Delicious Hong Kong Dishes!!

Kinsey’s Guide to Better Living: Chapter Seven: In need of an inner thigh workout??  Walk the streets of Hong Kong!!! Dodging left and right is unavoidable!!

Like we have said many times before, there are 1.6 Billion Chinese living in China!!  Half of them reside in Hong Kong!!  Walking in a straight line down the sidewalk is Impossible!!!!  Instead you are dodging left, then right, then left again, constantly being clipped and bumped into.  It’s exhausting really!!

All this dodging and bumping makes you really work up an appetite!!  Aside from the amazing Dim Sum, Hong Kong has another culinary delight…barbeque pork!!  Yup it’s the genuine version of the bright pink pork strips you get at take away Chinese restaurants back home.  Barbeque pork in H.K. is Unreal!!  Glistening pink and fall of the bone tender!!  And did we mention cheap!?!?! Go into any small corner restaurant where all the working folk are and you have found B.B.Q. Pork Heaven!! Enjoy!!

Chelsea’s Quick Tips: Take a ride on the public ferry for a view of some of the most stunning and modern architecture in the world!!!  It’s cheaper than the underground!!!

Also, at 8 p.m. every night, there is a light show with many of the buildings in the downtown area lighting up with colored lights. Its best to watch from the public ferry!

For more photos check out our Flickr account ——— >

Scootin’

We set out trying to find a small town about an hour outside of Yangshuo that is famous for making handmade fans.  However, we failed.  Due to the horrible quality of the map we had and being distracted by the unbelievable scenery, we never made it. Nonetheless it was still a great day.

We stumbled upon a village market place where we dined for lunch!!  We had no idea what we wereeating but it has been the best Chinese food we have had on this trip!!  And the cheapest taboot!!

As we pointed out in the video, the Chinese eat at tiny, little tables in tiny, little chairs.  This can get uncomfortable quick.  Mostly because we are not natural squatters like the good ole Chinese with their squatting toilets!!!  Chelsea never quite mastered the squatting toilet usually coming out saying, “I peed on my foot again!” Dirty, filthy girl!

For more photos, check out our Flickr account ———>

Chinese Traffic

Kinsey’s Guide to Better Living: Chapter Six: Do Not frequent high Chinese touristic sites without earplugs. It’s for your own Good!!

Ok sorry we couldn’t film this!!!

The Chinese are crazy drivers. Chinese driving rules are no rules at all!! Every one is swerving in and out of cars, giant trucks and thousands of buses, driving on the wrong side of the road and not stopping at stop signs. Anything you could possible do with a moving vehicle they do!! Scary, especially when driving a little electric scooter. You have to be on the ballllllll at all times when driving, especially in or near towns/cities. Actually, we lied there is one rule. Honk, Honk and Honk!!

Sorry, but filming was out of the question.

The caves were great!! Amazing rock formations that were intensified by the colored lights. But what was NOT great were the tour groups. The Chinese are obsessed with their tour groups. We were surprised to see that not one of the 1.6 billion Chinese strayed from their beloved group down in the caves.

Other than that it was a beautiful day of scooting and caving!!

China

Ratings: 1 – 5 star each for…  The Vibe, Beds, Whereabouts, Staff, Cleanliness

The Vibe:  Party Time.. Excellent!!!  The main theme here at Monkey Jane’s is to get messed up at a good ole game of Beer Pong!!  Party On!!   5 Stars

The Beds: Could be on the nicer side but you stay here for the party not the beds!!  3 Stars

Whereabouts: Right on the main drag!  Monkey Jane’s is right smack dab in the center of everything!!!  5 Stars

Staff:  Always willing to help you out.  Monkey Jane has best intentions but can be on the crazy side!!  We love her anyway!!!  5 Stars.

Cleanliness:  Not too shabby!!  4 Stars!

Overall: 22 out of 25 stars!!  If you are looking for a good time and a central location Monkey Jane’s is where you want to be!!!

Bamboo Boatin’

This was probably THE best day we had in China!!!   This was because of an accumulation of a couple things.

First off, our fellow American bud, Peter was with us.  This means that it will always be a good time!!!  Team America… Heck YA!!!!

Secondly, we could actually see the blue sky and the weather was amazing!!  This was a stroke of luck since it is either raining in China or smog ridden!!

Thirdly, the views were absolutely Stunning!!!!  Huge, limestone mountains frosted with green shrubbery jet up out of the banks of the Li River!!  It feels like you are in a completelydifferent world in this landscape while seeing the everyday life of rural China.  EPIC!!!!!!

