Life is Edible

Exploring Hong Kong

2010-01-31T22:41:00.000-08:00

I had to wake up early in the morning and ride the bus to Hong Kong. It was a 3 hour ride and the whole time I was listening to another lady barfing on the bus ewwww

What are those floating wood things??

My gross ant bite. It was throbbing and painful. It was like I had a heart beating in my finger. I could even see it pulsating from red to white to red lol

Hotel room

Cleeeean bathroom :D

Foooooooood yum.

Time to explore Hong Kong!

Went to the waterfront where the Avenue of Stars is located. It's like Hollywood's Walk of Fame but Chinese version.

Beijing Olympic Torch. Did you know the Beijing Olympics logo is the Chinese character for Beijing?! I thought it was just a stick figure of a dude running until my mom told me. So creative!

Jackie Chan

Jet Li

Li Tit o_O; I didn't know who 95% of the stars were. Hong Kong/Chinese/Taiwanese entertainment, you're so foreign to me!

Bruce Lee's star!! Too bad the picture is out of focus :(

:D

A Jackie Chan store..? And he's hugging a giant ball.

After some more exploring and shopping, NIGHT CAME.

All of China had Olympic fever. There's Olympic stuff everywhere in Hong Kong! Even I had Olympic fever and I don't even live here! Best Olympics ever :D

People waiting around for the light show.

Hong Kong at night

The light show - "A Symphony of Lights" the world's largest permanent light and sound show. All those buildings have lasers coming out of them. It's pretty crazy that this happens EVERY night.. so it gets this crowded every night as well?? I tried my best to take a decent picture lol fail. Darn my shaky hands!!!

Aw why so cute

I wish I stayed at that hotel. Is that just a Canon sign or is it a store?! I wanted to go there and see if they had the 5D Mark II.. but good thing I never made my way over there. Doesn't matter anyway since I eventually bought it a couple of months later ^_^

Shiny reflective pole. I couldn't help it.

Time for dinner!

mmmmmmm :Q

And that's the end of my birthday eve...

Taishan: Stroll Around a Pond

2010-01-31T20:53:00.000-08:00

My skin has gotten so clear since I've been in China! Ok I semi cheated because I'm standing in front of a window when I took this picture :P but I did notice a difference. Maybe it has something to do with the air or food. I have no idea. I noticed all the girls here have perfect skin so I went to a store and bought some skin products to try out.

I went back to McDonald's again. Craving a burger sooooooo bad. I got a happy meal this time ^_^ Cheeseburger, fries, Coke, and KungFu Panda toy

I should have gotten that instead. I don't know what it is but it looks exotic and delicious.

There's a KFC here too but I forgot to go try it :( At night, KFC hosts some dance thing outside of the restaurant. They blast loud music and teach little kids a dance. So adorable! I forget to take pictures every time though.

Is this like the McDonald's of China? A Bruce Lee fast food chain that sells Chinese food. I saw a couple of those here.

So today was just another day strolling around Taishan.

My mom's picture taking skillz. She presses too hard and each time takes two of the same pictures lol

Girls here hold hands to show that they're friends. Boys here put their arms around each other as a sign of friendship and it's not considered gay. It's so cute here! Shows how homophobe the US is.

Amazing! She makes all her clothes using this old school contraption.

Fast forward to dinner:

Mmm this is cost about $1.50 USD

My favorite way of having rice cooked.. clay pot rice mmmm love the distinct flavor. The best part is after I'm done eating the soft rice and I get to the toasted rice that's stuck to the clay pot. Pour hot water in it and let it slip off the clay pot. So delicious!!

After dinner, did more wandering around and shopping like usual. Then off to bed. One more day in Taishan! *sob sob*

Taishan: Visiting an Orchard

2010-01-31T18:55:00.000-08:00

So I went and got a haircut! Chopped off my looooooooong hair. I also HATE my wavy hair and always wanted straight hair like other Asian girls... so I got mine permanently straighten yay! It took 4 hours to do O__O

The food in China is great but I miss greasy American food soooooo much. I begged my parents to take me to McDonald's haha.

The ice cream here has a more milky taste to it. I like it! It's different.

Peach and taro pie

McChicken.. why is the meat so thin?! >:(

We went to go visit my dad's rich friend. He started his own business and lives in a mansion in the middle of no where and has like 20 guard dogs.

My dad and his friend.. and the boxes and boxes of oranges that his business sells!

View from the balcony

Rich people and me. Gawd I'm so awkward lol

Look I'm picking oranges!!

Hiding in bushes

Fruit trees everywhere and they go on foreverrrrr

Cool, star fruit! Weird seeing them on trees :O

Finally, an opening

Catching yummy fish even though I hate seafood.

Puppy guard dog

None of the dogs were friendly though... but some of them recognized my dad so he was able to pet them.

Look at this jerk puppy hahaha "NO. MOMMY LOVES ME!"

It was nice visited a giant mansion and he gave us some fruit too. We got into the van and headed back to civilization to hang around then eat dinner.

Mother dearest eating a duck head

They cut the oranges here so artistically

Hard to see because of the reflection from the window.. but look! At night, they put chairs out and people just sit down and talk to each other. It's so homely here. There's yummy street food vendors everywhere too mmmm

Sad looking pup

And let's end this post with this adorable little guy :)

Taishan: Mom and Dad's Childhood Homes

2010-01-27T00:31:00.000-08:00

My parents woke me up early to go eat dim sum again. It was too crowded so we shared a table with another family.

Dumplings

Chicken feet

On the bus to go to the boondocks

We got off the bus to an outdoor market area. My dad went off somewhere to find a driver to take us deeper intot he countryside while I snap pictures of chickens.

We got to a remote area to visit relatives. Guard dogs chased the van! "INTRUDERS!"

While my parents chit chatted, I took pictures of all the animals walking around.

Cute little chicken babies aww

This guy looks like a badass.

Tiny little guard dog

Fell asleep in the warm toasty sunlight

Uh oh they bumped into each other. COCK FIGHT

lol so cute

Back into the van! There was no road... we just drove through bushes.. so scary!

So we arrived here! This is my dad's ..village? I don't know the right word for this.

I noticed there's always this pond thing in all of the villages.

My dad outside his old house. It's so cool to see where he grew up!

The kitchen.. gotta make a fire to cook!

My dad's room when he was a kid.

His bed.. just an uncomfortable wooden thing. The net is to keep mosquitos out.. I remember sleeping in one of those when I was 3!! Except it was at my mom's house I think. One of my earliest memory is lying on a bed staring up at the ceiling and it was just covered in mosquitos o__o

My dad and his room

Living room

The hay room

My mom and the current family who lives here

There was an upstairs so I climbed up. It's actually waaaaay darker than this picture shows. I bumped up the ISO for the pictures in here. It was sooooo dark that I didn't see there was a thick wooden board that sticks down from the ceiling and I walked into it full speed LOL I saw a doorway to get out to the rooftop so I got excited and walked over there really fast then BAM! Everyone downstairs stopped talking and asked if I was ok. I think that was the first time ever in my life that I blacked out for a second and saw stars LOL so embarrassing.

