

Those egg sandwhich deals I was talking about

A Texan style fast food restaurant that sold burgers.

The town was quiet so we were just walking around.

In the mall they were having a roller blading class. Roller blading was big in this city. We saw some young guys doing some dope tricks. I’m glad it’s still big somewhere.

A free outdoor dancing session for exercise. There were hundreds of people out around 7 PM. i joined in on the fun and we would follow the choreography on stage and go through each routine several times. I love that everyone is out exercising together!

We went to go eat dimsum and they did not understand us when we asked for shu mai .. luckily for us a man that spoke English saw us struggling and ordered some stuff for us.

amazing

we went to the great lakes to walk around and see the sites. i have no idea why i look soo distressed.

we didn’t have much time but it was a beautiful place to visit on our way back to Guangzhou

i have a major fear of bridges.. G kept making me cross them but let me tell you.. my heart can’t beat faster than when i have to cross those things.

G teasing me that there are children going across..

how i feel about that…

They had a koi pond where you could feed the fish. I have never seen so many hungry koi.. it was acutally kind of gross.

tagging on the bus

street puppies for sale

sadly in Asia a lot of the puppies off the street have worms

need a tailor?

my Casio has been so good to me.

We went to an all you can eat Brazilian BBQ when we got back into Guangzhou

YUM is all I can say!

Okay.. more than just clothes.. how about EVERYTHING. I’m talking about 15 +floor buildings with individual stalls all selling clothes… or watch parts.. or shoes… each stall representing a factory (as they say) selling wholesale to people from all over the world. Imagine seeing an Italian dude on the phone.. negotiating in Mandarin in person and in Italian on the phone for whom he is purchasing for. Or a Nigerian doing the same. Talk about a lot of people from all over the world that have learned Mandarin and make me look like a chump with my weak ass “Ni Hao”. We were overwhelmed.. excited and in love.

Speed train over from Shenzen. So quick efficient and easy… America is so behind it’s not even funny. Asia is where it’s at! Imagine if that speed train from SF to LA were ever built.. it’d be something like this but multi cultural.. a beautiful thing people.. let’s make it happen.

me and my cousin

Bye Shenzen!

The Guangzhou terminal

This is city that everyone buys their “weekend market” goods for EVERY other country in Asia. no joke. sadly its all what I consider crap from China. I don’t know how many times i saw a wooden frog that you ran a stick across its back and BELIEVE IT OR NOT IT MAKES A FROG SOUND! SOLD! not.

Kind of looks like our cops right? But old and Chinese.

Because sizing is so different and varied by country.. there are specific buildings and areas for Africans… Europeans.. and Asians and so forth. This happened to be Africa’s block.

A place like this would have a factory on each floor. Hard to believe from the exterior but you can imagine that basically things are constantly being made.. EVERYWHERE!

Typical “modern packaging”

Because we were with my cousin we stayed in this high rolling hotel

Somehow it was actually only about $50/ night

We were taken to this AMAZING indoor spa/massage type place. In Korea we call them JJim Jeel bangs.. Steam Rooms.. but this was China style. it was 3 floors. Separate lockers… showers.. pools… gym.. one one floor. HUGE rooms filled with lazy boys and individual flat screens.. a wait staff to serve anything you’d like.. and a screen rolling menu of massages and services for an extra fee. It’s about $30 bucks to get in but it’s 24/7 so we even spent one of our nights here.  I had an ear picking. YES an ear picking and let me tell you it was fabulous. We also got foot massages. Chinese style.. kind of hurts but still feels good.  The downside to this place, indoor smoking! UGH i hate it. On the top floor was basic private rooms… a full buffet with amazing food [included in price] I’m talking about seafood.. Chinese food.. you name it.. fruit! Everything! Ping Pong tables.. pool tables…  and on the 2nd floor there were sleeping pods and a computer area for games/business. Heaven after a hard day? I think so!

We only got shot of the entrance because we didn’t take our cameras in and we were enjoying ourselves too much.

Back outside….

It was even organized by quality and organization. And let me tell you.. Koreans are EVERYWHERE and have a quarter of some these buildings just for them.

There are even distrcits for just watches. Every component to a watch. You could just walk in and design and create your own wrist piece!

