Um... No Happy Ending Please

So, I just finished getting a massage in Shan Tou, China... and lets just say damn China is shady/awesome.

Pops and I went to a pretty nice hotel to get a massage but when we got there and asked to get massages we were taken to a VIP room where there was a shower and... a bed... in the shape of a heart. So my dad was like... uh.. we just want a "normal massage." Instead the guy mis-hears us as... we want a nicer room and proceeds to take us to the deluxe VIP room where there's a small chandelier and glass shower etc.

So my dad again asks for a regular massage and the guy leads us through the halls, where I pass by a room with tons of girls dressed in hot pink low cut dresses and mini-skirts....

anyways NO, i did not get massaged by those girls nor did anything else happen. I managed to get a regular massage from some 40 year old lady with no surprise ending. Although I never want to set foot in that VIP area again.

On a seperate topic. I've been made fun of twice today, for not knowing how to speak mandarin. It freaking sucks i wish i knew how. as they old ladies said "what kind of chinese person doesn't speak chinese"

So crazy tired again.. gotta go on a 9 hour bus ride BACK to HK tmr. but i'll throw up some pics for stuff we saw in Shan Tou.

Awesome Helmet:



The Colonel's sister?



Wtf is PlayboyBao


Only the best clinic...



Hm... no thanks


Look Closely at the middle of the bike. Self made motorcycle


China Tractor-car


Hotel Movie Guide. maybe they came out with a new version?


At a temple.


Restaurant in Shan Tou - NO MENU!

Extreme Videos and Laziness

Ok... So we did manage to get videos up on youtube.. again through some epic ninjaing through China's internet firewalls. And thanks to the 9 hour bus-ride from Hong Kong to Shan Tou, I don't have much to say..

So anyways enjoy some of our videos. The first one is the most recent from Shan Tou.

Shan Tou Hotel Room


Cafe de Coral... So Good:


Our Sad realization of Canada's Technological Inadequacies ... Sigh


The one thing in China that makes Mom Happy:


Oh Hot Damn..


In Wuzhen, with our Tour Guide Vince (not spelt wrong)


In Shou Zhou on a temple rooftop. Yup... I managed to get my entire family to start overusing the word "mad".


Its A TRICK! ok.. in all fairness it was just a tiny ledge and all it said was watch your step


Slanted Boat... Shitty Restaurant.


Shanghai Grand Hyatt Hotel Pt 1.


Shanghai Grand Hyatt Hotel Pt. 2


Shanghai Grand Hyatt Hotel Pt. 3


"You Shut Your Mouth. You Shut Your Mouth When You're Talking To Me Boy"

Mel Smells Funny

Right, so obviously we have no comments whatsoever but that’s cool. It’s probably because David’s posts suck so clearly, I’m here to save the day with my post and take on the past week.

So as of right now we are on our second tour. We finished our first tour and went to four different cities just northeast of Hong Kong. Hangzhou, Wuzhen, Suzhou and Shanghai. The first three are very much rural and we went to a lot of parks but definitely not one to complain. If you’ve ever been on a walk with me in Markham, you’ll know that I’m a total sucker for some good landscaping. Wuzhen was pretty cool because it was like Asian Venice. There will be a bunch of pictures put up, not in chronological order I’m afraid but it’s worth going to see. The hotel however lacked greatly in terms of quality. Shanghai was probably the favourite because we, the Huang family, enjoy the city where most places are relatively clean. Most of all however, we got to stay at the Grand Hyatt which I actually saw a documentary on the discovery channel about. It’s like a cylinder and you can look up from the 54th floor and see all the floors above. Again, pictures below! (edit: she lied.. internet still sucks in china. I can’t upload photos.. yet)

Anyways as for where we are right now, we are in Shantao on a tour but really we are going to be separating from the tour to go pay respect to Grandpa. May he rest in peace. The bus ride was brutal, we got back from Shanghai at like 9 last night and had to get up at 5:30 in the morning and by 7 we started out 6 hour bus ride. Mostly, what I took away from it was that Chinese people are crazy drivers. All they do is honk and come ridiculously close to our mini-bus which by the way, has zero suspension. Also, we have seen many “English fails” as David likes to put them. Of all of them, my favourite has to be “Playboybao” (bao is bun for those who do not speak Cantonese) on one of the shirts. It comes to a close first with Abibas.

That’s it for now guys. Just a brief recap of the past few days from me! I’ll keep you posted


Cheers

Mel

PS: See Papa Huang’s little story about David. Just note: Water is a tricky one.

Shanghai Airport

So sorry about no updates again. We last left off at Wuzhen (aka China Venice) and moved onto Shou Zhou. That city was pretty but to be honest, nothing really special compared to Hang Zhou and Wuzhen. We went to a few temples but mostly sat around because it was so hot..

For all those familiar with asian pop music, you may want to find a quiet corner to read this... but some girl at the temple thought I looked like Wang Lee Hom (video and photo comparison to be uploaded) which I found highly amusing. I'll take it as a compliment haha.