"You have to watch your head up there. There's a part that sticks out!"

They told me too late!!!

Anyway, moving on.. I went out to the roof.

It's so cool up here. My pictures don't do it justice!

If you look closely, you can see the evil board I bumped my forehead on!!! Evil!!!!!

Woo~

Goodbye dad's childhood home!

We drove into a busier part of town and visited the outside of my dad's home that his family moved to later on. This was considered a really nice house back then! A few years ago, some people decided to move in here and my dad has been going to court to try to get his house back.

It's locked so we can't go inside. My dad was pissed he couldn't go inside his own house!

Here's a peek inside though. I bumped up the ISO and managed to take a picture from a little crack.

Outside of his house

The neighborhood

We got back in the van and drove off to a restaurant to eat lunch with more family!

Again.. it was mostly seafood ughhhhhhh I wish I like seafood! I try to like it but it just tastes so gross to me :(

The ceiling is help up with bamboo and rope!

Outside of the restaurant

We hopped into the van and drove to my mom's village.

Mom is so happy to be back!

Dog is watching you

My mom's old house

Actually, my parents didn't tell me we were at my mom's house. I KNEW we were there because I recognized this front area. This is the spot where I played with chicken babies with my cousin Katie when we were little! I told my parents I remembered playing here and they were both like "What?? How do you still remember that?"

Kitchen

Neighbor's angry puppy

Bai sin.. I think it means praying? Yes I make a bad translator.

While they were doing that, I decided to go exploring! ..but

This dog emerged in front of me.

..and this dog came from my left.

..and to my right were these guys.

All I wanted was to go there! Scary dogs emerging out of no where is a good sign that I shouldn't go any further so I turned back. I'm not ready to get eaten :(

Turning back to my mom's house.

I found chickens!

And so I chased them!!! lmao I know I'm such a jerk. They were sitting so peacefully earlier. I chased them all around the village >:D

Front of my mom's house.

Aww doggy

When I walked by, I heard these two kids giggling and talking about me. "Dei dei (big sister) has a camera!" So I turned around and asked them if they wanted their picture taken. Then they both grabbed their bikes out and ran out to the open. So cute!!!

So cute~ :D

Cow out yonder

Angry badass dog

My parents were still standing around talking so I wandered off to snap some more pictures.

After a while, we went back into town to have dinner mmmmmm

After dinner, I went shopping and exploring again. I pulled out my camera but I forgot what I wanted to take pictures of.. in the process of doing that I dropped my lens cap. I looked down to pick it up but it was no where to be found! Then I saw this little creature:

He has my lens cap in his mouth and RAN OFF LOL I chased after him but the shop owner saw and grabbed it back for me and yelled at her dog, "Don't take things!!" When I got my lens cap back, doggy looked up at me in the picture above awwwww haha sorry buddy!

Next post.. more Taishan and then off to Hong Kong!

Taishan: Dim Sum & Parks

2010-01-03T01:52:00.000-08:00

So the next day, my parents woke me up at an ungodly hour to go eat dim sum. They wake up at 6am for fun!!!! Ugh old people. I think we went to go eat at 7am and it was ridiculously crowded. The WHOLE restaurant was filled up. I don't understand... shops and stuff are opened late and there's always a lot of people out and about at night yet they're all awake so early to eat?? Do Chinese people ever sleep??!

Restaurant where we ate dim sum

GASP. They don't push carts around here. You go up and pick up whatever you want to eat. *mind gets blown*

Fun fact when traveling to Asia: Push and shove and have no mercy. Last one doesn't get to eat!

It was my first time eating REAL dim sum and there were some really queer looking things that I've never seen in the US. I don't know what they are but I took pictures and ate them. I grabbed all the strange things not found back in Seattle dim sum. Don't ask, just eat.

Mmmmm juicy!

After that, my dad led me around town. SHOPPING GALORE. Cutest clothes I've ever seen and so so so so cheap. Not many pictures this entry since it was mostly shopping, but we did go to some parks!

Is that Song Hye Kyo?! Koreans really are taking over!

Setting up shop.

Spotted this doggy and we kept following and trying to find each other around the pole. My new friend Anne laughed at me because the dog and I were running in circles looking for each other :P

The shopping street! Love this place!! It's early so everything is still closed and empty. Chinese people emerge when darkness falls (I found out later this is true for Koreans too... so it must be an Asian thing)

I've always loved these.. when I have my own house, I want all my doorways to be circular like that. So awesome!

Palm trees everywhere.

Found a Chinese orange!

Is that a Naruto symbol??

Mother dearest eating sugar cane.

Tropical forest area!

Yay civilization

Neat cave thing

The water is.. brown o_O

Don't know who he is but I think he's important

Make an oopsies and you'll die

This duck made the ugliest noise I've ever heard an animal make. I didn't know it was the duck at first.. I was looking around wondering what that ugly noise was. It was like a choking/gasping for air but with a stuffy nose sound. I don't even know how to describe it.. I can only imitate it. Ask me next time and I'll demonstrate lol

Daaaang look at all the lily pads. Can't even see the water!

Then night came.. and the stores opened.. people emerged. Time for more shopping :D

They set up a stage at night and people perform.. crowds come and everyone dances and sings! It's so cute here lol

And then dinner

My parents didn't tell me this was bittermelon BLEGHEHSDASFGERESKJDFSJKH!!!

And that's how my night ended.

Tour Ended, Back to Taishan!

2010-01-01T03:14:00.000-08:00

The tour around China was AWESOME but all good things must come to an end... so I flew back to Guangzhou and took a 2.5 - 3 hour ride to Taishan. It was already dark by the time I got there but that won't stop me from exploring!

Oh snap it's RAAAAAAAAAAIN. What's he doing in Taishan?? Koreans are taking over!! :D

I went to McDonald's and decided to try the taro pie. It's actually pretty good! They make pies here different. I think in the US, they're baked? In China, they're ...fried?? But it tastes sooooo much better. Probably cuz it's more unhealthy :D I wish there was cherry pie in China though. They don't even have apple! Apples are supposedly expensive in China so that's probably a reason.. so instead, they have taro and peach pies. Still yum!

Mmmmmm my favorite: shortribs. I don't know why, but everything tastes more delicious here.

Wandered around shopping and the shop owners had doggies awwww

Another shop owner's doggie aww

This guy was walking his bike with his doggie sitting on it awww

FAST FORWARD

My dad is my tour guide. He decided to take me out of the "city" area GASP.

Sitting in the bus at a red light, I took this picture of all the motorcycles. Insane!! Everyone has one!

So we ended up somewhere that was.. in the middle of no where with lots of animals around.

I think this guy was the pack leader. He looks like a badass.

Little dude picked up a piece of trash and showed it to the pack leader.

