185. Ankle. Poker. Dinner.

Nothing new to what we did today at the 185. Some poker and the Yankees game. The ankle and the foot was doing a lot better from about a week ago. I think that we need to do this one more time, for the people that have left and the people that are going to leave. Tonight was only five people and no pictures. Next week there needs to be another gathering with a camera, dinner, and maybe a yankee game too. Towards the end we all realized that High school was over and college was starting. Advisory will be missed, as will some friends.




Random...
Shanghai buns from Shanghai.



Prom night.

Where were the rest of the asian guys?

Food & Random.

The food in all these places overall have a better taste than the states. Hawaii’s food has its own taste because of the Polynesian culture that goes into it. In China and Hong Kong the poultry and meats have a sweeter taste and there is no taste of hormones. Chicken and duck taste better and are a lot tenderer then anything we have here. Peking duck in Beijing was pretty good and all the different drinks from all these places were cool as well. Another picture update with just random things mostly drinks.














AHH!

Summer 09

This was basically the flight route that I took during my trip - New York, Minnesota*, Honolulu, Maui, Honolulu, Narita/Japan*, Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghi, Gualin, Gaung Zhaou, Hong Kong, Seoul*, New York.

* -Only stopped in the airport

I started off in Hawaii, which I thought was completely a tourist spot but when I got there I saw some ghetto areas that weren’t like the movies. They sort of looked like slums. Even though they were sketchy at first I learned to get over it and just relax, what else would you do in Hawaii anyway. I learned that the locals were very nice too; they are way too laid back though. I went to two islands in Hawaii, Honolulu and Maui. The beaches, some tours of beautiful places and the submarine ride were basically what I found the most interesting here in Hawaii. One of the most beautiful tours was the tour of pearl harbor the visiting the USS Arizona memorial. (beautiful picture opts) The water doesn’t smell like anything and a lot of pretty things.

Japan was next and this would be a mini pit stop. I stayed here for about five hours just walking around and taking in the Japanese culture. The Narita airport if huge and has a lot of fun things. This was the last place where I updated anything. They have a lot of vending machines that have many unique drinks. For an airport I had a lot of fun.

The next stop would be the first time that I would be out of North America and the first time back to the homeland. Beijing the capital of the country was a hot, sticky and smoggy place. The air quality was a problem from the start because it felt like you had a twenty pound weight on your chest when you went outside. The heat in this country was sometimes unbearable to the point you didn’t want to eat. Here in Beijing I did visit some things that I wanted to see. I climbed to the Great Wall and I went to the Forbidden City. These two things were cool, but it didn’t top the next three places where I got some things. First was the pearl store where I got a free pearl for guessing how many pearls were in this freshwater oyster. Next was the jade store where I got a solid jade ring that will continue to grow green the longer I wear it. (they say) This store, not sure the English name, was the store that also designed the metals for the Beijing 2008 Olympic games. Finally was the tea ceremony palace. Here my father spend over $1000 on tea leafs alone, but it was some good tasting tea. I also visited the Water Cube and the Birds Nest because they are still there.

Xi’an had nothing special except the Terracotta Army. There are three chambers where these soldiers can be found. The first and second only have 3/4^th the size soldiers and the third had life size soldiers. Shanghi too doesn’t really have anything to visit but some really old structures few minute drives outside of the city. The city itself doesn’t have anything to visit but this needle building with a sky level to look straight down. Most of the city is made up of finical buildings. Gualin was a city that was just filled with mountains that were pretty but got boring really fast. There was also a pretty cave that had "crystal lake" but again it was just one thing that got boring fast. What can I say about Gaung Zhaou? Nothing there really but walking and another five star hotel to stay at. Here marks the first part of China that I visited and from the about two weeks that I lived here it really sucks. It is still a developing country with a few things to do. You rarely see any non Asian tourist because from what I learned the Chinese government doesn’t like to give out visas to non Chinese people. The tourist that are there are all loud people that don’t have manners and are extremely rude. They push, yell and sneeze on you as if it were alright to do so. In all of these places I have visited a Buddhist temple, if you didn't know I following some buddhist beleifs and I burned a lot of candles and incents on this trip.

Mt Snoopy

Hong Kong is many steps up from China and all those cities that I visited. I stayed in the Kowloon area and there were civilized people there. The food was a lot better here and they have a subway system. There is a lot of shopping as well here and who knew that camera gear there was cheaper. I was also part of the butt of the True Blue III release, but I did pick up a pair of new Lebron’s to ball in.

Towards the middle I had to go back to visit areas back in to China where the “Ching” last name came from. This area is called the Toisan (Taishan really) and there is no AC. The roads are all dirt roads and people here are really the OG villagers. If you step on the wrong property dogs will chase you trust me. There are nice people here that are very welcoming but the heat the humidity didn’t help when hanging out with them because they kept asking us to eat. Really here I found out that some of the people do eat dog. I was just thinking to myself the rest of the stay here “what the fuck?” I went to visit a great grandmother ching’s burial area that I didn’t know. I just sweated it out for the rest of this.

Finally I made it back to Hong Kong to do some more shopping and eating. We did a meet up with many friends and family and I have to say my last day in Hong Kong was a memorable one. I walked down the “sneaker street” of Hong Kong, had steak for dinner, and went to the mall. Now the Chinese girls from Hong Kong are pretty but when you look at a few and then look behind them you just might have a buff guy in a tight shirt with a popped collar wink at you. It was a pretty gay moment for me but I would visit Hong Kong again, but never again China.