So getting to Shanghai, one of the most populated cities in the world at... 22 million I think, we did some shopping at Nam King Road? Bought some stuff from Li-Ning which is china's number one sports brand. Though it oddly resembles another more famous american brand... heh.

The Hotel we stayed at was... in one word. EPIC. I dont think words will do it justice so stay tuned for our videos and pictures.

Anyways, the Shanghai Airport has extremely slow internet, so i'll stop talking for now. We're just waiting for our flight back to Hong Kong, where tomorrow morning (5 freaking am) we're going to be waking up to go to Shan Tou. It'll be a 6 hour bus ride, and theres not much to see there but its all to pay respects to my Grandfather, may he rest in piece.

I promise when we get back to HK and find good internet we'll upload all the pictures and videos. But thanks for staying patient!

Cheers,

David H.

Flight to Hk Videos

So despite china's efforts to thwart free speech, i managed to bypass communist CHINA with our good friend VPN and got access (finally!) to facebook and more importantly our blog. Speaking of Communist China, A Jet Li movie was on TV today and I was re-watching it, and during a fight scene against the japanese, Jet Li was reaching the part where he was about to lose and China Censored that part of the movie. The movie literally went from Jet Li being kicked out the window to flying back At the enemy and proceeding to kick his ass. LONG LIVE CHINA!
But
, without further adieu here are the first set of videos (many more to come) in chronological order. Starting with our flight here.

With regards to pictures, we just have way to many. So i think facebook will be the quickest way to upload them. We'll try to put a few in here and there on the blog but until we get quicker internet speeds, it'll be delayed again (sorry Brian).

anyways please excuse the lameness of the videos (mostly me) but we're doing our best. we're both extrememly tired from the Shanghai trip right now, since we have to move hotels everyday at like 7am. Anyways enjoy and make sure you guys become followers!

- David H.

P.S These photos were just too good to not include. The first one is carmelo ANHONTY (no typo). Second one speaks for itself.

Quick update- Forgot to say where we are right now. We are in wuzhen, aka chinese Venice, its pretty rural yet they have their own website www.wuzhen.com, saw it on a billboard on the way here and i'm not daring to test the validity of it. Anyways its extremely humid over here, but yea thats where we are, its very pretty though and tomorrow we are off to Shoa Zhou?






Almost forgot about the videos. We're using youtube so we're gonna get everyone to jump through a little hoop to reach the videos. =)

Video 1 - Pearson Airport:


Video 2 - Flight to HK:


Video 3 - On Route to HK:


Dont forget to comment!

Hang Zhou - Mel Style

So with enough prompting from the family, I have decided to write my part of the blog to cover yesterday’s events. It was a free day, no schedule to fulfill, the only event was dinner at grandma’s and it was unanimous that it was the best meal we’ve had in “Hong Kong, Hong Kong” by far. The Chinese inspired curry was phenomenal and I seriously wish we could eat like that everyday. Unfortunately, we are going to spend a fair share of our days at the airport and on planes so the food there is…not as good. A four course meal, all on one awesome tray. . Anyhow, the day was mostly spent shopping and since it was so humid outside, it’s a sauna 24/7, we spent the day indoors at one mall. Obviously, because it’s not markham, its not a crappy mall like Markville, it has six floors! So many that David wanted to pass out from looking at so many floral garments

Today we are in Hangzhou, one of the first stops on a four city tour which, by the way, started off with one of the most nauseating plane rides I have ever been in, almost threw up. True story. Hangzhou is beautiful, green space, architecture, so many photo ops but apparently I can’t hold the camera still at all so most of the pictures are blurry. You’ll see.

Let’s see, after dinner, while it was pouring, and obscenely humid (the wind element doesn’t exist) we went to go see the asian equivalent, well almost, of cirque du soleil and there are no good looking guys and or girls. However, they are all either mad ripped or super toned. Our tour guide says all the good looking people have already moved away to Hong Kong or somewhere so David’s shots of picking up any girl are totally shot. The question is, was there ever a shot? I kid, David is a giant amongst the Asians and he’s got the exotic look down. Hahahaha.

Anyways, we’re at the hotel now and its SWEET! We have our own balcony but the only let down is that half the websites I actually use are banned, facebook and youtube and surprising yahoo-asia news. Oh China. You silly goose. Well, I have to be up at 6:00am tomorrow so off I go to bed…David’s getting a little cranky!

Cheers

-Mel

Hang Zhou

So we’re here in Hang Zhou. The first city of our 4 city tour in Shanghai. The weather has been horrible and its been cloudy and rainy all day. The plane ride was probably the most nauseating one I’ve had in my life as I actually almost reached for the barf bag. Despite the rain Hangzhou is pretty damn beautiful… Mountain backdrop, rivers, greenery the works. We watched some Chinese performance which was pretty cool… after we post the pictures up (again sorry for the delay, but I’ll explain the delay in a bit), you’ll see where the tiny asian gymnasts come from.

Anyways, we’re in the hotel right now, and it’s pretty funny. They blocked facebook, youtube and our blog so we can’t even access it even though we finally got a stable source of internet (that’s why you’re getting this delayed). So anyways.. gotta let Mel use the comp now so talk to you guys soon.

- David H.