Shanghai Bound
5:30am wake up time. Our flight was scheduled to depart Hong Kong International Airport at 8:45am. We wore the same clothes we had from the previous day, so we didn’t really have to unpack/pack our luggage again. We couldn’t get a direct flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai. We had to fly to Tokyo and then to Shanghai which was an all day event. This was because we used Northwest Airlines - using our Mileage (yea we know, Northwest Sucks! – but we had a lot of Mileage on them). Kevin tried to get an upgrade on this flight since he had Gold Elite status but he didn't get it. The 3 hours and 45 minute flight to Tokyo was uneventful but the layover at Tokyo was 4 hours long. We couldn’t use our cell phones at Tokyo since Japan uses 3G wireless technology (and not backwards compatible with either EDGE or GPRS) and our cell phones weren’t 3G. Boarding for the Shanghai flight commenced around 5pm, by 6:05pm we were on our way. It was another 3 and a half hour flight to Shanghai. 
We arrived at Pudong International Airport around 8:35pm and exited the plane with some minor problem…we were almost at the immigration line, Bobby had a sinking feeling – he forgot our brand new spanking Netbook (itty bitty laptop). We tried to go back to the plane and got stopped by a Chinese immigration security guy. We told him that we left our laptop inside the plane but he wouldn't let us pass. He told us to go back to the immigration line and that ‘No’ we couldn’t go back to the plane even though people were still de-boarding. We were getting agitated and he finally used his ‘walkie-talkie’ and talked to ‘some’ of his people. He asked us our seat number and he talked to his people again. He told us to proceed to the immigration line again and that we would have to talk to the “baggage counter” once we were done with immigration. Kevin was getting mad at Bobby for forgetting things (again!)…he brought up the lost iPod at Malaysia airlines and saying things like “we’ll never see that laptop again”; “they’re gonna steal it like the iPod”; “All my work stuff that I’ve worked on for the past 4 weeks – gone!” etc. Kevin called Northwest customer service stateside, to see if they could do something about having the plane crew look, but unfortunately the Northwest rep told Kevin that since it was an international flight she couldn’t do anything about it. Kevin called John Absmeier who was on his way to pick us up (John and Jenny Absmeier are the friends in Shanghai that we were staying) and told John what happened. He advised Kevin to just wait and just proceed to the “baggage counter”. Kevin continued to stew and giving Bobby the ‘how could you be so stupid look’ and Bobby glared right back, ready for a fight. As soon as we were done with immigration, Kevin waylaid a man in police/security uniform and demanded to see ‘their’ team leader, the guy looked bewildered and ask what was wrong. The immigration officer that just processed Kevin’s passport stood up from his cubicle and told Kevin to go the "baggage” counter. When we headed out to the “baggage counter”, the overhead paging system sqawked “Mr. Kevin Miller from Northwest flight 25 from Hong Kong, please kindly proceed to the Baggage Counter”. At the counter, they told us that ‘yes the laptop has been recovered’ – we had a big sigh of relief. It was another 30 minute wait for the errant laptop.
RockinShanghaiRolla….
As we got out of the baggage counter area and into the lobby, John and his driver ‘Mr. Cho’ were already there waiting for us. Salutations and greetings done, they drove us out of Pudong in their stretched out VW Passat. As we were driving out, John pointed the Maglev Train slowly passing us at first and then it accelerated like a rocket at 300+ mph. Shanghai currently has the only operating public Maglev Train in the world (but not making any money as of yet). John bought some 'Tsing Tao' beers while waiting at the airport and handed some to us. The beer was good. Jenny and their dog Diesel
greeted us at the front door when we arrived at their very spacious apartment. As soon as we got situated on the guest room, we got a tour of John and Jenny's 8 room apartment. They had 4 bedrooms: One master, one guestroom, and the other two were converted into an office and a 'man's room' for John. The other 4 rooms consisted of a nice sized kitchen, dining area, T.V. room with a gi-nourmous specially made sofa (it's bigger than a King size bed!), and the living room. They also have the envy of the apartment complex: a big yard for Diesel to play around with. In terms of square footage, their apartment is bigger than our house in Minneapolis! Most of their furniture pieces were specially commissioned by them to be made. They just tell the artisans what they like and voila it's made. Jenny told us that it was relatively cheap to buy things in China as opposed to paying for stuff with an arm and a leg in the West. We chatted for a bit in the living room, drinking beer, catching up with current events, the countries we visited (also countries they had visited before us) on our honeymoon trip, and news of mutual friends. Diesel the dog, apparrently likes beer because he kept reaching for Kevin's beer bottle. Very funny dog and very cute! Fireworks could be heard going off in the distance, John and Jenny said that for the rest of the week, there would be fireworks day and night until the end of the Lunar Chinese New Year celebration. We asked why they lit up fireworks during the day and they said that in the old days, the fireworks were used to ward off evil spirits all day long. John and Jenny asks us if we wanted to go out this night for either a lowkey drinking or big time night out. We said that we were game for both. Jenny made some phone calls to see where their friends were. 
