I Love u “Ha Long” time

Our 3day/2nights tour of Ha Long Bay/Cat Ba Island has sadly come to an end and we are back in HaNoi for our last night. The tour was absolutely fun and relaxing. A minivan drove us about 3.5hrs from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay where we docked onto a viet boat. The boat has 3 floors bottom floor is our room where we spent a night on the boat, 2nd floor is for dinning and couches, and the top deck is for just enjoying the great view 360 degree around us. The sea in vietnam is really flat compared to the choppy water of South Florida. One complain was mainly our tour guide was not doing any guiding at all. Never told us what’s happening next unless u drill it to him. The boat is just a slow crawl along the open water and reach our first destination where we got to visit a tourist-ish cave. They put up way too much colorful lights into the cave and make it looked more like a gay pride parade. The 2nd portion of the cave was pretty amazing and we took most of the pics there. The first night we opted to sleep on the boat and those scammers wanted to charge us $10 to turned on the A/C. So i just crack open the cover and manually started it up. HA! free A/C biatch! Yen and I spent most of that night on the top deck just listening to mp3 and just relax to the sound of nothing. The view was just spectacular. There were about 2 dozen boat parked into the open cove. The slight cool wind blowing by us is just makes everything alright. Some of the spanish music on my phone made me miss home for a bit, but most of the time i just thought about nothing. We went to bed around 2am that night.

Next morning woke up to the sound of banging door and itching scream of breakfast. The view from breakfast table was just amazing and it all came along with great weather. Oh and all along the sea are little floating villages kinda like that Kevin Costner movie ‘Waterworld’. They live in huts that are floating by lots of empty blue barrels. They have girls selling cookies, sweets, drinks on a boat…i think they call that the floating market or maybe a floating 7-eleven. Everything you see is unbelievable. The next day we landed on the shores of Cat Ba Island and met up with some pretty cool blokes from Ireland. Once again, those tour guide didnt gave us any type of warning that we’ll be doing a 2 hrs hike up a mountain. I MEAN MOUNTAIN, it wasnt a hump on the ground. That puppy must have been atleast 60 story high. I dunno…all i am saying is that i havent sweat in places that i knew was sweatable. Some dude said his eye balls are sweating after i said my comment. haha. But the reward was fabulous, we got to enjoy the view from mountain top and it was amazing. Sort of reminds me of the Piedra de Penol in Colombia, but way higher and harder. The local tour guide that took us up to the top of the mountain was a really cool dude. He’s like 4’5 tall and just like a primate. He would get these flowers and throw it at us and it would stick onto our shirt. Once we got down to the bottom of the mountain, most of us just drenched ourselves with buckets of water from a water well. One girl there accidentally dropped her ‘REAL’ Versace shades into the well and our tiny monkey man just jumped in there to save the probably knock off versace shades. haha. I remembered my dad used to tell me ppl falling into a well and they die. This just just voluntarily jumped into it and dived down like a freaking fish. hilarious. We went Kayaking that afternoon and it was amazing as well. We were guided to Lagoon that needed to go thru a tiny cave like opening…it was so cool.

That night, our new friends from Ireland decided to head over to a local bar and pound down some Tiger beer. They were 40 dong for 3 jumbo sized beers ~ thats about 3US bucks. Oh man, it was such a freaking great night!. We were joking and shooting the shit for hours. Then we met up with that same girl that had dropped her shades down the well. She happened to be from Ecuador and attending school in Japan. That is so freaking awesome. I love meeting ppl like that. Me and her were just kicking it. I guess i just miss my latin touch since all i see is asians here. Anyways, might meet up with her later after our water puppet show tonite. But all in all, it was absolutely a great freaking time. Reminds me of drinking at the groves back at home with my friends.

Forgot to mentioned about one of Yen’s friend’s uncle that took us out to eat at some great places in Hanoi. He’s very smart and sociable. And we both felt very honor for him to give us a little tour of HaNoi…afterall, he was the same tour guide when Clinton came over to visit Vietnam 🙂

I am a Saigon Stallion

From Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Saigon, Vietnam. The first thing u’ll notice about vietnam is the freaking mopeds everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE!! There’s no lanes, no street lights, just people on tiny bikes roaming in all kinds of directions. When i mean people, meaning there’s at a minimum of 2-5 ppl per moped. it’s crazy, but it’s just the norm here. We checked into the nicest hotel called Saigon Mini. It was clean, modern, and free breakfast 🙂 We’ve been bringing the rain to each place we visit and Saigon wasnt going to be an exception. For dinner, we met up with Yen’s friend Niki and her husband Alex at 3T restaurant. It was like a korean BBQ type of place where they have the hot pan in the middle and u do your own cooking. It was pretty nice experience. They serve u Saigon beer with ice which was kinda ironic, but then again it was better than warm beer.

