没事 (Mei Shi) No Problem

Kuala Lumpur

    After we got things started at the airport, we decided to go stay in China Town. We chose China town because it seemed like it was central to many areas and it was one of two areas which has budget accommodation. The other area with budget accommodation is called Golden Triangle and seems to be nearby the Patronas Towers. China Town, like other China Towns we have been too, was essentially a place where people come to buy cheap counterfeit goods. In fact, at night this China Town was packed with people shopping so much so that, it would take an hour or more to walk from one end to another and back and the total distance was about a kilometer. Some of the items on the street were of high quality, but for the most part, it was the same items that you could get at any market in China and we did not buy much there. Actually, most of the sales people were of Indian decent, not Chinese...ironic.

    During this time, the city was filled with Arab people on a shopping holiday because it was "Sale Season" in Kuala Lumpur. We found out that in July and August every year, things go on sale and huge discounts on every sort of item is available and we did a fair share of shopping ourselves. We did not waste much time on the items in the street market, we went to the mall and got authentic and high quality items for a minute price. If you can get to Kuala Lumpur during this time of year, it is brilliant for shopping and all of the name brands are authentic in the real malls.

    We did most of our shopping in an area called Imbi, which is only one station from China town. During this time I filled my whole new work wardrobe for the year, got two pair of glasses, we got new luggage and Jiao Jiao got tons of new and very unique clothes. We spent about 500 dollars on all of this shopping and for the quality we got, it would have been worth a thousand dollars.

    In plan, I did not want to spend too much time in Kuala Lumpur on our vacation, I wanted to go straight to the beach. However, our unfortunate baggage issue caused us to need to stay in Kuala Lumpur for a bit longer. Our original plan had been to take a bus to a port city and then a ferry to Tiomen Island, but this was modified and we took a flight to Tiomen instead. There is one major discount airline working in Malaysia, that I know of, and that is Air Asia...they are actually expanding their business into China. www.airasia.com. You can book flights on the net or they have an office in the Central Station of Kuala Lumpur.

    However, this airline does not travel to Tiomen, so we had to book with a much smaller airline called Berjaya Air. I am not sure about their website, but they had very simple service and you could basically just go to their little airport and jump on the plane for a 40 minute flight.

    Anyway, we did not do a lot of things in Kuala Lumpur as we were busy with luggage stuff the first days and busy with shopping the last days. Here are some pictures of the city and the things we did, followed by a video of the roller coaster inside of the mall at Imbi station.

The Gates of China Town

A Temple on the way to Imbi Station

A sign on the subway, classic!

The Petronas Towers

Me in front of the Petronas Towers

A couple of buildings around the towers, beautiful blue sky.

The towers at night, from a distance.

The food street perpendicular to the shopping street of China Town.

A beer that is insanely expensive. Since Malaysia is a Muslim country, vices such as beer are very expensive. However, Tiomen island is duty free and so the alcohol is cheap. However, the locals do not participate in those sorts of activities. Also, they do not look kindly upon sexual extravagance. One American dive instructor on the island was beaten up by the local men for his philandering ways. Much different than other South East Asian nations we have visited.

Here is a picture of our toilet in the hotel room. I have taken this picture because it is a good example of the toilet habits of the nation. You notice that the wall has a hose, this is for washing your butt after you have a movement. Every toilet we entered had a hose, but maybe not tissue paper. It began to gross out Jiao Jiao when she would enter a toilet and the floor was covered with water. The natives use their right hand to eat, bare hand mind you, and their left hand for washing after their business and thus, it is not polite to wave or offer something with your left hand. Takes all kinds. I guess they save on waste paper though.

Here is the video of the roller coaster in the mall.

The Dalian Zoo

One of our last days in Dalian, we decided to go to the zoo. We had actually planned to go to the zoo on the first day, but then the sneaky taxi driver talked us into going on a wild adventure into the unknown and we ended up at the safari park. On this day, we would not have such a situation.