They were at a bar called 'LUNA'. We freshened up for a bit then Mr. Cho drove us to Luna where we met Jenny's best friend Sarah (sister of Brandon Routh, a.k.a Superman), Steve (Sarah's husband), Jia Nee (not sure about the spelling), and others. There was a filipino band playing. They were pretty good. They had Sarah belting out a few songs and one of her own composition, which rocked the crowd. It was awesome! Sarah happens to be a talented composer/singer/guitarist. She's now living in Shanghai with her husband Steve, who manages a local restaurant called the "Commune". Fun times. We left Luna and went next door to a Jazz Club called "Brown Sugar", unfortunately it was already 1:30am and Brown Sugar stopped serving drinks. We decided to just go home. At John and Jenny's place, we continued on catching up with life. Went to bed by 4am.
*Bar Luna Rockin-out Pics*
>Sarah singing one of her song<
>John & Steve (Sarah's husband)<
>Bobby & Sarah's backs - Dancin<
~~O~~
29 Jan 09: Thursday
Faux Shopping...
We had a late wake up time of 11am. We could smell some delicious food being made in the kitchen. John and Jenny were cooking 'Huevos Rancheros' for brunch with biscuits. T'was good! Today's jaunts was to go to the fabric and 'fake' markets in Shanghai. Being that this week was a Chinese holiday, most working people in China were on a Holiday/Vacation. We were hoping that the fabric market would be open so that we could have some suits made. We were ready by 2pm and got driven again by Mr. Cho to the market. Unfortunately, the fabric market was closed - it had a sign saying that it would open back up again on 3rd of Feb, the day after we leave for Shanghai. Darn! The fake market across was open though so we proceeded to go shopping. There weren't many people out today - as mentioned it was a holiday and most folks were in the country with their families, so it was an easy day. No crowds to fight for. This fake market had everything: Designer bags (on some you couldn't tell if it was really fake because they used real leather), Designer clothing, Brand name shoes, watches, fake iPhones (there was even a fake iPhone NANO that Bobby wanted but didn't buy since it was still very expensive) etc. Some were even 'real' goods - gotten from a back door somewhere. John and Jenny were interpreters for us, since both of them speak Mandarin. They're both good 'hagglers' too! We were pretty much awed at their haggling skills. It was a long elaborate process between the vendors and the tag team of John and Jenny. Mandarin words would fly back and forth, calculators pounded with numbers, voices raised, hand gestures, 'Eye Rolls', and sometimes it was exhausting just to watch the interplay between J & J and the vendors. J & J did most of the haggling for us. Kevin bought a lot of stuff this day: G-Star Sweater, D & G/A & F underwears, tiles w/ mask (the only thing not-fake). We learned some useful Mandarin words: "tài guì le" (tay gwey lah), which means TOO EXPENSIVE and to pretend to walk away to be not 'interested' anymore if the price you haggled couldn't be brought down some - it usually works when the vendor really really wants you to buy the stuff. We only stayed for 3 hours at this fake market. We went home to change because J & J were taking us out to dinner. Kevin called his URS branch office in Shanghai to set up a meeting for the next day (Friday). 