Pack leader approved of his finding and they both ran off somewhere..

This is where the village folk do their laundry

Houses. Yes people live in these.

Baby roosters and chickens

Mama kitty and her baby

Dog on a houseboat type thing. He spotted his fisherman owners coming back.

Dried fish

Bought tickets to ride a boat across the lake rather than ride a bus all the way back. Bye bye stinky fisherman place!

We reached the other side! I like land. Water scares me.. especially on old boats.

Dad took us here for lunch

We're eating a DRAGON!!

Fresh ..prawns?

All the seafood here is caught from the lake I just rode the boat in. Seafood can't get any fresher than that!

Kitchen is outside too.

DRAGON got chopped up..

Tada lunch! This would be really delicious... but it's too bad I hate seafood. Isn't it sad that my own dad doesn't know I hate seafood? So I just ate rice and veggies.

Mama dog was watching us eat.

So was this guy.

He wasn't friendly though.. he tried to eat me so I guess he's a guard dog.

Here is the cook.

Saw a bunch of kids in uniforms heading to school.

On the bus back to town.. saw a neat looking tracker.. I think.

More kids heading to school!

So back into civilization.. went to eat dinner. But being Americana and all, I was getting a little tired of eating Chinese food. I saw there was spaghetti on the menu so I ordered it!!!

It didn't taste like it. It just tastes like chow mein lol :(

Wonton noodle soup

Self portrait at the dinner table! :P

And I'll end this entry with that. Another day, another post!

China Day 7: Hangzhou Continued...

2009-12-19T01:21:00.000-08:00

So this is the last day of the tour...

Mmm breakfast

After breakfast, we hopped onto the bus for a short ride to a scenic area.

O hai little dove guy!

Peacocks were running around here

Lots of pretty flowers

Got on a boat and rode it across the GIANT lake. That's the reflection from the window if you're wondering what that light on the top left is. The next few pictures are a little murky cuz they're all taken through a window.

I think the boat ride across the lake and back took about an hour. It was huge! After I got back on land and walked around more, came across a pond full of fishies. Lots of fishies!!

They're lucky I don't like seafood.

Willow trees here are beeeautiful

No idea what this is

Sooooo tall

Spotted a wild peacock out in the jungle!! :P

Whoa I never knew there were white peacocks

So gorgeous! I wish it opened up its tail.. but that would mean he's either trying to attract a mate or he's pissed off and will eat me

The colors on this guy.. he looks so over-saturated! So beautiful!

Weenie

Love the trees here. Too bad I'm not a skilled photographer to capture how awesome it looks here!

More fishies!

They swim and flop around on top of each other

Look at that monster one. It's huge!!!

Even more fishies at another pond

I like patterns and repetition :D

Good bye pretty boat place!

Back on the bus with a mysterious snack. "The Star Anse is Crisp" ..alright! Sounds good to me! :P

Next up: lunch

I think this was my favorite meal I've had on the tour. Everything here was spicy!! Mmmm yum. Must be near the spicy part of China :D

After lunch, back on the bus! It was a pretty long bus ride. Good thing there were snacks to keep me company.

Mmmmmm almond cookie. I haven't had these since I was a kid!

More childhood memories! Dunno what this is called though.. it's not that great though but it's not disgusting.

Hangzhou is the silk capital, so the next destination is the National Silk Museum. The silk here feels heavenly. There was a comforter that's 100% silk and it was the softest thing I've ever touched. Feels like clouds! I just HAD to buy it.. but I can't use it until I get married says my mother dearest.. :( Why is that? I wish I knew more about my culture and traditions.

Some old Chinese contraption

They put on a mini fashion show too.

After that, it was time to leave...

Outside of the National Silk Museum

The driver who drove us around for about a week taking us to different cities everyday!

And this is the end of the tour.. so sad :( Got dropped off at the airport and got on the plane back to Guangzhou.. then a 2.5 hour drive back to Taishan. On the bright side, now I can catch up on sleep now since there's no more tour and being forced to wake up so early!

China Day 6: Hangzhou (..I think??)

2009-11-29T00:32:00.000-08:00

I didn't get much sleep at all in Shanghai.. all because I stayed up late going through my pictures and updating my blog :P I even forgot to take pictures of my hotel room in Shanghai!! Booooo oh well. I forgot to take pictures of my breakfast too. It was just congee again though. I didn't even know where we were going..

Snacked on my ..grapefruit? to keep myself awake. It's the same fruit I got that night wandering around the streets in Suzhou. It was so big, I couldn't finish it! It was still juicy after two days.

I didn't take much pictures because we just mostly went to tea places and I was half asleep. Fast forward to lunch>>

Yummmm

The food re-energized me. After lunch, we were taken to another tea place but this time I took pictures.

Green tea

And then another tea place...

Chrysanthemum tea

I wasn't interested in buying anything so I just walked around in the parking lot.

I don't know who that is, but he must be important!

Back on the bus with more snacking. Yes, this is the same sugar cane I got in Suzhou lol shouldn't have gotten such a long piece!

The bus took us to here.. but I don't know what this place is. What's those Chinese characters say??

My tour guide buying tickets.

It's hard to tell, but the floor is angled!

I love my tour guide's jacket. I wanted to steal it.

Dude doing magic

There were a bunch of obstacle courses here. Of course me being a big kid, I had to go play.

Oh man, I look so sleepy lol

My tour guide. She's so cute!!

Check out that balance!!

After all that, we walked around some more and stopped to watch a show:

Dudes were jumping through a ring of fire

This girl was juggling a jar with her feet

Then she started juggling a table

This dude hopped from that bottom step to the top using only his head!!

Then he started spinning rings! I wish I could balance.

Now he's jump roping!!!

This guy was their sifu aka master. He was throwing heavy solid balls up in the air and catching them on that little cup on his head.

Pulled out an axe

And started throwing them at the targets

He asked for a volunteer and this guy excitedly jumped on stage. He thought he was volunteering to try to throw the axes at the targets, but the sifu actually meant a volunteer to stand right in the middle of the targets. That's when the volunteer tried to run away but he got pulled back and forced to position himself inbetween the logs lol

lol @ his face. He shrunk his body down when the final axe was thrown above his head

After the show, we went to have dinner. I was still half asleep and forgot to take pictures of the food :(

And now.. NIGHT HAS COME

We walked over here, and looks like they're announcing a show so we all walked into a theatre. Inside on a giant screen, it said "NO PHOTOGRAPHY" in Chinese characters. Of course, everyone being Chinese in the audience, don't obey the rules and everyone pulled out their cameras and snapped away lol I figured.. "Ok why not!" But I had to be more sneaky about it cuz my camera is too big.. excuse the head and shoulders!

This was lasers pointing into the audience.. too bad there's a head blocking it boooo!!!

And that's the end of the show!

It was a nightmare leaving the theatre. SEA OF HUMANITY!! Took eagle eyes to spot my tour guide in the crowd. After that, we hopped on our bus and were taken to the hotel.