The following day was a pretty upset stomach day. We visited the Vietnam War Museum and we saw way more than what our eyes had bargain for. It makes you think how sick war is and how are some of the things humanly possible for anyone to do. It’s just sad and unreal. Anyways, we took some pics and spent about 3hrs there reading the fine prints of pictures taken there. We had lunch at a nicer venue and i was a bit ballsy to try some of their new drinks there. What a mistake. lol. Ambrarella shake is like sour avocado green cocktail that’s not as exotic as it sounds. Their food was pretty good thou.

At night, we went to a outdoor-ish place to eat dinner. It was so cool. They had like 3 ladies sitting on the floor cooking everything but mostly egg pancakes. They had the best spring rolls ever!! and Alex agreed as well. It was raining like crazy and we just kept munching. After dinner and after a separate dessert venue, we went to this club that Yen had recommended is called “LUSH”. This place was pretty fancy and as to any Miami Standards…my flipflops and shorts attire wasnt gonna get even close to the door. Well, that’s atleast what i had expected to be a flat out rejection. Little do i know, they saw us and told us to skip the line and walked right in. Cost us about $100,000 Vietnam Dong ~ $6.50US and comes with free drinks. And their drinks was freaking strong too!! American serves u 80% ice and 20% alcohol and here is the complete reversal. It was awesome and the place was very nice too. Some of the girls there was pretty hot and their eyes was just wondering at this Saigon Stallion. lol. Felt like a reversal of roles compared to back at home. (Let’s just take it that now i know how chicks feels to be stared at like a piece of meat back at home)  The dance floor was kinda small so i just went around and chatter box with some gals. Cut the night short cuz our friends have an early exit the next day. I got sick the next day around 5am…like throw up sick and i think it might be from the veggies not being too clean 😦 Then we had to get on Jet Star plane which was tailored for vietnamese ppl. it was so freaking small and lack of leg room. It was such an uncomfortable ride for 2hrs. But eventually we are now in hanoi. We have been wondering the streets here and it’s not as pleasant as it were in Saigon. Stuff are really dirty here and makes u wonder about their food as well. But it’s all good, as long as i dont get so sick again then i am all good. Anyways, we have just booked our 3day/2night tour to Ha Long bay. Going to post back pics upon my return. ciao big hug!

Cooking Mama Cook-Off

Today Yen and I was signed up for a Thai Cooking class for 700 baht ~ $23US. Pick us up at 9am and a few other ppl that was from Canada, Switzerland, etc. We were first taken to the market where we learn about what ingredient is put into which curry for example. Green, Red, and Panaeng curry were among the few top choices. I chose Panaeng cuz it just sounds more authentic. lol. The chef called “perm” ya that’s his name, dont make fun. Showed us from diff grains of rice, to types of vegetables and meat they use. Anyways, the course compose of selecting 3 main course, a soup, plus 3 types of dessert.  I chose Tom Yum for the soup, Stir fried Chicken w/Cashew nuts, Drunker Noodle, Panaeng Curry w/Tofu, plus the 3 desserts were banana wrapped in potato skin in egg roll form, Mango and sweet sticky rice, and Spring rolls. Oh, and we learned how to make papaya salad (super spicy) Love it!.!  The chef knew i loved spicy after my first take on the thai spice after he had made the papaya salad difficult to eat for a few guys. Everything was extremely authentic and tasted awesome. There were about 7 guys from Dublin they were freakin hilarious too. Yen made the Coconut soup instead of Tom Yum, and Pad Thai instead of my Drunker Noodle. It’s nice that we both were able to learn more since there was two of us.

