Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Beijing
So, I am going to be in Beijing till Tuesday of next week, and then the Saturday after that I will be in Osaka and Kyoto. This shit is going to rock.
And for Halloween, I went to LKF. It was fucking packed like crazy. I was shocked and awed. I went as Wolverine and Cameron was Cyclops, but I think the costumes were a bit too subtle. Not many people recognized it. The hair product started wearing out and I think I was channeling more James Dean than Logan.
And for Halloween, I went to LKF. It was fucking packed like crazy. I was shocked and awed. I went as Wolverine and Cameron was Cyclops, but I think the costumes were a bit too subtle. Not many people recognized it. The hair product started wearing out and I think I was channeling more James Dean than Logan.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Guilin/Xian
In mid October, I was in Xian and Guilin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilin
I got there Friday night by flying out of Shenzen. I was there with James, Wouter, Dawn, Lindsay, Dawn's roommate Shun, and Julian. We got there too late to do anything so we checked into the hostel and went looking for food. There was an amazing resturant not too far away and we got a ton of different dishes. It was pretty damn good.
Oh yeah, and as a side note, I was sort of sick. I've developed a cough (which still hasnt gone away, nearly 2 weeks later, but more about being sick later).
Anyway, the next morning we took a boat trip from Guilian to Yangshuo. It was a bamboo boat and went along the Li River. I got a few pictures of it, I'll post more later.
The scenery was absolutely amazing. It was some of the most gorgeous stuff I've ever seen in my life.
After arriving in Yangshuo, we went around and saw a few places. Alot was closed, but we saw crescent moon hill. It's a mountain/hill with a crescent moon shape cut out of it. At night, there was an absolutely amazing and crazy light show.
It was designed by the guy who did the Beijing olympics opening ceremony. I had no idea what the story was about, but it was pretty. They had hundreds of dancers and performers and used a river to perform on. And they lit up the surrounding mountains and had a lot of music. I couldn't get any decent photos because of the lighting.
Afterwards, we took the bus back to Guilin. Along the way, there was a rather interesting martial arts movie. James and I tried figuring out the story. There was a rape scene that lasted like 10 minutes, where this dude was trying to sleep with a girl who kept turning him down. And then it got progressively more and more violent till he killed her with a pillow. Aside from that, it seemed like a typical martial arts affair. Weird shit.
Woke up bright and early the next day, and went around Guilin (the flight to Xian was that night). We saw Seven Star Park, Elephant Trunk Hill, and Reed Flute Cave. There was a really cool hill in the park that goes straight up and gives you a nice view of Guilin. The cave was okay, but it was really tourisity with the way it was lit. It was more interesting if you went ahead of the tour guides so you didnt have to listen to them, and would get to see the cave with more natural lighting. One of the rock formations looks like a Lion, and I got a photo of it. THe elephant trunk hill was cool. You do a boat ride to the hill and it looks like an elephant trunk, kind of.
Funny store with the flight to Xian.
We got the airport, and I had to run to the bathroom. While I was there, everybody else did the automated check in. I followed suite when I finished, but during the time I was on the toilet, the flight got full. So, fuck me sideways.
We went to the counter and asked them about it, and they got me a seat on the flight. In first class. Boo fucking yeah. But I wasn't allowed to sit n the first class lounge. They marked me ticket to forbid me!
The flight was baller, kind of. It was short so no food. But roomy as fuck. It was nice. They had a blanket and slippers. which I stole. So now i got a Chinese airline blanket as a souvenir. I was coughing a lot so I couldn.t sleep much. Anyway, there was a video playing about swine flu. In it, they say it comes from the USA. (propaganda :P)So, here I am, the only white guy in first class and I keep coughing. I'm pretty sure they all thought I had swine flu.
So, we arrived in Xian in once piece and went to the hostel and tried to figure out what to do for the next day. So much to see and the flight was leaving the next night.
We got a tour guide and went to see as much as possible. First, there was the big wild goose pagoda. It was awesome. They had a lot of statues dedicated to different Buddhas and the architecture and statues were beautiful. They had a statue of Sanzo and a lot of monks were walking around (and PLA soldiers).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Wild_Goose_Pagoda
After that, we went on top of the Xian city wall. The original city of Xian was built within it, and anything built in the wall today cant be taller. Fun fact. I straddled a cannon. But it was awesome looking as well.
After that, we went to a work place that makes terracotta replicas. They use the same materials and firing techniques as the original ones did. It smells pretty bad, but it was cool as hell to look at. I ended up with a set of smaller replicas. I heart my army, and they are the slightly taller than Gundam models.
And then there was lunch. We went to a noodle place, and they do something quite interesting with the noodles. They are really long and thick (like a lasagna or something, except 1 meter in length). It was tasty. Laura said it looks like squid :p
And I guess we sort of saved the best for last. This was the thing i was most excited to see. The Terra Cotta ARMY!!!! YAY!
They had a movie depicting the construction, and rebellion and stuff related to the army. They had a book signing where the farmer who found the army autographed a book. I ended up getting it cause I got a thing for history.