My bed

Ahhhh what I've been waiting for all day. A real toilet :D

China Day 5: Shanghai

2009-11-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

Finally arrived in Shanghai and my first stop was here:

ALIEN SPACECRAFT TOWER!!

Since I like all things ALIEN SPACECRAFT related, I had to get my picture taken. My legs look grossly long here. Gee thanks, wide angle lenses. But really, this is called the Oriental Pearl Tower.

Hopped back onto the bus and snapped some more pictures of Shanghai:

After driving around for a bit, we arrived at the Yuyuan Garden and Bazaar. It's INSANELY CROWDED. I only snapped pictures when I got to emptier areas. I didn't want to get lost.. LAST ONE GETS EATEN.

The Burger Kings in China are always empty but the McDonald's always have people. How strange!

Here we go! Lots of shops and food and people.

What's that happy blue thing?

The front of the bazaar. Left for a bit to hunt for food.

If you ever go to Shanghai, COME HERE. It's across the street from the bazaar.

Once you're here, GET THIS. These are soup dumplings. The outside is crispy and these dumplings have soup inside them!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I had these later on when I went to Hong Kong. NOT the same. I even searched for them when I got back to Seattle and it was YUCK. I was craving these for months after I got back...

More soup dumplings.. now in soup!

A closer look. Mmmm

Yummmm :Q

And some more soup dumplings. These are steamed. Nothing beats the crispy ones!

After the spending time in delicious soup dumpling heaven, head back into the bazaar.

And I find this little girl getting eaten by an elephant.

Wow more food :Q

Aw cute kid. I want to squish em!

Strange Chinese contraptions

After a lot of walking around, discovered a garden in the middle of all these shops and tourists.

Evil looking bird was staring at me

Then this evil looking bird stared at me too

Then this dude peeked over at me. Creepy birds!!

Everything is so detailed here. Good bye bazaar! Time to hop on the bus again.

After a little drive, we arrived here. I love that blossoming flower looking building in the background. I wish I could have gone there to get a closer look!

Another tourist hot spot. Lots of people but it's probably hard to tell from this wide angle shot.

Beautiful view here. The smog makes it look neat (sadly).

Bought a yummy green tea drink and hopped back on the bus.

Olympic fever still remains! And did you know that logo is the Chinese character for Beijing?? I always thought it was just a stick figure running. So creative!

Construction. All held up with bamboo!

Flood of bicycles!

Army of scooters/motorcycles/bikes

More bikes!

Speaking of bikes.. from the wise words of my mother dearest: "Anyone who doesn't know how to ride a bike is STUPID."

I respond with, "Hey! I don't know how to ride a bike."

Her answer, "You were born outside (aka in the US). Of course you're not as smart as people born at home (China). I'm talking about people born at home. If they don't know how to ride bikes, they're STUPID."

lol oh mom!

Anyway, continuing on---

We made it to another long strip of malls, stores, shops:

Giant tv screen!

Mysterious fruits.. I wanted one but didn't know how to speak Shanghainese :(

I don't know what those colorful balls are but I wanted one. Looks promising :Q

Looks like this is the place to be for foreigners.

I wonder what Japanese food in China tastes like??

Chinese pizza?? So curious...

Security yelled at me for taking this picture. I guess photography's not allowed... but since I don't like getting yelled at, I'm posting this up anyway!!!! >:)

It got dark!

If only I had a tripod..

DINNER TIME.

I'm really good at holding in my pee. Ever since I got to China, I only peed in the morning and held it in until I got to the hotel at night.. but gosh darn it, Shanghai! I had too many soup dumplings and way too much liquid was in my body to hold it in until it was time to go to the hotel.. so I gave in. I used the bathroom in the restaurant.

And of course I took a picture. My first squat toilet!!!

After dinner, we got on a ferry and took a cruise to check out Shanghai at night. I really must be getting old because the loud music blasting was hurting my ears.. but LOOK. I took night pictures without a tripod on a moving boat. Look how steady my hands are!!! haha! My steady hands must be from all that drawing.

I wanted to see what the side of the ferry looked like, so I hung my camera over the side to take a picture. The gasps from others was pretty funny. Don't worry man, I won't drop my own camera in the water!!!

My tour guide ^_^

Inside of the ferry

Upper level

Lower level

Blurry sea of humanity!

Next, we went up a giant tower to the 88th floor. The elevator took only like a minute to get up there. It went so fast my ears popped!

View of Shanghai from the 88th floor window

Wishing tree I think?

Yao Ming's jersey

Hey it's that happy blue guy from before!!

I probably wasn't suppose to climb on this and take a picture.. but I'm short. I had no choice! View of the ground below from 88 floors up..

Couldn't get the full circle so I tried again. Fail. Why do I have to be so short :(

So I took a picture of the ceiling instead :(

o hai Jackie Chan

Goodbye tower! (Wait was this even the tower I went up? lol)

More of my night pictures of Shanghai. Slow exposures with no tripod.. are you proud of me?? After this was time to head to my hotel then off to my next adventure. Good night Shanghai! I'll forever miss you, delicious soup dumplings... you'll always be in my heart but not my stomach because.. well you know, I peed you out earlier <3

Breakfast in Suzhou

2009-10-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

Headed to breakfast at 8am!

This bun wasn't very good. It was cold and not very soft :(

But the congee with ...pickled/fermented? veggies = good though. I have no idea what the veggies are called in English :(

So after breakfast, we hopped on the bus and off to the next city.

The walls on the freeways are cool. So detailed!

Trees look neat too

Looks like we're nearing a city...

Interesting sculpture as we get off the highway

I understood what my tour guide said... hellooooo Shanghai!

China Day 4: Suzhou

2009-10-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

Finally made it to Suzhou! This guy was roasting yams I think.. smelled delicious :O

So this is where we're going. Omg English! Lion Grove Garden. Sounds promising :)

Waiting around outside while my tour guide pays for our admission.

This garden was built in 1342 and it's 10,000 square meters. Holy crap!

I wish I could read that...

I love these. When I get my own house, this is how my doors will look :P

Whoa a white guy!

Here's the rock cave garden maze thingy. Tour guide told us to go through it while she.. I don't know where she went.

Let's go!

If you're claustrophobic.. don't go through this.

Climbed out from under the rocks and saw this view. Beautiful!

Continuing on through the maze

It's dark down there..

Climbed out and here's another view

Where am I..

How do I get over there??

I see light!

Finally made it out. It took like 30 mins to get through this thing.

There's the rock maze I just went through

We stopped here for a while. It must be important but I couldn't understand my tour guide :\

I found English! So I guess this is the most famous pavilion in the garden.

Look at all the detail in the carving. Made by an anonymous Qing artist.

I wonder what that says..

Pretty windows!

Leaving the garden. That's my tour guide :)

Goodbye Lion Grove Garden

Lunch time!!!

Yummmmmm

Outside the restaurant. That's amazing!!