The best part of the cooking class was when we got to do the stir fry dish. He got half the class doing the cooking first so the other half of the class can take pictures of them and then vice versa. Our Holland friends took some really really great pictures. Flames off the roof 🙂  The sweet sticky rice w/mango tasted excellent and it’s so easy to make too. I need to make it for friends and families upon my return. They gave us a receipe book so ingredient will be good. When we made the spring rolls, I volunteered to cook the vegetables and silver noodle for the class. The chef said that i looked professional doing it. Lol. Thanks Yen for recording the whole thing. After the class, we were both full from all the eating so we decided to go around and shop for a bit. Maybe even skip dinner. Tomorrow we’ll be heading to vietnam in the evening. Bye Bye Thailand…it was extremely fun. Thx

Chiang Mai Adventure

Wow, just when i thought getting my ass whooped in Muay Thai was gonna be it…Today in Chiang Mai had just topped it all off.  So, Yen and i signed up for a LifeStyle Adventure Tour for $1200 Baht ~about $40US. They picked us up at 8am and we picked up another couple from Spain. It was about a 40mins drive up to the Orchid Farm. Not much to see there, but just snapped a few pics. This is the cool part, we visited the Long Neck Tribe..you know…the ones u see over on discovery channel all the time. They are actually really friendly and most of them speaks a little English due to so many tourist that visits their tribe as well as afternoon School that is offer to teach them thai and english. Tourism actually helps the tribe because we give them a fee for the visit. We learned that the reason they wore the metals around their necks is to protect them from tigers when they are out in the crops hunting for food for families. They start at an early age of 4 for most girls and some event wrap around their legs as fashion. Their main source of food is from the rice patty, cows, etc. We got to play with a bow and arrow that they had there and be shooting at papayas. lol. pretty fun start. Off to next place!

After the tribal visit, we drove another 30mins to do the elephant rides!. That was freaking amazing. They are enormous! and super friendly. Our new spanish friends were feeding them some bananas too. Dude, those things wouldnt stop eatting!!  They just kept eating and eating.  Every chance they get, they’ll snag on to a tree branch and just pull it. Like a Lunchable to go. We went up a hill top and then came back down. The entire elephant ride was about 45mins. Oh man, it was funny…when we got back to camp. One of the guys was screaming 5 leg elephant and it had a big hard on. LoL!! The girls were riding it cuz we wanted to exchange camera to take each other pictures.

After the elephant ride, we ate authentic pad thai for lunch along the river. Beautiful! We began hiking up the path to the waterfall. I only had on some flip flops and often difficult to walk over mud. To my surprise, Yen kept slip and slide, but no fall at all. She’s good. haha. It was about 45 mins hike to get there. Halfway thru the trekking we stop at a village and played with slingshots. Pretty cool 🙂 Once we got there, the view was amazing. I mean..i have seen Iguazu and this was tiny, but this is up close and personal. Me and Thomas sad Phuk-it! and took a dive for a closer look. The waterfall hitting your skin is just sensational. The temperature of the water is a bit chilli but perfect quench after our long hike to our current spot. We got some really good pics and Thomas suggested i should go back to record a short video of it. I did and it was a great idea. There were a bunch of ppl from all over the world enjoying it as well.

We then got lifevested and helmet on our heads plus a brief safety tips to begin our white water rafting journey down the Ovatine/Milo colored river. We called it “brown water rafting”. LoL.  We started off really rapid and got stuck at a big boulder. You can feel the rock against your feet.  I swear…i thought on 2 separate occasion that we were gonna topple over.  We were all good and had an amazing time. Of course, all picture credit goes to Yen and her badass underwater camera case. Without that, no picture to share 😦  Part of the river was just very relaxing and the tour guide was freaking hilarious. You kno how asian jokes are like just numerous of punchlines after another, but they get straight to the point. It was funny. Once we got toward the end, we swapped the rubber raft for a bamboo raft. The bamboo raft was slippery and almost sinking. It was a short ride and back to our Main Tour guide “Toi”. He was a really cool guy, very caring and just plain awesome. This trip really make me learn so much about the country and most importantly the kindness of the people in Thailand. Thank you.  And do i even have to remind u..we got all this for $40US??

Ernie doing Muay Thai

Ok, so for our last night in Phi Phi…Yen and I were eager for some serious entertainment. Given that most of our events was dampened by Buddha Day this and Buddha day that. No Alcohol and no Muay Thai. So given the relieve of such religious holidays, we were happy to check out Reggae Bar by our hotel to watch a LIVE Muay Thai fight!! And best of all, it’s all FREE!! how cool.?.? no? We shot some billards (snookers for other countries) just to burn up some time. It was almost 10:30p and we got our drinks and the amateurs are about to start their fight. The crowd was loud and the stadium was very much alive! Ok, so they got this fat guy with a poster that says…”free bucket drink if u volunteer to try out muay thai. You’ll be protected”. So, one guy came up and another accepted the challenge. So off with the pants and await for their turn.