By 7pm we were ready to go. We got picked up again by Mr. Cho and driven to "Casa 13" a Spanish/Meditteranean resto in Shanghai located in a very narrow/skinny road(s). The resto had some good food. We got two servings of 'gnocci' - it was Jenny's favorite, some mushroom dish, scallops and the like. It was just enough to fill us up. Most of the patrons were expats. We could hear American accents (or maybe it was Canadian), Brits as well as some other Europeans. After dinner, we got driven out to the Jazz club that we couldn't get drinks on the night before: the swanky BROWN SUGAR. This club had some snazzy decor. We thought we were in a New York club. John's co-workers were already there at the VIP section. 
We met Ralph and Peg, a guy named Chuck and his wife and others (we couldn't remember all their names). The place had a band that plays exclusively to Brown Sugar and it's branches in China and Taiwan. The band had a mixture of Australian and Americans for its members (See vids). They were pretty good. Since Shanghai has fireworks everynight this week, we were supposed to go to the bar on top of the World Financial Building (currently the tallest building in China, called the 'Bottle Opener') but the weather was sh*tty. It was raining, foggy and misty so you couldn't really see the fireworks at the highest point. In any case, there would be fireworks going off all over Shanghai by midnight. ANYONE can buy fireworks, the kind you see on 4th of July in America. People were letting them off on the streets, so we ran outside to get a good look (see vids). The fireworks didn't stopped until 1am. We went back into Brown Sugar and the band was performing its last set. The male lead singer came around the women audience during his last song, handing out Red Roses. Peg and the other lady (We think her name was Joyce) in our section got some flowers. By 1:30am we left Brown Sugar trying to find other bars to go to but since it was a weekday and again a holiday week, the other bars were closing too. We decided to just go home. T'was 2am in the morning.
*Brown Sugar Pics*
> Joyce (We think?) <
>Jenny, Kevin & John< 
>Peg, Jenny & Kevin<
>Brown Sugar Props/Pics<
*Brown Sugar Vids*
>Make Sure you Click the "Watch in High Quality" feature in YouTube
>Jazz Band - female Lead Vocal<
>Jazz Band - male Lead Vocal MJ<
>Jazz Band - male Lead Vocal PRINCE<
~~O~~
30 Jan 09: Friday
Another Faux Shopping and Bar hopping...
Awake by 10am. Kevin called his URS contact again to set the time for their meeting this day. They settled on 4pm. We showered and got ready. Jenny had planned for us to see the Museum of Urban Planning, where the history of Shanghai's development commenced. We were running late, so John ordered food on the way to the Museum. Those sandwiches where delicious. 
We passed the Yang Pu bridge (See pics), the locals mostly called it the "Big Bridge". Mr. Cho dropped us off at the Museum by 1pm. We had some history lesson as to how Shanghai's urban planning develop early on. The museum had a small scale replica of Shanghai. We got to see how big Shanghai really is (see pics). They also had a replica of the current plan for the WORLD EXPO event in 2010 which will be held in Shanghai. We spent about an hour and a half there and decided to go shop again at another 'fake' market. By 3:30pm, Kevin had to go to his meeting and took a taxi to the arranged location. Bobby happily shopped with J & J. It was another day of sharp haggling. Bobby bought G-Star (his favorite brand name) clothing: jeans, long sleeve shirt, and a sweater (Bobby thinks they were 'real' - the ill gotten backdoor merchandise kind). He also bought 'Gucci' sunglasses and a watch for Kevin. J & J and Bobby were getting tired of the haggling and decided to get out of the fake market. We went next door to a Video store where they sell pirated DVDs. We mostly browsed inside the store. Jenny bought some DVD's - documentary types. John and Bobby were getting hungry. So the group decided to get something to eat. An Indian resto named 'Bukhara Grill' was just next door. It was J & J's favorite Indian resto. Since it wasn't 5pm yet, the resto wasn't quite ready for dinner - but they accommodated us anyways. The resto had 3 floors and we got seated at the top floor. We decided to order just apps because we thought to have a full course dinner later on with Kevin when he gets back from his meeting. We ordered a bottle of red wine, Indian bread, a chicken kebab, a vege wrap roll, Dal Bhukara (John's favorite dip) and others. Kevin texted John that his meeting was done and he was on the way back. We decided to just wait for him at the resto. Kevin arrived 15 minutes later after texting us. The food we ordered were enough to feed all four of us. Normally, Bobby doesn't like Indian food, but this resto served up good food. Bobby ate a lot! The apps turned into a full blown meal! After dinner, J & J took us to the Nanjing Walking Street for pedestrians. 