Back on the bus. Those plants look so fake :O

We hung out around here for a while. Tour guide was buying admission tickets I think.

Looks like we're going here! Zhouzhuang.

Ooo English

We hopped back onto the bus

We got dropped off here.

We walked for a while and passed by lots of shops:

Oooo meat :O

So here we are at Zhouzhuang. I can't read that.. something about "one water"..

And there's water! I was right :D

Tour guide gathering all of us together and making sure we're not lost. This was the most crowded place I've been too. It was insane!

It was really narrow and lined with shops but too crowded and no time to stop and look at them.

Fishies

He's making dragon's beard candy! It's basically spun sugar.

I fell behind. As long as I still spot the green flag, I'm fine! She's pretty far ahead.

Soooo crowded

Alright, I'll be careful!

I think this is marble. People were touching it so I did too :D

I don't know what that does. Old school flour sifter?

Dark narrow hallway. Looks creepy huh? It was actually darker in person.

Old school kitchen

A long hallway and the whole wall covered with these :O

Ooo more meat

Wow she made all those shirts with that

Doggie!

I love these sorts of places. Old school China :)

This place is like the Venice of China. People used to row their boats through the canals to get everywhere.

Traffic jam!

Ooo popcorn! That's so out of place

Ugh stairs

Ooo there's the meat again

Leaving Zhouzhuang

Victory! Or peace sign?

Someone's dinner

Sewer things look pretty cool

Mysterious building behind the fence

Dinner time!!!!

Tables here have layers of thin plastic for easy cleaning. Just throw the top layer away! How clever.

Mmm the meat I've been seeing throughout the day

Is that a giant goldfish?

More of someone's dinner

Out of focus blurry hitler cat

On the bus to the hotel

Hotel. Looks fancy.

My room. This room was huuuuuuuge.

My giant bed.

But why are there five beds in here?? lol

It was still pretty early so we went exploring. Follow the yellow glowy road and see where it takes us..

Went into this store.

Wow chips in millions of different flavors!!!

Wandered down a little further

Mmmm street food. That dude is my cousin's husband? Baby's daddy? My cousin lives in Seattle with their daughter but he still lives in China because the immigration laws are weird.

My first time eating street food! I know. I was told I shouldn't eat street food because I'll get traveler's diarrhea but I was fine. Nothing can separate me and food!!

I wanted some sugar cane to satisfy my sweet tooth

Mmm sugar cane

Ooo pastries

After stocking up on sugar cane, fruit, and drinks, time to head back to the hotel. Following the yellow glowy road back.

Pretty lighted up buildings

Back at the hotel

Memorizing the Chinese characters for internet... this will be useful in the future. Time to sleep then leave at 8am again.

Breakfast and Leaving Wuxi

2009-10-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

Up at 8am and having breakfast before boarding the bus. Surprisingly, breakfast isn't congee this time!

Goodbye hotel

Aw puppy :D

We stopped by a tea pot making place. Fancy teapots made by the "sifu" aka master. They were beautiful and sooooo much detail and I was almost tempted to buy some.. but I figured they would crack in my suitcase. Pictures weren't allowed, so you can just look at this dude's face instead.

Aw kitty :D

Now back on the bus to head to the next city. Here's some bus pictures:

Seems like everyone owns a scooter/motorcycle/bike in China

Imagine a couple of hours passed.. now we're taking a bathroom break. I'm still too Americanized and not ready for squat toilets yet, so I stayed on the bus. Here's what I stared at while everyone else went to pee! And don't worry.. that red blotch on the bottom is just a reflection of my purse.

Next city.. Suzhou here we come!

China Day 3: Wuxi

2009-06-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

Still on the bus...the boats look so spiffy!

And I finally arrive to Wuxi!

Stood outside for a bit, waiting for my tour guide to buy tickets? I think? I don't know what she was doing. Someone teach me Mandarin please! Past the gate thingy, were two fountains:

People were washing their hands and drinking from it. I don't know why though. I assume it's some sort of spiritual thing.. so I copied them and washed my hands too! :D

People were throwing coins in the center.. I don't know why though.

So I did it too! :D My coin didn't make it to the center though.

Continuing on my journey...

An awesome structure thing!!

No time to stop and take pretty pictures though. Walking a little further...

More awesome pretty structure things!

And doves everywhere

We continued walking and were led here. Time for lunch yum

Mmm meat

Yumm

Blegh tofu. The spice made up for it though. Yeah I'm Chinese and I don't like tofu!!

Delicious soup

The structure thing I saw earlier opened up and was spraying water everywhere. There was music blasting out of the speakers too. Turns out it was a giant ass fountain!

Hundreds of people gathered and stared in awe

People took out their bottles and started filling them with the water coming out of the littler dragon fountains.

The bulb thing at the very top opened up and had this guy spinning around inside.

Check out all the details on the fountain. Breathtaking and beautiful. It was pretty overwhelming too. I was just standing there gawking rather than taking pictures. Had to enjoy the moment :)

I spotted an interesting palace over there! Too bad we didn't go there :(

I'm assuming we're going there next

..but before that. I had to wash my hands in the fountain just like everyone else hehe if only I knew why! People back in Seattle warned me not to drink the water in another country BUT GUESS WHAT I DID LOL. I wanted to fully experience the culture! I didn't get sick from it either.

People taking turns putting water in their bottles

Now to head on over to the giant Buddha

More doves! They fly onto people's arms, hands and shoulders. So fairy tale-like!

Giant Buddha, I'm on my way! But of course, it'll be a long walk to get there.

Rawr.

THERE'S A WHITE GUY!

People praying

There was a giant Buddha hand that people were touching while circling around it. I can't even imagine how many hands have been through there to make it fade like that! I don't know why people were touching it... but you know I went to go do it too!

More incense and candles along the way

Yesss finally here! That's my tour guide. "Meet back here in an hour. I'll be waiting down here!" She said that all in Mandarin though.. I assume that's what she said :P

Of course I had to get a picture with it. Ugh look at all those stairs. I hadn't fully recovered from all the stairs in Nanjing the day before yet.

I had to take a break at the halfway point. Sweating like crazy!! Still a long way to go.

Made it to the top of the stairs!! I still have to go through a building and up more stairs to get to the Buddha.

No clambing?? Does that mean I can climb? There was a "No Spanning" sign too but I didn't get the chance to take a picture of it. I assume it meant no spitting. Or spinning? I love Engrish!

I made it all the way up!!

People were touching Buddha's feet, so I copied them. I just aimlessly follow lol

Soooooo tall

Sooooo high up

Goodbye view. Time to go back down!

The journey back down...

But one more picture before I head down ^_^ This time I stripped down. I was wearing three layers before the walk up, now I'm down to one!

I had to take one more picture before I leave!

I'm touching Buddha's hand!! Hehe ;P

It got cold again now that the millions of stairs are gone.