The amateur fight was fun and it was very well balanced. Both guys weight about 135 lb. It wasn’t brutal, but it was just enough for us muay thai virgins. It totally popped my cherry..that’s for sure. lol. Well, after 3 short rounds, the other 2 volunteers came up and then once again the fat man with the free bucket sign pointed his fingered at me. The first time, i rejected…second time around…. I was like Phuk-it in Phuket!! So i was like Let’s go son!. I got up on the stage and offered myself for a chance of a life time battle. From the past 2 guys that got onto the stage, i figure i had a decent chance to kick some ass. Ok, little do i know my luck drew weak. So, some beefy, 6’2, 210 lb made in America Army guy accept my challenge. One look at this guy and my involuntary swallowing muscle just turned active. I was like, great. …imma get fucked up. Like any man with an ego, I thought positive, VERY VERY positive. Well, it’s a point of no return and forward is the only choice to make, even thou deep down inside…it aint the wises choices possible. We both got our Muay Thai shorts and got changed.

Ok, so just like me, you must be thinking back to the keywords that the fat man was carrying especially those critical words ‘you’ll be protected’. I guess with the given Thailand’s flawless STD track record, you can safely imaging that my muay thai protection will be just as thin as a sheep skin condom. They gave us gloves, Sheen pads, head protector. That’s it!!! WTF?.?! how about my family jewels?? Or a piece of big chewing bubble gum as a resemblance of a mouth piece??  Guess we’ll have let luck protect my next generation. Anyways, the bell run and it’s me and gigantic. He stepped into the red and me on the blue. I’ve never done this before, so i just stretched my legs a bit and swing my arms around. They put on ‘the eye of the tiger’ song to get our adrenaline pumping. DING DING!! Let’s get ready to rumble was said with their last breath. FIGHT!..Outta the box he popped me a few good jab. I was like..ok ok…i can handle this big baba. But i guess there’s a reason for having different weight class. Obviously i was in the wrong class at the wrong time. Gigantor pound me down like crumb cake and in round two i was able to get a couple of jabs in and a nice right kick to the face.  Damage done 20%?.? Maybe?.?  Anyways, i was getting so worned out by end of round 2.  I gave it my all.  Got breathing problems as a kid so pushing a bit too much just drains my body.  Round 3 opening he came in whaling but at that time his hits werent as damaging cuz he was kinda weak too. So it was more like two gay guys slapping each other with oversized punching gloves. Mid of round 3, my knees just gave up and I surrender to my opponent to accepted defeat.  So I lost, the thing that i remember the most isnt the fight itself but how that few second before i left the stage there was just a large sound of applause and cheering. I would have to assume that they knew the weight difference and i was somewhat able to stand up to it.  Moral of this story to take home?.?  No matter how big the challenge, just go in the ring with the highest expectation of winning a bucket of alcohol that you’ll never consume and just plainly give it your all.  Next morning, i woke up hurting like broke back mountain but greatful that i kept my Muay Thai shorts for memories. 

Here’s a clip for your Entertainment. Lol.

Phuket Quickie

Since last post…Yen and i had visited the so called Red Light district, but because it’s Buddha week…Alcohol and all Tranny activities has been suspended 😦 Regardless, we found a shaddy place that served alcohol and an uninvited tranny that somehow kept dancing in front of our table. Weird. The MuOn our last day in Bangkok, we just hung out around the MBK mall which had everything. I had my 1st Tom Yum there and it was great and i think Yen had a pad thai which was also not too shabby. We rode the tuk-tuk (like a taxi but on a tricycle) to the Muay Thai fight, but once again Buddha day closed that down as well. Next morning was bye bye Bangkok.

Our next destination was Phuket. Yen & I are perfect team when it comes to bargaining. From a $2k Baht to get to the Pier..we bargain down to $200 Baht to get there. Once at the Pier, we rode a 2 hr miserable boat ride over to Phi Phi (pronouced PEE PEE and not FiFi). The weather hasnt been so kind to us. When we were in Bangkok, it was raining. Now in Phi Phi, it’s pouring down hard as well. Once again our bargaining charms came in handy for us to get a pretty decent room right in the center of where everything was happening. The island was secluded and had lots of local mom and pop shops. Had some delicious meat balls (atleast i thought they were meat balls) and some sweet rice & banana. Pretty darn good. It wouldnt stop raining so we just chilled in that night and got rested for our snorkeling trip the following day.