This street was like a mini Las Vegas strip, neon lights and a smackfull of people. We did some window shopping at Zara and then went home. We got ready to go out again. Rebecca and Mark (who works for General Motors China) a couple who lives in the apartment complex with J & J (now their friends) came over for drinks and also to accompany us to the bar hopping later on. We lounged at the living room for a bit before heading out. Mark and Rebecca's MiniVan driver drove us first to the Shanghai World Financial Building (Bottle Opener) to go to '100 Century Avenue' bar, another swanky high end bar which they said currently holds the record for the most highest located bar in the world (it used to be the Cloud 9 bar at Jin Mao tower until 100 Century eclipsed it). Peg and Ralph where already there ahead of us. We got seated right away. The bar had incredible views, towering over the Oriental Pearl Tower and Jin Mao building (the two other famous buildings in Shanghai). This bar also had some Jazz band playing. Unfortunately, there weren't many patrons this night (again, maybe because it was a holiday). We ordered red wine made by China. They also served 'Prawn' crackers for munchies - these things were ignored by the others because they said it tasted 'fishy', but Bobby ate bowl after bowl of it. He said it tasted good. We only spent about an hour at this club. The group decided to walk down next door to the Jin Mao building where the Hyatt hotel was - to check out the view and perhaps the Cloud 9 bar (When Kevin was still working for SOM in Chicago, one of his projects was the Jin Mao tower). They have awesome views inside (See pics). There was no one at the bar though. The group then drove to the opulent Shangri-La Hotel to go check out its resident bar called 'Jade'. 
Again, Jade bar didn't have a whole lot-a-crowd - it was once again attributed to the holiday week. We decided to just stay there and ordered some drinks. Kevin's drink had a special metal straw that Jenny liked - so we swiped it. The bar had a cool 'Pod' like bathroom with lighted solid glass tubes (see pic). The bar also had good view of the Oriental Pearl T.V. tower. We were the last patrons to leave the bar. Our last stop for the night was a sports bar-n-grill named 'Big Bamboo'. We ordered lots of food since we were hungry - 'hot wings' for John, Calamari for Bobby, Chicken Satay for Kevin, Quesadillas for Mark and Nachos for Jenny and Rebecca and of course more drinks, this time Tsing Tao beers. We were supposed to go for a foot massage but we were all tired and full. The group decided to just call it a night. Big Bamboo was just across from J & J's apartment complex, so we all tip toe'd outta the back door. Got to bed around 2am.
*30 Jan 09 Pics*
>100 Century Avenue Bar/Shanghai World Financial Building<
*Video at the Museum of Urban Planning - Mini Replica of Shanghai*
~~O~~
31 Jan 09: Saturday
Communing with the locals, more shopping and bar hoppin...
We were awake at 9:30am. John and Jenny were again making breakfast - omelet and sausages. Yum! They thought us a few words of Mandarin. 'Xie xie' for thank you and 'Ni hao' for hello. We were goin on an expedition this day. From previous days, we've seen the Glitz and Glamour of Shanghai, J & J planned to show us the 'real' Shanghai. We got ready in a hurry because it was going to be another long day of sight seeing and partying - Might as well start it early. Peg & Ralph were coming along, so we went to their apartment complex in the Sky View Towers first. Their complex was like Ft. Knox. The doorman actually had to escort us to the elevator, key in his card in order for the elevator to go up to the floors. Peg and Ralph's door lock actually uses finger scans. We got a tour of their place. They had good views of Shanghai since their unit was high enough to see the skyline. We then left their place to walk over to the ferry boats that took us close to the local Chinese Market. 