Now to head back to the bus. I took pictures of everything! Enjoy seeing what I see:

Stopped by to wash my hand at the lotus fountain again :)

My tour guide leading the way

Peace out Giant Buddha place!

Souvenirs! I didn't buy anything though.. I wish I did. I regret not getting anything.

I assume this was a trash bin since it said "No May Reclaim" ..but then wtf is the one behind it?? "May Reclaim"?? Gross!! I love Engrish!

Sitting down on the bus felt good. My legs were melting off. Yup, I copied everyone there and collected some of the water from that Buddha fountain! My souvenir :D

After being on the bus for who knows how long, we stopped by here to stretch our legs and look at the view. Mmm smog.

I can read that! Something.. Sky One something.. oh, how interesting! lol

Back on the bus. There's miles and miles of construction and rebuilding!

I noticed a little boy was walking by himself in the middle of no where. A little girl on a bike came by, stopped, and gave him a ride. So cute :)

I don't know why I think people on bicycles are so cool!

After HOURS on the bus, we arrived at our second destination.

More of those cabbage flowers

More shops! Didn't buy anything though.

I noticed the guards standing still looking angry. They're like those British guards! I just had to jump up there and take a picture with him. The look on his face! lol!

Horsies. Smile :D

You can wear those costumes, sit on a horsie and get your picture taken. I wanted to do that but my tour guide was already way ahead of me :(

Wow English! Looks like I'm heading to the Peach Garden

A bull, horse, and Diana head. Dinner?

Wow it's in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean!

Following the crowd

Inside a palace place

Pretty! Girls dressed as princesses and concubines were dragging the men inside and making them take pictures with them. I wish they dragged me in there! Females could dress up as a princess and get their pictures taken. I wanted to be a Chinese princess!! Too bad no time :(

We're most likely heading over there. That's my new friend Anne ^_^

There was a dude doing Kung Fu on top of the poles! But I got here too late to take a picture of him :(

Cat!

We went through a bunch of buildings and gardens. I love the architecture. Everything looks so elegant.

FIRE something something something.. :P

Boats! How awesome would it be to ride one of those?

I spoke too soon. Turns out I do get to ride on the boat! Not being able to understand my tour guide is actually pretty cool. Everything I do is a complete surprise that way. Pleasantly wonderful surprises!

Goodbye land

There's cool looking palace buildings out there!

Heading back

Everyone getting off the boat. There's my tour guide with her green flag waiting for our return

I'm the last to get off ^_^

Bye bye boat

Some sort of training park to build big muscles and have fun!

I wonder what's up there? Walked right by it.. didn't get to go up.

I have a hard time not getting distracted. I wish I actually had time to stop and take pictures! Look how far my tour guide is already.

She led us to an arena thing. Looks like some sort of show is starting!

A battle is starting!!

Wow :O

WTF look at this dude spinning his spear around like that!!

OMG look at this dude!

This dude is spinning swords around!

This guy is nuts!! Jumping from side to side while his horse is running :O

WTF this guy is hanging from the side of his horse!

wtf him too!!!

wth kind of weapons are those?? I saw those in Dynasty Warriors! lol

WRAAAAAHHHH!!!!

Kneeling on a running horse??!

Moar battling yeahhhh!!!

Yeah!!

They're all so colorful!

Out of no where was an explosion. Scared the SHIT out of everyone.

The horse guys' minions

Another battle!

WRAAAAAAAHH!!

YAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Oh snap, a warrior in white!

Look at this badass. He must be the hero.

The evil minion got defeated. He's a bad actor.. why is he laughing?? lol!

WRAAAAAHHH!!

SWOOOOOSH

Here comes the badass to save the day!

YAAAAAAHHH!!!

Neeeeiighhhh~ I don't know how to type horse sounds bwahaha ;D

Show's over

Riding the horsies around after the show

Wow an orange tree!!!

What an exciting day! We had a long journey back to the bus where it took us to here:

Oooo pearls :O

A dude cracked opened an oyster and showed us the pearls in there. I've never seen pearls in an oyster before. So neat :D

Pearls. Lots of pretty pearls :O

I discovered the secret to why all women here have such beautiful flawless skin. PEARLS. There's cleansers and lotions made out of pearls. So I bought some to test it out!

This is made out of pearls with specs of gold. Sounds luxurious huh? :D

Dinner time! Mmm meat.

Mmm eggs

Soup

Veggies

I don't know what that is!

Dinner :D

I hadn't peed ALL day. The last time I peed was in the hotel in Nanjing. Yeah.. that was MORNING. I held it in for over 12 hours!! So I overheard "Wow the bathrooms here are clean!" So I thought "O rly?" Grabbed my toilet paper and headed on over there to relieve myself ^_^

BUT. I opened the stall and found this:

... WTF is this??! There was a stream running through all the stalls. I'm not squatting over that! What if I fall in??? That's.. that's not even a squat toilet! I have to straddle that.. OPENING? It's like a two feet drop into the stream!!!!

So I changed my mind and held in my pee again. It was pitch dark outside so I assumed our next destination was the hotel. I held in my pee for this long, a little longer won't hurt. I'm not quite ready yet to use a squat toilet. I'm still too American ^_^;

Saw this while on the bus. Pretty! It's not blurry either. I'm surprised. I must have steady hands :D

Saw this dude stop in the middle of the street to pick up trash.

Finally arrived at the hotel! Took a picture of a map of the Middle Kingdom.

Hotel room

Bed

Nice bathroom

YESSSSS toilet!

I finally peed and it was a happy ending ^_^

Breakfast and Leaving Nanjing

2008-12-23T00:37:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention how cool the hotels in China are. The key is a card and there's a slot on the wall to insert the key in and all the lights in the room turn on!! Amazing!!! Every single hotel I've been in is like that. I don't remember any hotels in the US that are like that.. or maybe I picked the wrong hotels :P

Anyway, I checked out of the hotel, hopped on the tour bus where it took me to a cute little restaurant where I'll have my first real breakfast in China. What's a Chinese breakfast? Congee of course.

Mmm congee and Chinese donuts. So yummy. The way they make congee in this part of China is different from the Canton style that I'm used to. It's not as thick here and it's more like rice with water, but it's still delicious!

This is stuff to put in the congee. How different!! I prefer this style of congee rather than the type I've always had. I wonder if any places in Seattle make this.. it probably won't taste the same though :(

Napkins come in toilet paper rolls?? How cute :D

Mmmm steamed buns

Mmm meat

Yummy buns

Yummy bunss.. enjoying the moment

So after breakfast, I had to head back onto the bus and sit there for another couple of hours as we leave Nanjing.

Goodbye Nanjing from the tour bus!

My tour bus

I got some snacks to keep myself occupied on the long bus ride.

Not sure what it was. I think it was preserved green plum. Is preserved the right word?? I don't know. What it basically is in Chinese is "moi." It was addicting and delicious. I ate the whole bag on the bus ride.. I'm a fatty. But a happy fatty!