OMG, that snorkeling trip was the BEST!! If there was one thing memorable as of right now, that was definitely a highlight of our trip. By some miracle of God, we were get straight sunlight ALL DAY!! Hip Hip HooraY!. Our trip was from 11a-6p, and they fed us fried rice (yum, i actually had 2 boxes). The trip cost 550 Baht (about $18 bucks) and we decided to ride on the classic thai long boats. We stopped by all in all 6 different spots. The 1st spot was just a nice sandy beach on a remote island. Not much snorkeling done there, it was just an appetizer to get our unforgettable day started. Our next stop was at a snorkeling hot spot. The water was so freaking clear…It was nothing less than amazing. Thanks to Yen and her awesome underwater camera…we were able to capture lots of great pics. We both did not wanted to leave that spot, but off to the next place was just a cruise along the side of the enormous stones that arise in the middle of the sea. i believe it was called the Viking Cave and there was an actual habitat living from within. Oh, the next spot is really cool. We had to swim from our boat onto shore that leads into a cave. From the Cave, we would climb out onto a forrest like area…then from there we get to paradise. Really, it was one of those places you see and involuntarily say ‘WOW’, ‘OMG’, ‘Holy Shit’, ‘this is amazing’. It was by far the climax view of the tour. It’s this beach that you would never have thought it had existed until you actually saw it with your own eyes. Trust me, pictures doesnt do it justice at all. Also had a stop over Monkey Beach where there’s some really angry, sexually frustrated monkeys roaming along the beach. They were kinda cute until they started OOooh OOoooh HAaaa HAaaa at us. I was like fuk that…dont think i got my rabbies shots. Well, then we got to check out the sunsetting somewhat before head back to conclude our snorkeling tour.

We got back showered and had dinner at Garlic Since 1992. Lol. I had a pineapple fried rice and a fanta. And then off we go for our party for the evening.

From Hong Kong to Thailand

Internet in Thailand isnt so readily available as to when i was at my uncle’s in HK. Posting might be slightly retarded but ultimately it will arrive. What’s been new? Last Saturday, hung out with Carrie again and she took me to Mong Kok. For those of u that have been to HK, knows exactly what i mean by over populated. I mean, as if sex Ed and condoms hasnt been invented.  There were Ka-Zillion ppl everywhere u look. At times, especially in enclosed subway, it was truly overwhelm. Then again, the streets is so alive with shops and diverse places to eat. We ate at a noodle place and it had AC!! Food was cheap in HK, but Food in Thailand is like $2 a meal. I’ll get more to Thailand later. Sunday it was my day to head ova to Macau before takin my flight out to Bangkok. Btwn HK and Macau, u take this spaceship lookin yatch across the ocean. Ride was about an hour and i slept the whole way 🙂 In Macau, i spend a short while at the Venetian Hotel for Lunch. It was so weird..seeing how that the Hotel is the exact same replica of Vegas. I see Belagio being built and many many more.

Flying AirAsia surprised me that it was actually pretty nice inside. Leather seats and all, way better than AA for sure. Once i got into Bangkok@6p, i was anticipated to wait for Yen at her 7:30p arrival. Her flight got delayed until 9p. So i just wondered the entired airport and had free time to draw on a piece of white paper “PICK UP Service for QUEEN YEN”.  You know..like those guys that are so important that they need someone to wait for them at the gate. Lol. It was great seeing Yen, especially since the last time we saw each other was back in Miami about a Month ago. We greet each other with a tight hug and just chatter boxed our way. We taxi to our ASHA hostel…paid about $310 Baht for a 30mins drive. At first, i was like that is pricey, but converted to only US$10. Lol. K, our room has no A/C, 2 beds and that’s about it. There was a shared bathroom that was kinda hard to take a shit. I dont have strong Quads…so shitting is mission horrible. Really thou, i am gettin used to it and kinda like feel like i will enjoy my throne back at home more. You dont know what u have until u lose it. We ended our night upon small talks..sleep sleep away.