But it was fucking awesome getting to see these things. They are OLLLD and were broken, but then painfully put back together piece by piece. It looked so cool. And getting to hear the history and seeing some of them right up close like that. I loved it. They also had a 40 ft tall Terracotta puppet. That was quite interesting.
And after that, we went to the airport and flew to Shenzen and made it back to Hong Kong by like 3 am.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilin
I got there Friday night by flying out of Shenzen. I was there with James, Wouter, Dawn, Lindsay, Dawn's roommate Shun, and Julian. We got there too late to do anything so we checked into the hostel and went looking for food. There was an amazing resturant not too far away and we got a ton of different dishes. It was pretty damn good.
Oh yeah, and as a side note, I was sort of sick. I've developed a cough (which still hasnt gone away, nearly 2 weeks later, but more about being sick later).
Anyway, the next morning we took a boat trip from Guilian to Yangshuo. It was a bamboo boat and went along the Li River. I got a few pictures of it, I'll post more later.
The scenery was absolutely amazing. It was some of the most gorgeous stuff I've ever seen in my life.
After arriving in Yangshuo, we went around and saw a few places. Alot was closed, but we saw crescent moon hill. It's a mountain/hill with a crescent moon shape cut out of it. At night, there was an absolutely amazing and crazy light show.
It was designed by the guy who did the Beijing olympics opening ceremony. I had no idea what the story was about, but it was pretty. They had hundreds of dancers and performers and used a river to perform on. And they lit up the surrounding mountains and had a lot of music. I couldn't get any decent photos because of the lighting.
Afterwards, we took the bus back to Guilin. Along the way, there was a rather interesting martial arts movie. James and I tried figuring out the story. There was a rape scene that lasted like 10 minutes, where this dude was trying to sleep with a girl who kept turning him down. And then it got progressively more and more violent till he killed her with a pillow. Aside from that, it seemed like a typical martial arts affair. Weird shit.
Woke up bright and early the next day, and went around Guilin (the flight to Xian was that night). We saw Seven Star Park, Elephant Trunk Hill, and Reed Flute Cave. There was a really cool hill in the park that goes straight up and gives you a nice view of Guilin. The cave was okay, but it was really tourisity with the way it was lit. It was more interesting if you went ahead of the tour guides so you didnt have to listen to them, and would get to see the cave with more natural lighting. One of the rock formations looks like a Lion, and I got a photo of it. THe elephant trunk hill was cool. You do a boat ride to the hill and it looks like an elephant trunk, kind of.
Funny store with the flight to Xian.
We got the airport, and I had to run to the bathroom. While I was there, everybody else did the automated check in. I followed suite when I finished, but during the time I was on the toilet, the flight got full. So, fuck me sideways.
We went to the counter and asked them about it, and they got me a seat on the flight. In first class. Boo fucking yeah. But I wasn't allowed to sit n the first class lounge. They marked me ticket to forbid me!
The flight was baller, kind of. It was short so no food. But roomy as fuck. It was nice. They had a blanket and slippers. which I stole. So now i got a Chinese airline blanket as a souvenir. I was coughing a lot so I couldn.t sleep much. Anyway, there was a video playing about swine flu. In it, they say it comes from the USA. (propaganda :P)So, here I am, the only white guy in first class and I keep coughing. I'm pretty sure they all thought I had swine flu.
So, we arrived in Xian in once piece and went to the hostel and tried to figure out what to do for the next day. So much to see and the flight was leaving the next night.
We got a tour guide and went to see as much as possible. First, there was the big wild goose pagoda. It was awesome. They had a lot of statues dedicated to different Buddhas and the architecture and statues were beautiful. They had a statue of Sanzo and a lot of monks were walking around (and PLA soldiers).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Wild_Goose_Pagoda
After that, we went on top of the Xian city wall. The original city of Xian was built within it, and anything built in the wall today cant be taller. Fun fact. I straddled a cannon. But it was awesome looking as well.
After that, we went to a work place that makes terracotta replicas. They use the same materials and firing techniques as the original ones did. It smells pretty bad, but it was cool as hell to look at. I ended up with a set of smaller replicas. I heart my army, and they are the slightly taller than Gundam models.
And then there was lunch. We went to a noodle place, and they do something quite interesting with the noodles. They are really long and thick (like a lasagna or something, except 1 meter in length). It was tasty. Laura said it looks like squid :p
And I guess we sort of saved the best for last. This was the thing i was most excited to see. The Terra Cotta ARMY!!!! YAY!
They had a movie depicting the construction, and rebellion and stuff related to the army. They had a book signing where the farmer who found the army autographed a book. I ended up getting it cause I got a thing for history.
But it was fucking awesome getting to see these things. They are OLLLD and were broken, but then painfully put back together piece by piece. It looked so cool. And getting to hear the history and seeing some of them right up close like that. I loved it. They also had a 40 ft tall Terracotta puppet. That was quite interesting.
And after that, we went to the airport and flew to Shenzen and made it back to Hong Kong by like 3 am.
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