:D

Nanjing

2008-12-13T10:28:00.000-08:00

So I finally arrived in Nanjing! Waiting for me was my tour guide waving a green flag. So adorable! It's too bad she only speaks Mandarin... after she gathered everyone in the group together, we headed onto the bus.

Helloooo Nanjing!

This was the first stop. Some sort of palace that a couple of emperor's lived in I think... I really wish I knew Mandarin so I'd know what my tour guide was saying the whole time :(

Looks pretty! I couldn't wait to climb up those stairs to see what's inside.

Here I go! Climbing up :D

Oh.. it was just a gate to pay for admission lol

I guess the cool stuff is actually up those stairs!

Aw crap.. more stairs

How far I walked up so far, plus more stairs behind the bushes on the left

ANOTHER flight of stairs ughh I'm trailing behind already

Ooo pretty!

Stairs..

I made it up! :D

Different parts of the palace

I crawled underneath to look at the paint job :P

Walking down some stairs to the entrance of one of the buildings

And here's what's inside:

That must be where the emperor sat??

Another tour group!

I hiked up more flights of stairs and found this. Pretty amazing.

Looks like a couple more floors to go.. I lost count of how many floors I already walked up.

Ughh I hate stairs. And it being so dark I used 1600 iso lol check out the grainyness!

Yeahhhh finally made it to the top. I found a doorway to the outside too.

My picture doesn't do the view justice. It's so breathtaking in person!

Walked back down and here's the emperor's palace

Journey back down..

Cheese! I look so horrible. Gross. Oh well lol

Goodbye palace! Rocking the no make-up, no shower, sweaty and stinky from walking up stairs under the burning sun look. I really wish I woke up earlier to take a shower.. sigh. Everyone gathered back into the tour bus and we were driven to our next destination.

Took a quick shot while on the bus

So this is our next stop: Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum

Argh. More stairs..

Stairs here aren't too bad. This doesn't look as grand as the palace.

Flowers that look like cabbage!! How cute.

I'm trailing behind. Even the old people are faster than me.

I'm not really that impressed with this place. It's kind of small, but I guess I have to go through the door to see what's to see in it.

HOLY SHIT WTF!!!!! I wasn't expecting to see this after going through that other building!!

About two-thirds up, I saw this giant pot thing with money in it.

I don't know why people put money in it, but I did it too!

Never ending.. my tour group already made it up to the top. Wait for me!!! I'm American, I'm not as healthy as you real Chineses!!!

Made it to the top. Woowwowowoww amazing!!!

What the heck is that suppose to be????

Walking to the secret garden

I got lost in the garden.. it was so dark and the trails just led me in a circle. A group of people were lost too and they followed me thinking I knew the way out but they followed me to a dead end lol

Found my way out of the garden and walking back down some creepy stairs to the exit

Long way back down

On my way down, a dude stopped me and blurted out Mandarin at me and I was so confused, then he tried to speak to me in English and we both got confused. Turns out, he wanted me to take a picture of him and his friends standing in front of the mausoleum with my camera and email it to him?? He wrote down his email but I can't read it so I don't know if that'll happen. I'm so proud I made it through my first successful understanding Mandarin speaker interaction!

Goodbye, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Maesoleum!

It was already pitch black by the time I made it back to the tour bus. The next destination was yet another mystery to me since I can't understand a word my tour guide says.. but look what I saw while on the bus!

What the heck is a bath entertainment center??

Got dropped off at some night market place that was AWESOME. There's a gazillion people there, lots of food being sold out on the streets, and loud music blasting everywhere. There were so many stores and shops I wanted to go to but not enough time to look at everything :(

It's so pretty at night! It's a shame I didn't bring a tripod with me on this trip. Here are my attempts at holding the camera really still and not trying to make a blurry mess

How is that a rooster?? D:

I wanted to try out all the food that people were grilling and cooking on the streets but I was warned not to eat any.. so I didn't. Even though it all smelled so delicious.. I love meat on sticks! I tried very hard to not get tempted. All the fruit drinks looked good too, but I kept reminding myself that I didn't want to get traveler's diarrhea because.. that would suck lol after about an hour, everyone met up at the bus again and we got taken to our hotel. Crossing my fingers that the bathroom would be better than the Taishan one!!

My hotel room. Looks clean :D

YAY the shower is separated!!!!!

This is a nice bathroom. I approve. The only thing wrong with it is it's missing a door.. oh well.

Views from my hotel room

I hadn't eaten since on the place, so I went to a restaurant right by the hotel. Excited to try out the food in Nanjing!!

Everything is wrapped in plastic.. well, at least I know it's clean :D

Aw crap, the menu is in Chinese. Oh right.. I'm in China. I forgot :\

Wow, this is the most delicious green tea I've ever had :O

This chicken is so delicious!!

Some kind of pork thing, also delicious!!!

Some kind of spicy soup. Normally, I don't like soup, but this was delicious!!!!

Most delicious green beans I've ever had!! There was a little spice to it. I love it!

Pork with stinky tofu underneath. I've always wanted to try stinky tofu ever since I watched it on Bizarre Food, so here was my chance!

....

THAT'S THE NASTIEST SHIT I EVER PUT IN MY MOUTH OMG WTF GROSS. Just the smell of it made me want to gag. It smelled like dog poo ughhhhhhh. I plugged my nose and put some in my mouth and grosssssssssssssssssss I should have known better because even my parents don't eat it and they're real Chinese people ughhhh why did I have to be so adventurous and curious ughhhhhh I had stinky tofu nightmares that lasted for days.

So that's how my wonderful day in Nanjing ended. I lost my appetite and didn't eat anymore, so I returned back to my hotel room to shower and sleep. I had to be ready by 7:30am for breakfast and head out to the next city: Wuxi!

Waiting in the Guangzhou airport

2008-12-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

So my tour bus picked me up from my hotel in Taishan at 5:15am ughhh. I didn't wake up early enough to take a shower so I was tired, cranky, and gross. The ride to Guangzhou was about 3 hours ugh!! On the bright side, the sunrise over here is beeeeautiful. Is it me, or does the sun during sunrise look bigger over here? Or is it hallucination from lack of sleep?

During the ride, my tour guide (who was speaking Toisanese *gasp* omg someone other than my family who speaks it!) was explaining how the Chinese people up north are different from the people down here. They speak mostly Mandarin, shops close at 9pm, people sleep early and wake up early, their rice grains are bigger and they're cooked so they're a little harder, they don't eat spicey stuff.. that's all I remember, and then she gave me a bottle of water!

So cute! It makes me feel all happy.