Today, Yen and I started our day with a $300 Baht haircut/Skull Massage/Styling. Yen got really jealous of me cuz i got Thai version of “Dont mess w/ Zohan” to cut my hair. She said that gay guys cut really great hair and indeed he cut extremely well. lol. It was such a great experience. They gave me an awesome head massage..wow is all i can say. I felt like a rich bitch pampering myself cuz i just can. lol. OMG, we grabbed Thai Ice tea & Lemon ice tea on a street vendor for $0.33/each. Krazy cheap. So cheap that i kept feeling guilty that i am underpayin at times. Anyways, we marched on today to take the Ferry up the River and reached the Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaeo where there’s buildings that are gold plated. It was just amazin to witness. Then we saw that big Lazy ass Buddha laying down at Wat Pho. Afterward, we wrapped up our tour at Wat Arun to see the Temple of Dawn. We had a late lunch in Kao San Rd for some light eating. Once again, we both attacked the street carts for the bobba Thai Tea and Ovatine Slushy. It was so freakin gooood and only US$0.33. Well, now we are both back at the Shaddy Hostel to post back to you love ones. We’ll probably hangout around here or maybe visit the Red Light District. God knows what’s gonna happen next 🙂  OUT!!

Made in Hong Kong

I am hoping that my grandma and other families arent too pissy missy about me not visiting them just yet. My mom told me to call them all and meet & greet all at once.  I didnt want that.  I dont feel like i get that one on one connection with my distant relatives, especially when it’s been 16yrs since my presence in Hong Kong.  I’ll be leaving to Thailand tomorrow and wont have much time left.  On Saturday, I decided to spend a lil more time with my Uncle 2, lil cousin Ashlee, aunt and auntie’s families doing a bday BBQ for ashlee. It’s such a nice feeling when Ashlee greeted me with a big tight hug…considering the 1st time we met..she was running toward me thinking i was someone else.  She was running and smiling…then when she saw me..it was like who the heck is that kinda face. lol. The surprise on her face was just so innocent but yet funny.  She is super cute. My take is that i will probably not see them too often since i’ll be gone for about a month or so of traveling.  I wanted to make an effort to spend as much time with them as possible.  The BBQ was pretty fun…we had all types of meat and drinks. They are really prepared in comparison to us back in MIA. My uncle and I took a stroll along the coastal area and had a bit of bonding QT time.  He’s actually a really really cool guy like my cousin had previously explained. Very Hard working and Young at heart. Oh, my aunt’s sisters thought i was hot…so they all lined up to take pictures with me as if i was like Mickey Mouse in Disney World. haha. so funny. Said my goodbyes and then uncle drove me back in his Lex.  Man, it’s freaking weird to be sitting on the driver side of a car and have no steering wheels and pedals. Odd.

Then comes Sunday, my not so virtual friend Carrie and I met up again for a lil tour of HK.  We went ova to Festival Walk to have bad ass dim sum.  We got so full there. Afterward, we headed to the marina and took a ferry over to Lan Kwai Fong…it’s like a tourist area with tons of eateries and bars on small side streets. Its nice and pretty cheap too. Since it started to drizzle with rain a little bit, we decided to stop into a Spanish tapas place called Rico’s.  They had a live band there playing even Mana songs. It was very cozzy and unforgetable moments.  Next to us was the cutest lil baby i’ve ever seen.  The dad is from Maryland but lives now in Hong Kong. Prolly a big shot type, but very nice ppl.  Carrie got this baby attraction…i swear that baby wants to jump ova to play at our table.  We got lamb chops, chorizos, escargo w/ shrimp, and garlic mushroom. It was delicious. She took me up to the top top part of Hong Kong where you can overlook the entire city’s excessive bright lights.  Wondering how much Mega Mega Watts the city uses.  But from up top, it is an amazing view.  We took the cable cart back down to the bottom and stop by a place to have a quick bite and drinks.  All in all, good times 🙂

Strange Meet

Last November, i went on this bus tour thru Napa Valley with about 35 ppl. Got pissed drunk and came back to Sunset China Town in SF to sober up with some good food.  My brother later joined us at the eatery.  We had a nice eat and talk …then we all went home in our separate ways.  When we got home, my bro said…hey that chick sitting across from u is pretty cute.  I was like really?.?  But as any loyal and pimpin brother could at the very least do is to try to get a number…cuz in life, u just never know.  So i tried, but failed because i didnt really knew anyone on that bus except for one which did not had the contact info.  Then i tried the more obvious…I searched her up on facebook.  About a quantum amount of ‘carrie wong’ came up on the result, so i typed up a 2 liner of generic msg somewhere along the lines ‘hey, i had a great time at napa…is this u’.  A few replied ‘nope, not me’, but one ‘said no with some flares’ ..so then we’ve kept in touch ever since.  As a virtual penpal, virtual friend…she lives here in hong kong.