It smells like cigarettes and exhaust fumes everywhere.. and Guangzhou gets REALLY HUMID and hot. we were told we were lucky to visit when we did. It’s always busy and feels more like body to body as summer approaches.

We had an awesome guide from a Korean Trading company and she took us to go eat some legit Chinese food!

Fish soup.. spicy? YES! Delicious.. AMAZING!

Have you ever seen a mango this small?

buildings that just sell Leather and fabrics.

Mc Donalds in Asia is a nice sit down for families. They are more upscale and considered a decent meal. Believe it or not.

Most also offer 24 hours and have free wifi. Instead of hanging out at starbucks.. some countries the kids hang out at McDonalds.. YES. MCkie D’s

CROWDED!

Animal Fur?

Most of that is not in Chinese.. It’s Korean.

Some of the doper wholesale stores.

My 2 complaints about how China rolls..

1. You can smoke anywhere and everywhere. And you better believe someone is always smoking.

2. The buses dont have their exhausts up top like in the states.. they are street level.. so all you smell is fumes. It becomes normal to breathe and smell the exhaust fumes.

Shenzhen is a really nice city. Talk about some of the nicest malls we have ever been in. But … with that being said… Shenzen was kind of a big mall to us. We were in the comfort zone of my cousins home and we went out exploring and found ourselves in really fancy malls. Random but… kind of the vibe. $$$$$

Okay so I am 5″5 1/2! There were these two SUPER tall Chinese dudes that were standing next to this elaborate Hennnessy display.

Is this what you imagined of when you thought of China? I SURE AS HELL DID NOT!

indoor year round ice skating

a chain in China themed after Bruce Lee

pancake?

We stumbled upon a leather goods brand called… “Mexican” HOW RANDOM IS THAT! They actually had a wallet I really wanted.

Mind you, it wasn’t cheap!

The wallet i was diggin

You’ve gotta wonder which marketing genius came up with MEXICAN with a dude sleeping under a sombrero. I have to say it is def. entertaining. but again.. SO RANDOM

The Mexican store… doin its thang

We didn’t know what or why anything was where or who what. We spent our time walking into random buildings just to see what was inside, stumblin upon stores like MEXICAN are what we longed for.

With Chinese New Year just around the corner.

Do you think this persons AC was broken?

Happy Birthday?

gian took lots of great photos

the reminder of whats not allowed on the subway

fair enough.

have you ever seen apple like this?

Gian made us Italian food one night

It was my cousins birthday so we went out for dinner and drinks!

His cute little birthday cake! you would not believe the difficulty of trying to order this thing.

The traditional cutting the cake shot

Our failed flowering fire work candle that almost BLEW UP!

walking around every day things to see

outdoor pool tables

Need to get your shoe fixed?

more phone numbers on the walls. can someone that knows what these are explain?

We decided to hit the hair salon and G needed a cut and I went for a perm. There was very little verbal communication and lots of hand signals and prayers that we would not come out looking ridiculous.

Not uncommon to see something like this. A busy street at night.. but that mattress had places to go!

Shenzen is a nice city. It’s clean and very new.

We can’t say we loved it but we had a nice time there with my cousin.

There’s a dessert chain in Shenzen that is super cute and is just Chinese desserts. We decided to sit down and indulge.

Jelly/Milk/Yogurt/Redbean.. you imagine it.. they had it.

Doesn’t get much bigger than that.

We have NO IDEA what this thing does. We have guesses but we don’t actually know.

Believe it or not this is the inside of Pizza Hut. Where in Asia it’s a nice sit down restaurant.

and they don’t deliver.

We got home excited to eat pizza only to find they gave us someone elses. it was even missing a SLICE!

We weren’t suprised as much as we were disappointed. There was no going back since we took a cab.

When we got into China we quickly found out what sites would and would not be available. It wasn’t just facebook, it it included any website that involves photo sharing as well. So basically we were stuck with very little to do.

My cousin Yoon Mo Opa picked us up from Hong Kong and took us into Shenzen! [Pronounced Shun Jun] We rode into China in style by cab!

The border had some awesome photo opportunities but of course none of them were allowed.

and we are in!