We walked around the Chinese market, seeing lots of locals, peddlers, and smelling some nasty smell: J & J said it was fermented tofu being cooked either deep fried or steamed. This was a local delicacy. Jenny doesn't like the smell and so did Bobby. They had to cover their noses (this smell was all over the place). Bobby bought some batteries for our digicam since it was telling us to change bats (it needs AA Lithium - otherwise if we use a regular Alkaline bats..it would only last for one day). We then meandeared to the 'Yu Yuan Garden' area, where the 'old' part of Shanghai still stands. The Chinese New Year decorations were all over the place. Ox's everywhere and surprisingly, it was really teeming with locals. Sometimes we had to walk real slow because the crowd were so packed. We had to watch out for those 'Grandma' types, because they would just 'bulldozed' everyone out of their way - kinda like a football linebacker. They might look small and frail but those little old ladies were tough. We had to stay out of their way otherwise we'd get trampled on. Most of them travelled in groups of 3's or 4's for leverage. We were on the way to see the 'Crooked' bridge when some old Chinese guy who speak(ed) pretty good English waylaid our group. He owned one of the grand tea houses in the area and wanted us to come check out the rooftop - where he said the views would be good. So we followed him up his roof top. It did afford the view down below (see pics). We thanked him and proceeded to head to the 'Crooked' bridge down below. There were hundreds of people lining up to go across the bridge. 
The legend says, that the bridge was built to stymie the bad spirits from crossing, since they travel in a straight path. It was slow crossing. There were lots of pushing and shoving along the way. The 'grandma' bulldozers were full on, most people gave way to them. It was no wonder the bridge didn't collapse under the weight of hundreds of people. Good thing it was a one way bridge thorougfare. After the crossing, we then walked over to the area where they sell 'fake' antiques. Bobby haggled with Jenny's help, to buy a spherical glass clock for 75 RMB/Yuan ($11). He also bought a souvenir for our friend Neil, who watched over our house in Minneapolis. Kevin bargained with John's help, to some terra cotta statuetes for family gifts. After 'antiquing', we walked over to what used to be called "sex street" (but not anymore since the Chinese Authorities closed it down) where anything pertaining to sex were sold...DVDs, paraphernalias, etc. There were still some sketchy vendors though, on their makeshift stalls selling knick knacks (but the sex stuff was hidden). John bought 6 cigarette lighters with tiny flash lights - when you turn on the tiny flashlights on a white background, it'll show some naughty pictures. He gave Kevin one. At the end of the street, Mr. Cho was waiting for us. John and Jenny directed him to drive us over to where Steve's (Sarah's husband) cafe named "the Commune" was, so we could have some rest and some sustenance. Peg and Ralph took a taxi to meet us at the Commune. We met Steve at his resto, a quirky place that's very popular. It was in a boutique 'mall' area. We got seated inside by the back and ordered our food. Jenny ordered a Mocha latte and she told Bobby that it comes in a cup the size of a big salad bowl, so he ordered one too (yea, this thing was huge).
Steve brought everyone a drink that he experimented for us to try and taste...Campari, Vodka and Sprite. It was good. After dinner, Kevin wanted to get eyeglasses. We said our goodbyes to Ralph, Peg and Jenny. John and us were headed to the area to get the eyeglasses. Peg had recommended to go into an area where Shanghai's main train station was located. She gave us the info and John had Mr. Cho call the place to get directions. As soon as we got there, Mr. Cho called the guy again to come and get us since the area was very confusing. 10 minutes later, the guy showed up and led us over to a passageway and under the train station and voila! - it was literally an underground maze of 'Eyeglasses' wonderland. All the shops were selling one component: Eye Glasses (either Priscription or Sunglasses). Fake frames were the thing. If you have/know your prescription, they could make it under 20 minutes with your frame of choice. The guy brought us to Peg's contact, a woman named 'Linda'. She basically told us to pick the frames we wanted. We spent hours scouring her shop's frame collections from Prada, Gucci, D & G and other well known brand names. Lots to chose from. Finally, Kevin settled on 3 frames: Prada, Diesel, and a local Chinese brand 'Peng Xiang' that looked good on him. Kevin brought his disposable contact lens pouches which had the prescription grades on it, and showed it to Linda. Since