How was my day?.?  Great!  I eat breakfast every morning with my uncle three.  Yes, a-hole..we have so many that we label them with numbers.  We went to the oriental market and everyone thinks i am philipino or vietnamese.  It was actually quite fun and to my surprise…it was relatively clean.  It’s not a publix, but it does have it’s exotic touch.  For instance, we buy chicken ALIVE and then the serial chicken killer in the back just do his deeds.  WARNING: Please dont watch video due to gruesome images.  Consider yourself warned.  I thought it was pretty cool.  Afterward, i went solo over to Sha Tin to check out the prices to go to Shanghai and Beijing for me and Yen as well as to meet up with virtual carrie wong.

It wasnt a blind date or anything, but it’s just someone that you kinda know on a personal level and cant even determine whether she’s real or just a fiction of your own imaginations.  We finally saw each other face to face in the center of New Town Plaza.  Very nice place to hangout.  I couldnt help it but to greed each other with open arms.  It was weird in a sense that we have never met previously, but we just knew the stranger we face. Just plan ironic. We got aquainted rather quickly and easily routed back to our random online conversations.  Afterward Carrie took me over to Harbour City to check out the city scenes and grab some dessert before we go our separate ways when my aunt comes to pick me up for dinner.  Havent seen my aunt for about 16yrs…and when she saw me and Carrie together, she quickly invited her to dinner as well and would not accept ‘no’ for an answer.  I looked at Carrie and Shrug my shoulders…then off we went.  Dinner was fresh Snails, Shrimp, Raw Oyster ginger soup, Ginger Scallion Crab, Clay pot fish..i was so full and satisfied 🙂  Yummy!  To my surprise, Carrie was more than capable to carry on a conversation with us all strangers.  To be honest, i was somewhat impressed.  She even bought us Ben & Jerry cheesecake ice cream and chocolate  lover one too.  Oh, and it was my 11yr old cousin bday that i’ve never met in my life.  She is totally cute and adorable.  She’s going to be my favorite.  Said our goodbyes around midnight and that was how my day went.  Thank you Carrie.

A day in HK

Got in last night after a total 28 hrs of flight and transit/layovers. Kinda weird that it didnt really wore me out too much.  But i did watch all the movies available on JAL – Batman Begin, 21, Street Kings, The Eye.  Slept a few times uncomfortably.  Got in about 11pm and then had to take the bus back to my uncle’s place.  I was told that i came to HK at the worst time, they have been raining every freaking day for about 3wks straight. Slept in my uncle’s room with the windows open getting that smooth breeze…while sleeping so peacefully to the music of the rain drops. Got up about 6ish and went out for Dim Sum with my uncle, then headed over to get my HK Identification Card so next time i can easily cross over to China w/o stupid overpriced $160 Visa.  I must admit, i was in that office from beginning to finish in less that 2hrs.  I swear that the HK culture is absolutely flawless and efficient. In the US, sometimes u might not even get your Quizno’s sub on time and getting it right the first time.  I was a bit WOW’ed cuz they were all so nice and cool.

Oh, check it out,..so in the mist of gettin this doco done. We got a call that my cousin just had her baby…like right now. So we dashed over shortly to check it out.  An extension to the Pang-ers, She gave birth to a 7 lb baby…from a mother of like 99 lbs.  Amazing. She is super super cute, i cant wait until i get to hold her in my arms.  See pics below 🙂

Yay! i got a SIM card for my phone, i have a phone again. After we left the hospital, my uncle brought me to this total hole in the wall place to eat.  Restaurant has a name that translate exactly “small kart”.  Were they cool food just as if u used to order them on the streets back in the days.  I think it was $9 bucks for 2 bowls of noodles with beef balls, pig intestines, beef tendons, beef tripes, pork skin, and lamb meat. That meal went straight to my arteries, but the taste will never be forgotten.  I loved it.  Right now, i am just estatic to finally meet my friend tomorrow and get to see my grandma as well.  Gonna hit the sacks. nite nite