The Taxis

We basically moved in with my cousin for 1 month. He lives in Shenzen. Shenzen is a newer city. It is very nice and a hub for business. It is right across from Hong Kong so it’s easily accessible by foreigners and vise versa.

The view from his apt.

Yes the sky was always hazy. and YES they have an ikea!

Going to Shenzen was interesting. We got to see the wealthiest city in China first, so all of our concerns and queries about China felt wrong. We expected it to be dirty and horrible, but Shenzen has some of the most high end/fanciest places I’ve ever been to.

My cousin had just moved into a new place on the 23rd floor. A 4 bedroom apartment for something around $1600 USD? it was SO nice and SO cheap (compared to SF that is)

The neighbors

Our first night in, he took us to all you can eat Japanese food! Point, pick then grill!

There are a lot of foreignors in Shenzen. As I mentioned.. lots of business is going down.

Every time you spend a certain amount of RMB, you get a scratch-er. It’s a chance to win more money! Unfortunately i never won

Transactions are done in cash! My cousin got his rent money back and i couldn’t resist taking this faux baller shot.

A popular to do is get foot massages! We got a few of them, compliments of Yoon Mo. Chinese style massages kind of hurt. They’re all about the pressure points. First you soak your feet in a powder mixed with scorching hot water. Then they come massage your back. Then they move to your arms… then feet.

There’s a TV there so we attempted to watch Chinese television. Our masseuses kept getting distractd and it was basically the 6 of us all watching it together.

China also has Wal Mart

It’s exactly the same obviously, but they do have some  different items.

Take for instance this red jacket.

Opa bought pork bacon and veggies so we could eat Sam Gyop Sal! Korean food! You gotta love Korean BBQ

BBQ by the window

The neighborhood

We went to go play digital golf.  It’s the lazy version of real golf and also that much more amazing. Minus the fresh air.. I can’t say I don’t love it.

Chinese liquor. We drank quite a bit of it and it is really strong. It doesn’t make you hung over… and it tastes kind of like Jager.

If you’ve never had any of the food in these pictures.. you are seriously missing out. We went to an AMAZING Chinese/Korean restaurant. The food is specific to Korea made by Chinese Koreans.

My cousin on the left and his hilariuos and wonderful friend on the right

You can’t just drink at the bar in Asia, you typically are expected to get a bottle and sit at table. One thing we learned about China is that ALMOST EVERYTHING is a fake. You can buy fake cigarettes, fake alcohol, fake eggs… YES, China makes and sells imitation eggs.

‘

We even got in a little bit of dancing

Cantonese style restaurant: You walk into a beautifully lit room with chefs standing over every imaginable type of live sea creature, beautifull presented meat, vegetable.. you name it… and you point and pick and they serve it up however you request. We had a feast fit for kings

Lobster anyone?

We were in complete awe of the presentation in this place.

Sea slug anyone?

The most beautiful food carvings I have EVER seen

The elephants are my personal favorite

I doubt Martha Stewart is this good

2nd place goes to….

Can you tell we were obsessed with this place?

a very expensive bottle of the Chinese white liquor.

Where’s Gian?

a  clear day

Street food: Hot flat thin fried bread with cheese, veggies and what tasted like ham. DELICIOUS! and the closest thing to a burrito we have had in months!

We went to get another massage! But this time, a different place!

They provide shorts if your jeans are too tight.

This may be offense.. and I dont know it

Wisdom and Fortune Law firm it is!

Right when we arrived I was able to meet my cousin whom I hadn’t seen in almost 10 years!

He was too nice and put us in up in a 5 Star hotel for our time in Hong Kong while we waited for our visa’s for China.

It was a really nice change from the hostels and the backpacking we had been doing.

the public transportation there is great. We took the ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong in a jiffy and spent our time exploring on foot.

Peter and Hui were nice enough to show us around when we got in! We met Peter traveling through Taiwan! It was great to see him again and so great to see their version of Hong Kong!

on the ferry

every city deserves one of these places.

fancy hall way, fancy pose

a famous bakery in Hong Kong known for their egg custard and baked pork buns

we met up with a friend of Paul, Stephanie! She is absolutely amazing and lives in Hong Kong with her fiance. We enjoyed dinner and drinks and i have to say we hope to see them again sooN!

beautiful hotel

off to Shenzen. Goodbye beautiful Hong Kong and hotel,.. hello China!