Finally, we got to experience this stunning place all the while being the celebs we have grown to loooove being, here in RedChina!!!  Boat after boat would swing off course for better shots of the Westerners gliding by them!!  We soaked it alllllll up!!  It’s not everyday you get to feel like a celeb…but wait in China it is!!!!!  Hahahahaha

Chelsea’s Quick Tip:  The boats that you take going down the Li only hold four people.  Going with an odd number?? Wait a bit for solo travelers!!

Trekkin’

Our alarm clock went off at the crack of seven in the a.m. only after four hours of sleep!!  We rolled out of bed and hit the central train station to catch a ride to Guilin!!  It was ten and a half hours!!  When buying the ticket we tried to get a soft sleeper?…nope, hard sleeper?…nope, soft seat?…nope, hard seat?…yes!!  At least it wasn’t a standing ticket!!

After an arduous nine hours of sitting, Kinsey needed to stretch her legs and flex her gluteus maximus muscles.  Bad life choice!  This spawned an outright attack from all of the Chinese people in our car!  Lights started to flash, people started to dash as everyone whipped out their cameras!!  Soon Kinsey was being photographed left and right.  A line started to form and everyone had to have his or her turn!!  Next they turned on Chelsea and finally asked if we would pose together!!  It looked like a swarm of paparazzi as we stood there being blinded by the light!!!

Not a bad way to end the ten-hour train ride… feeling like celebs!!

Finally Lady Luck was on our side and the bus to Yangshuo was right outside the station!!  We hopped on and arrived in two hours!!  The rest is History!!

As you saw in the video, we had to get off the train at 1 in the a.m.!!

At the ticket office earlier that day we were “told” it was a ten hour train journey, making it 7 a.m. when we would arrive.  We booked a sleeper and were pumped for slumber the whole night through.  At the stroke of midnight we were woken up by a grouchy, Chinese attendant telling us our stop was in an hour!!  Our ten our ride turned into a 4 hour jaunt.  The city we were arriving in was not in Lonely Planet so we had no address and No clue what to expect when we got there!!

The train station that we arrived at was in the middle of nowhere…literally in the forest.  It was pitch black and the only people around were the few others departing and about ten male taxi drivers.  No one spoke English.  Mind you we Don’t speak Mandarin!!  The station was very run down and extremely small, the size of a two car garage.  You could say we were up a creek with no paddle and a little nervous!!!!

By the almighty force of God, a Chinese man approached us and miraculously he spoke English!!  The expression on his face when we explained our situation was drenched with worry.  We later found out that he has a 21 year old daughter, so he had a special place in his heart for us.  He informed us that he has been living in”Pittsburger” for a year guest teaching at a university.  He took us to a “very cheap and safe hotel”.  This was an hour cab ride from the station through the forest.  Getting us to the hotel around 2 a.m.  After we checked in he even walked us up to his room, still worried for us.  He was our Savior!!!

With only four hours of sleep we continued our journey…

Ratings: 1 – 5 star each for…  The Vibe, Beds, Whereabouts, Staff, Cleanliness

The Vibe: This place was very basic.  Not much decor.  Didn’t really matter because you were either at the beach or out!! 3 Stars!

Beds: These were Horrible!!  It was literally a sheet of plywood covered in a mattress cover!!!  No Stars!!

Whereabouts: Great location!!!  Just a 5 minute walk to the beach, bars and restaurants!! 5 Stars!!

Staff: Super friendly and very helpful.  Didn’t speak much English but didn’t matter!!  5 Stars

Cleanliness: No complaints whatsoever!! 5 Stars

Overall: 18 Stars out of 25!!  Only problem here was the bed!!  Great stay for the Price!!!

Beachin’ It

We checked out of Chengdu and flew to Hainan, the island on the southern most coast of China.  We hit the beaches in Sanya, the Hawaii of China and a main destination for Russian vacationers!!

You could have definitely called us beach bums!!  We sat on the beach alllllll day everyday drinking Tsingtao, swimming, eating fresh fruit, and watching the men in Speedos go by!!  That pretty much sums it all up!!!  It was amazing and just what we needed after being barred from horse trekking in Songpan!!

Like we said before, Sanya is crawling with Russian tourists.  To the point where we would go to arestaurant and our menu options were Chinese or Russian.  Thank God Kinsey spent a semester learning Russian in the Russian Tundra or we would have been screwed!!!!

When we hit the town we headed for a club!!  We were thinking drinks, music and lots of dancing!!  Wrong!!!  In the land of China the Majority of “clubs” have NO dance floors!!!  It’s just not typical to dance away from your table and friends!!!  Booooo!!!