More Asian craziness, divided up into chapters for your convenience.

A Trip within a Trip - Hong Kong

So as soon as we get off the subway from the airport and walk towards our hotel, all we see EVERYWHERE are strip clubs (that we find out later are NOT actually strip clubs) and hookers. We're just thinking "man I never knew Hong Kong was this seedy". The first night we're pretty tired so we just get some food and crash. The next day we do some touristy stuff that I won't bore you with. It was cool, but typical sightseeing. But that night... we go to Bar 7...

Going around in Hong Kong we realize that most of Hong Kong is your typical metropolis with really nice shops, restaurants, and buildings. We just happened to get a hotel in what seemed to be the red light district of Hong Kong. The second night we go out to a busy area of bars and clubs. Apparently some Beer Fest was going on while we were there so the streets were ridiculously packed. It seriously was packed like Mardi Gras. Beers on the street or in the bars were at least $6 US, so since there are no open container laws we hit up a Bar 7... 7-11 that is! So we spend at least an hour buying cheap beers at 7-11 and drinking them right outside while chatting up some new friends. We later head to a bar for a while, but Bar 7 was definitely the highlight of the night :-)

The crowded street by the bars and clubs

A Trip within a Trip within a Trip - Macau

Macau was a Portuguese colony in China so it has a cool mix of Chinese and Portuguese buildings and culture. It also happens to be the Las Vegas of Asia. Macau is just a short 1-hour ferry ride from Hong Kong, so we go for just a day during our HK trip. During the day we do the typical tourist sightseeing thing, but then we hit up the casinos. I really want to play some Texas Hold 'em, but the minimum to play is about $130 US and I don't want to risk that much so I go play blackjack with about $70. I manage to get that up to the minimum for poker so I take my chips away and try my hand at some hold 'em. I play pretty tight, while there's some Japanese guys there betting pretty crazy, like betting all-in pre-flop with $300. Anyways I manage to come away from the table with about $220, so all-in-all up $150. We head back to HK and decide to explore the "strip clubs" to celebrate...

Grand Lisboa - second tallest building in Macau and where I would win my millions

Hong Kong Hookers

So right back at our hotel in the midst of HK's red light district, we go into one of the "strip clubs". To our disappointment they are not strip clubs at all and the girls dance around in bikinis while looking extremely tired and depressed. There's no such thing as just dancers here, they're all hookers and the clubs are all fronts for prostitution. So I'm extremely curious about how this all works so I approach the mother figure of the place, aka the pimp, to ask about getting a girl for the night. She takes me aside and lets me know that I can have all my desires fulfilled for several hours for 2600 HKD (about $350 USD). I tell her I'm just a student, I don't have much money on me (she tells me I can use a credit card!), my credit limit is too low, Amsterdam is a lot cheaper, etc. and haggle her down to $1500 HKD (about $200 USD). Then I tell her I changed my mind and can't afford a girl and go back to talk to Sunny and Laura. A moment later, momma pulls me aside and tells me that I'm very tricky, that I never planned on getting a girl and just wanted to investigate... she wasn't really angry or anything, but I decided that we should probably leave at that point. Then in the middle of the night while Sunny and Laura were sleeping I snuck back into one of the clubs and bought one of the girls... no I'm jk... what happens in HK stays in HK, except for syphilis... and I don't want that shit!

Karaoke Clubs in Taiwan

Since karaoke is all the rage among Asians, we went to a karaoke club to check it out and sing the night away... it was actually pretty awesome! You get your own little room for your group, which was pretty comfy with great mood lighting... from the way the place looked I seriously thought some strippers were going to come in and give us lap dances. Beers are also real cheap with prompt room service and there's a great table in the middle of the couches for drinking games! Needless to say I drank many beers so that I would not be self-conscious about my awful singing skills :-)

Sunny, Laura, and Laura's friend singing their hearts out

Teaching English

Today was actually my last day teaching English here. It's pretty nice not having to worry about lesson plans and getting up early, but it was kinda a bummer too cuz those kids were so freakin adorable and now I'm not making any more money... they were paying me $18/hour to just play games with my students! I could even go into class hungover! Anyway, last night I bought some little gifts for my kids which were about 50 cents a piece and they were so excited about them it was ridiculous. I also had to pretend the whole time that I didn't understand any Chinese so that the students would always try to speak English to me. Near the end of class today I started speaking Chinese to them, which was once again cause for ridiculous excitement... aww I'm gonna miss them :-(

Gifts for my students

My Kids!