The real reason we felt the need to go to back to Bangkok… is the JJ Market. It’s the largest weekend market in the world and it is also THE best original stuff we have ever seen in terms of fashion! the youth culture there has something really special going on and we were dying to get back there to actually do a little shopping damage. A lot of people fly to Bangkok on the weekends just to go to the JJ Market. The local designers even come out with new merchandise almost every weekend because it moves so quickly. Some purchase for re sale and others just for themselves.. and we were determined to get a chance at getting some original designed clothes!

On the walk over there were tons of guys selling Buddha necklace charms and other religious related jewelry pieces.

If you look to the right of this photo… you will see the wooden penis’. Everyone man seems to own one and they were for sale in all different shapes and sizes. It is supposed to be a charm for good luck. We didn’t ask any specifics but were pretty entertained at the popularity of the item.

There were some serious collectors out there shopping about, with their eye magnifying pieces on and books to check authenticity and age of the items.

Need an exhaust?

The market sells everything! Everything from clothes, vintage shades, to house ware and art. There’s an entire wing for just vintage clothes. Heaven.

A tough man to bargain with

There’s also amazing food inside. We treated ourselves to a nice Vietnamese lunch.

All denim stall

That night we ended up going to the red light district. It was pretty busy and there were tons of people out. All I can say was that it was quite a memorable experience.

We headed out to go see Charly DJ at a really nice club !

The next day, Sunday, we got up and went back to the market for round 2 of shopping. To start the day off, we bought some fresh coconut ice cream, served in a shaven coconut! YUM

They even have a pet section.

One guy was selling these ADORABLE bunnies but he put them all in little dresses.

The dogs were terribly cheap but of course America will not allow dogs from Thailand.

All the pet accessories ever made.

These flying squirrels had to be on drugs because they barely looked alive.

body to body

This guy sold JUST Mickey Mouse sweaters

I wish i had smaller feet

A bunch of more people came to crash at Peak’s place so we all went out around the corner for a street food dinner.

That night we all went to go see Avatar in 3D!

We got out pretty late and were not ready to go home so we went to Koh San Road to see what it was like past 2 AM.

It’s basically a big party on the street with tons of drunk people and random food and stuff for sale.

we found a random pub and played foos ball until our hands were sore, then called it a night and went home.

We went to this huge shopping area on that following Monday to see what it was like. It was very high end, clean and quite nice. They even had a bunch of blow up jump houses for kids that day and sadly they told us we were too big to play.

talk about a HUGE slab of butter.

I never got my nails done because we were backpacking but now there is nothing i regret more

we bought these things called KOOLA and they are just pieces of plastic to take fun photos.

We made our way back to Bangkok for round 3. This time we made sure that we were going to spend some time there and enjoy the sites. It was cheaper to fly from Vietnam to Bangkok, then to Hong Kong, rather than flying straight from Hanoi to Hong Kong. It would’ve been even cheaper to just go by train through China but we failed to discover this information until after our tickets were purchased.

Right when we arrived it was back to HIGH humidity and AMAZING yet slightly dangerous food. We went straight ot the streets for a delicious lunch!

In the middle of the table.

I may have mentioned this many times before but the Thai culture has the BEST style for youth. In my eyes at least. When we got there I was so excited I couldn’t even wait to take my backpack off. It’s not like I bought a ton of stuff but to actually see cute clothes again and on every corner.. i can say it was quite refreshing!

YUM thai dim sum

We never got to try it but it looks like the ULTIMATE corn dog

It was raining so we had to bust out our panchos. we seriously looked like hunch backs. NAGL

Peak and her man Ben were nice enough to let us crash at her place! GO COUCHSURFING! The girl in the front is Jeckie. She is a local Thai girl they became friends with and she was so great to show us around and give us a taste of her version of Thailand. Both her and Peak showed us more than we would’ve been able to see on our own.

This picture is awesome

Jeckie took us to a huge club the night we got in. The place is beautiful. There is one room with a live band, and another that has a DJ. THe odd thing about Asia is that they don’t have dance floors. Dance floors are a Western thing. Jeckie let us know that the club she got us into is the young Thai celebrity scene. It baffles me that the dance floor was filled with standing tables for bottle service and everyone just stands around their table and barely dances. Everyone looked bored except us!