Kevin wanted the 3 pairs, Linda said that it would take an hour to make them. We didn't want to wait that long, so John offered to have Mr. Cho pick it up the next morning. It only costs us 600 RMB/Yuan ($88) - very cheap! We got driven home to rest for a bit before the night's outing. John and Jenny cooked dinner again: Brats and veggies. Yum!. We showered and got ready. The plan for this night was to hit the super exclusive bar called the 'M1nt' and then hit a lowkey gay bar afterwards. There are 3 ways to get into the M1nt club (per John) - Either you have to know someone that's on the VIP list, You have to be a 'member' of the Club (paying monthly dues with an initiation fee of $3,000 - this would be a VIP person), and if you're a shareholder (another VIP). John happened to know a VIP and that's how we got in the list and along with the other people that were in our group. Peg and Ralph and other friends of J & J: 
fun German couple Neils and Urta (spelling?) came with in a few minutes. It was another slow night. Not a lot of people in the club but it was still fun. Sarah and Steve were also there, along with 'Jia Nee' and her 3 teacher friends: Rachel from Scotland, Carmelo and Ton-Ton. Bobby was grabbed by a woman, named Laura who was a Brit from another group of people and dragged him to the dance floor. They boogeyed for a while, then Laura pushed Bobby to another of her friends (Bobby forgot the name of this woman but she had a 'cat woman' attire on: leather bustier and spandex!) who whipped Bobby around the floor! Kevin tried to take pictures, but since we brought our curmodgy Fuji Cam, the pics turn out bad (see the pics anyway). Bobby thanked the women since our group was leaving to go to the gay bar. We had to convince Neils and Urta to go. Peg and Ralph finally convinced them when they said they'd go to check it out. The gay bar was somewhere in the Bund district (The Bund area is famous in Shanghai, its where the happenings are - bars, clubs, tourist areas, etc.) Since being 'Gay' in China is illegal, D2 was a downlow club and was in the area that was somewhat out-of-the-way. There was a cover charge to get in about 80 RMB per person. Sarah, Jia Nee and the 3 Teachers (they left the Mint earlier) was already inside waiting for us. D2's dance floor was kinda dead but the 2nd floor mezzanine was packed. So we moseyed over there instead and talked to random folks. Bobby talked to a woman named Julia, a local artist who used to live in NYC. Kevin talked to some Indian dude (he forgot the dude's name). We also met a guy named 'Gabriel' who attended 'St. Olaf' college in Minnesota (small world!) - who now lives in Shanghai with his partner (who's the owner of D2). Got home late again (we forgot the time).
*31 Jan 09 Pics*
>Ralph & Peg's Views - Ferry Ride to Chinese Market<
>Chinese Market then to Yu Yuan Garden/Up at Tea House/Crooked Bridge<
>Antique Shopping & Commune Cafe Resto<
*D2 Pics (Below)*
>Urtha, Kevin, Jenny, Bobby<
>Jia Nee, John, Jenny<
>Kevin, Rachel, Bobby, Jia Nee, John<
*Video at Yu Yuan Garden, after the Crooked Bridge*
~~O~~
01 Feb 09: Sunday
Westin Brunch and shopping some more....
We forced ourselves to wake up early this day (9:30am) since John and Jenny arranged a Sunday brunch at Westin Hotel. Peg, Ralph, Niels, Urta, Sarah, and JoAnne (who we haven't met yet) were gonna meet us there. Mr. Cho drove us again to Westin and arrived promplty at 11:15am. John was thinking we were late because he thought the brunch started at 11am. It turns out it starts around 11:30am, so we were early. Still, there were already people waiting to get in. We got served champagne while waiting. 
John & Jenny usually goes to this brunch when they have guests in town or with their group of friends. We got seated at a better table than their usual - we were closer to the 'entertainment' area. Speaking of entertainment, they had a 'Magician act', 3 Music acts: Choir, Opera Singers and a Spanish trio band and Dancing acts using props: The first dance was a group of ladies with Spinning plates doing acrobatic moves; their 2nd act was the use of 'hula hoops' and the 3rd dance was a Spanish flamenco. By 11:45am, everyone was seated at the table and started for the buffet line. The food was staggering. They had a lot of buffet stations: desserts and truffles; sushi; German cuisine; Chinese Cuisine; Omelet, waffle and pancake station; meat carving section; dim sum station; and Indian curry station. We ate a lot! The wait staff kept pouring us some white wine and Champagne. There were girls going around serving 'Caipirinha' drinks. John and Jenny also kept ordering 'Shots' for the table. We've never been to a 'Brunch' like this!!! There were other stuff going on as well - like 2 guys making palm animals/insects (kinda like those clowns making baloon animals).