My guide checked in my bag for me, gave me my plane ticket, led me to the security checkpoint then left. My flight to Nanjing wasn't until about 10:30am so I don't know why I had to get picked up so dang early. I understood everyone pretty well up until this point. The security lady in the airport was screaming at me in Mandarin! Ahhhh my worst fear... being surrounded by Mandarin speakers because I can't understand a word except "How are you?" "Thank you" "I love you" lol bring back the Toisanese or even Cantonese (since I can somewhat understand it) please!! I didn't know people in Guangzhou speak Mandarin?? Or maybe because it was the airport and Mandarin is the main Chinese dialect. Anyway, after telling the security lady I didn't understand and I speak English, her angry frown turned upside down and she was chirpy and nice to me!

I had over an hour to waste so I wandered around the shops with my new friend Annie and I found this!!

AWESOME. Green cucumber, finger licking braised pork, and breezy blueberry flavor!

I was curious so I bought all three to try them out. They taste interesting. I'm bringing them back to Seattle if anyone wants to try them.

The plane ride to Nanjing was about 2 hours. The flight attendants spoke Mandarin too. She and I both got confused and frustrated when all I wanted was orange juice. It was only a 2 hour flight but I still got a meal!

And it was good too :D

Next post, Nanjing!

Exploring Taishan

2008-12-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

Walking around Taishan taking snapshots. I mostly took pictures of the old buildings since it's less crowded there.

Scooters and motorcycles parked outside a plaza. Sooo many!

Their ice cream cones come in 4 different flavors!!! They have peach and taro pie!! I didn't try any yet because I was still full.

Looks like school is over. An army of kids walked by me.

omg stray dog :D

What happened to Taishan? I thought it was a village full of farmers and chickens but there's a shopping plaza now!

Closer look at the menu.. so curious, but too full to eat.

In the back of a taxi. It costs less than $1! It got too dark and too tired to walk all the way back to the hotel. That was the scariest ride I've ever been on.. lots of swirving and honking and speeding. They drive crazy over here but somehow, people don't get into accidents. I don't know if that means they are bad drivers or if they're really good drivers.

I didn't get to explore Taishan as much as I wanted. I hadn't slept since I was in Seattle, plus I had to wake up at 5am because my tour bus was picking me up at 5:15am!

Taishan

2008-11-29T14:09:00.000-08:00

3 hrs later, I finally arrived in Taishan! Motorcycles and scooters EVERYWHERE. Urban Dictionary was right.

1.	toisan
	The Cantonese version of Taishan, a region in China close to Hong Kong that speak the Toisan language; A region of poor farmers that ride motorcycles around; An extremely hot type of asian girls and pimping asian guys. "Man, this girl has 50 guys after her. What do you expect, she's Toisan."

Holy crap. There's more people in motorcycles/scooters than pedestrians and cars. They're parked all over the sidewalks too. If you get in their way, they honk at you and swerve around you. I tried to cross the street but over here, cars here don't stop to let people cross the street. I was in the middle of the street and a car honked at me, sped up and drove around me LOL I got stuck standing in the middle of the street for a while. This happened multiple times. Crossing the street is so scary!!!!

One of the many stray kittens I saw. It was sooo tiny. Probably about the size of two of my hands put together and I have kid hands!

Hotel room. Not bad. I was expecting dirty cement floor with mosquitos all over the ceiling.. that's what I remember my bed was like back when I was 3.. a lot has changed! Although I'm kind of disappointed there's no baby chicks to play with like last time.

OMG A TOILET! I don't remember any of these 20 years ago! There's toilet paper too :D

WTF why is the shower right across from the toilet?? lol taking a shower was an interesting experience. I got everything wet :(

Pretty rose carved from a carrot or radish and chicken that they raised themselves.

I don't know what this is called in English.. "Hahm ma fahn" something something rice :D

My first meal in Taishan. I don't know what any of this is called in English!

Stranded at the Airport and 3 Hour Bus Ride to Taishan

2008-11-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

The booths to sign up for a van and bus to Taishan didn't open until 9am so I wandered around the airport some more after my laptop battery died... I forgot to buy an outlet converter thing to bring on this trip :(

It was still dark, gloomy and eerily quiet, but here's some random pictures taken in Hong Kong International Airport:

It's Christmas already! They were decorating the place that night.

That's a neat looking tree! I wanted to touch it to see what it was made out of but there was a DO NOT TOUCH sign.. and you know they're always watching..

Airport food. My first meal in China! The chicken was surprisingly good, but maybe because I was starving. My first time eating sunny side up eggs.. scrambled is better. Hot milk tea was delicious!

Arranged a ride to get to Taishan and had to wait another 1.5 hr for it.

In a van leaving Hong Kong.

Good bye Hong Kong!

The van dropped me off at some station with like 50 buses and then a dude busted out with his perfect English and led me to here:

My bus to Taishan.

Here's some pictures from my 3 hr bus ride. Weather and palm trees reminds me of LA but more elegant/painty looking. I didn't know it was around 75 degrees here.. I was still dressed in my Seattle clothes so I was sweating my ass off.

This guy was watering the plants while the truck was moving! How cool!! And dangerous.

Mountains, trees, and stuff look like paintings over here. Even the dirt is pretty!

There's gorgeous mountains everywhere. It's hard to see in pictures though. I'm not sure if that's smog or that natural China mist that's always in pictures.

Old school boats.

Here I go! Heading out into the boondocks.

Millions of bananas mmmm. That's all I saw for about 15-20 mins.

A truck drove by with delicious oranges in the back :O

I was so hungry, sweaty, tired and stinky.. I couldn't wait to get to my hotel.

Day 1-ish?

2008-11-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

Nothing too exciting to show. Here's all the random crap I brought with me.

The most important thing: my two rolls of toilet paper. I hope that lasts me 3 weeks! What an exciting adventure this will be.

My flight was on Tuesday 12:30-ish. I got sandwiched between a biggish girl and an old guy so I didn't get to take pictures of the clouds. Sad. On a brighter note, I found Hyori!

On TV form... and Big Bang!!

Mmm hot. I was bored out of my mind on the plane. I watched Wall-E, Hancock, Hip-Hop Kung Fu, Baby's Mama, and The Hulk ughhh. I played Crisis Core too (Ken is awesome for letting me borrow his PSP), ate beef with noodles, chicken and rice, and bibimbop. 12 hours later, I ended up in South Korea! It's so beautiful there. Gucci, Dior, Prada everywhere! I don't have monies to spend on that stuff though. The girls there have flawless skin... I felt like such an ugly D:

Took the plane to Hong Kong and got here around midnight Thursday. I never got to experience Wednesday... pretty weird how it jumped from Tuesday to Thursday. I flew into the future!! Everything was closed when I got here.. I need to get used to the time difference. JETLAG YAY. I've been awake since 9am Tuesday.. and look what I found to keep myself awake even longer:

YEAHHH free internet in the airport!!! And here's my bed for the night:

Comfy.

I think it's 5am now and Christmas music started playing out of no where so I take it as a hint things are opening up. I prefer the creepy silence from before. I'm going to go find some neato food to eat then head on over to Taishan, where my parents are from, and drop of 20 lbs of chocolate. I'm excited to go there and hear people speaking my dialect! I haven't been there since I was 3 :D