You basically have to get bottle service and stand at your table with music blarring into your ears and with not much to do but drink. You can’t talk and there’s barely any room to really BUST out any moves!

You know how they say in Asia, they prefer white skin? This guy takes it to a whole new level, he is wearing white powder make up. We didn’t really notice until after we looked at our photos.

The DJ Booth

we all started a bunny hop at one point to try to get the party poppin, it didn’t really work

They also had the LARGEST hanging disco balls i have ever seen.Beautiful.

We also were able to couchsurf with Flo. Miss you buddy!

Everyone at their tables… this is the dance floor.

Fortunately enough the cab driver let us smash 7 people into his taxi. We were invited to a house party by Charly Templar! Another amazing couchsurfer we met!

We made it to the house party! Charly on the right and his friend from Oakland! Heyy!

The house was beautiful! There were 4 house mates and 2 of them are professional online poker players. The rent was something like 1 grand a per room, pool, furnished with flat screens and it was absolutely over the top and nice!

confirmation we are in Asia, a no shoes house party.

end of the party? i think so.

Peak lives in her old families house and she was kind enough to even give us our own room!

Friendly neighbors

Flo coming out of Peak’s place.

We explored Hanoi by bicycle and by foot. It’s a fairly decent sized city but quite easy to get around in. At least in Hanoi you can walk on the sidewalks without motorobikes hopping up just grazing past you.

You know they say the Vietnamese love Heineken.. when I saw this Christmas tree made of empty bottles.. I knew it was true.

A postcard we picked up

We found Ikea! It was actually just a store that sold Ikea products. a small store.

Inside the Ikea store

A yummy rice paper roll themed fast food spot inside the mall!

some new friends we made!

We bought tickets to see Avatar. Tomas did the purchasing and was told that the seats we got were the best to choose from. It was also in 2D because the 3D was sold out. We got to the theatre to get into our assigned seats just MOMENTS before the movie started and it turns out.. we were the only ones. A few more couples straggled in later but there was a MAJOR communcation error.

Bun on every corner. Just 2 bucks or so for this delicious BBQ delightful meal. Bun refers to the white rice noodle. The soup is a meat broth with BBQ’s meat balls. Throw some veggies in there and BAM you have an AMAZING lunch!

We hopped on a pedicab for the novelty of it

our driver.

A typical construction site. At night the men all have their laundry hanging and they actually sleep on site. We were told the building would be complete in just a few months.

Police directing traffic.

The shot is terribly blurry but we were in a nicer part of Hanoi, high end retail, LV, Hermes ETC, and there they were.. a group of men all squatting and gambling at the corner… aka awesome.

Truly a beautiful city.

The occassional woman walking around with something VERY Oversized on her head… you have got to respect that.

This restaurant was SO GOOD! They have 5 different pasteries.. kind of like piroshkis…. and you eat it in a broth with veggies just like the Bun I mentioned earlier. The tables here show exactly what it’s like to eat on the streets of Hanoi.

I can tell you I dont miss the plastic chairs and the little tables.. but I do miss the food.

Another site that is not uncommon. Meat is sold on the sides of the streets as so.

Veggie sales!

From our room

Buying some tangerines!

My store in Hanoi! Coincidence that a Korean designer owns it.

Kids in schooL!

We highly recommend you check out Hanoi Kids when you are in Hanoi. It is a free service to tourists that want to see the sites in Hanoi. You get a local Vietnamese young adult that is praciticing their English! They show you their version of Hanoi as well!

Turtle Tower

This old military man was really excited about speaking English to Gian and insisted on taking a photo together

Fresh fish for sale!

Need a belt?

Bo Thit dish! Basically a beef salad!

Our Hanoi kids tour guide!

Something we’ve never seen before.. these guys had this podium… speakers and a mic! They walked every 20 feet and would take requests and sing a Vietnamese song. It was loud and awesome!

We went to the roof of a building which was a cafe.. and this is the view.

The stairs up to the roof

slightly blurry but can you see the layers inside the buiding? This is looking down

Construction done for the day.. the men ending the night.

Some more Bun