Each of the ladies at our table got something from them (see pics). There was a woman who was making stone 'chops' or stone stamps. Kevin bought 'chops' that had our initials engrave along with its Chinese characters. By 2pm everything was winding down. We were still tipsy. Sarah had to leave for a rehearsal (she's recording her music) and everyone else decided to go to the 'fake' market for some shopping. Mr. Cho drove us to the third 'fake' market in town. Shopping was kinda fun, specially 'drunk haggling'. Kevin bought a fake North Face jacket, gifts for his brothers, and sunglasses. Bobby and JoAnne bargained down two fake Converse shoes (one pair for each of them). Bobby also bought a 'fake' Diesel watch for $20 USD. We were only at the fake market for 2 hours. We were all tired by then and just decided to go home. Bobby went straight to bed to take a rest and a nap while Kevin and John walked over to a street vendor, two blocks away to buy some 'pirated' DVDs. Kevin bought 46 DVDs for $20 USD! For dinner, we ordered delivery from a resto named 'Blue Frog' which serves burgers. We all settled into the big humongous bed-couch to watch a movie - American Gangster. After the movie, we decided to pack some of our stuff to be shipped home to Minneapolis since we bought a lot and it wouldn't fit in our luggage (and since some were counterfeit items, we didn't want to risk bringing them in through Customs). It was an early night. We had to leave for the airport the next morning. Our flight to Hong Kong was scheduled to depart at 8am.
*01 Feb 09 Pics*
*Vids*
>Make Sure you Click the "Watch in High Quality" feature in YouTube
>Brunch Performer - Opera Singer<
>Brunch Performers - Ladies Spinnin' Plates<
>Brunch Performer - The Hula Girl<
>Sarah performing with the Magician<
~~O~~
02 Feb 09: Monday
Hong Kong bound....
We were up by 5:15am, showered, and packed our luggage. Jenny helped us with our shipping packages. She was going to send it to us via sea-voyage mail, which will take about 4-6 weeks to get delivered. By 6:30am, we said our goodbyes to Jenny and Diesel. We rode with John to his workplace, so Mr. Cho could drop him off and to see where he worked. John worked in the 'free trade' zone area - where most Western companies are HQ'd. We said our goobyes to John and Mr. Cho then drove us to the airport. As soon as we were at the check-in counter at NWA, Kevin tried to see if we could get upgraded to business class and we got lucky! (finally). We proceeded to the NWA Worldclub lounge to get some free snacks and drinks. This was another long flight back to Hong Kong via Tokyo.
The flight was actually good. It was nice to be in business class. You get served quite nicely with free alcohol and a nice meal. Kevin spoke with the American Brazillian expat sitting next to him about her experiences living in Shanghai. Bobby slept most of the time (he conks out quickly when flying - doesn't matter whether it's an hour flight, he can go to sleep right away). We had another one of those 4.5 hour layover at Tokyo. Lucky for us - Kevin was a 'Gold Elite' member, so we had the use of the Worldclub lounge. We basically parked ourselves there utilizing the free Internet and eating their buffet of delicious foods and drinks. Kevin commandeered Bobby's laptop to do his bills. Bobby had the use of the iMacs at the lounge for 'blogging'/e-mailing. The flight to Hong Kong took 5.5 hours long, this time we were at the 'coach' cabin with a meal. We landed at HKG around 9:30pm, wheezed by customs, got our luggage and had difficulty finding the bus terminal to take us downtown. The people we asked for directions at the airport weren't really helpful in pointing out where the bus terminal was - they were just saying it was on the ground floor, like we should know it (These people worked at the airport). We finally figured out where the bus depot was, got the ticket for $4.25 USD/each and asked the counter lady where bus A21 was - she pointed behind our backs. We had to run for it, luggage and all, the bus was about to leave. We got in at the last moment - the driver drove away as soon as we stepped inside. Kevin asked him if he could tell us when he stops at 'Yau Ma Tei' stop, this was the bus stop closest to our hotel. The bus ride only took 35 minutes, we got dropped off at Nathan Road by 'Yau Ma Tei' stop. Cityview hotel was just a couple of blocks away. This hotel used to be a YMCA hotel. You could still see the 'Y' logos everywhere. Our room was okey - for the price we got it. It was definitely what we paid for. We do have the full use of the Gym in the next building for free. Internet was expensive to use so we had to forego using it. Went to bed by midnight.
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