The Dalian zoo is huge compared to other zoos I have visited. It takes up an enormous area of land in the middle of the city and actually has some mountains inside. One day in the zoo is enough for any person to be tired. It is not the case that the zoo is congested though, you have to walk long distances between animals. The environment for some of the animals is suitable, but like most zoos, the larger animals do not have enough space to move. You could see some of the really big animals starting to go a bit wacky and walk around in circles just so they could move. Another thing that was interesting is that they had some baby tigers in a cage that you could pet (for a fee) and right next to that, they had a full grown tiger that you could stand next to and get your picture taken (for a fee). According to Jiao Jiao, at a smaller provincial zoo, this same activity had resulted in the death of a child. It makes sense, not only do they put the tiger on a seat and make it take pictures with people, but between pictures they poke it with sticks and shit. How foolish could they be?

Anyway, they did have some good animals and it was relatively clean. Here are some pictures of animals and then there will be one video of the elephant show, which was excellent. Jiao Jiao participated.

These are red pandas, much more fun than the black and white ones. Every time I see a Giant Panda, it looks like this...

LAZY

Here are some other animals before the movie.

And now, here is the video.

North Korean Border, Dan Dong

We had decided early on that an interesting trip for my parents would be to the North Korean border at Dan Dong. I have had friends that traveled there before and told me the things that were there and so we decided to take the trip and see the border.

It was to be a four hour bus ride Dalian to Dan Dong, provided we could find the correct bus to take. Of course, like any other thing on vacation and in Northern China in particular, people try to get a cut out of you. The day before, we had been at the bus station and had asked about getting  a bus to Dan Dong and the bus station employee had told us that he could help us out and gave us a card...of a completely unofficial bus. Usually people wander around outside bus stations, but it is not usually going on with the employees. This is just a thing that we have experienced in North part, very similar experiences in Harbin. Here is the bus station area in Dalian.

However, we FINALLY found the bus to take, and it was a nice one!!!Big with air conditioning and relatively comfortable seats. Actually, the seats on the bus were assigned which saved some confusion. Here is a picture from the bus during the trip. The landscape was hilly and green. There were many farm houses and lots of farm land. Actually, a lot of the farm houses looked western - and could have been western owned. Cheap land up that way for a person that wants to farm, labor not bad either I suppose.

As soon as we reached Dan Dong we checked into a cheap hotel and then walked to the border crossing with North Korea. Dan Dong is a tiny town and it was easy to walk around it. Here are the videos we took at the crossing. Also on the boat ride.

After we got off the boat, my dad asked if anyone needed to use the bathroom. Showing us the way to the 5 star WC.

We did not actually use the toilet!

As we walked back towards the hotel we came across a strange scene where a woman was running around naked in the street and being a real bother. She started to chase us when she saw foreigners and we scurried away. Since she was messing with us, I decided to video her activities. Once the police arrived, she left.

The next day we went to the Museum of American Aggression. I am not a big fan of museums in general, as I may have shown when we went to the Museum of Japanese Nastiness in Harbin. The outside of the museum was gorgeous, great weather and blue skies and we had a good walk around the facility on the outside.

The inside of this facility was extremely full of SHIT. haha

The stuff that many of these displays showed was just funny, the dates and what not were really something. Most foreigners know that mainland Chinese have a skewed view of history, but this place is extreme.

However, on the outside there was a lot o cool war equipment.

After this museum, we took the bus back to Dalian. We went back into our hotel and the next day we went to the Zoo. Will give that post next.

Rain Day Dalian 4

The first day after we arrived in Dalian, the weather was a little damp. Actually, it was pouring like crazy. We had no possibility of outside activity what-so-ever. The first day, after our crazy adventure at the animal park and thin Xing Hai Park, we met a man that could get us a discount to all of the indoor amusement in Dalian. The way that it works is, he give you transportation from your hotel to the Dolphin World, Reef World and Seal World parks, which are all at the same place, and then he takes you home. In return, you pay the normal price or a little less and he buys you tickets with his frequent user card and keeps the discounted difference.

So, since we had nothing else we could possibly do, we took the man up on his offer and went to Dolphin World, Reef World and Seal World. The Dolphin World had a great show, Reef World was full of cool fish and Seal World SUCKED! The best thing about the Seal World was the show, which was two foreigners running around being silly. Here is a video of the show at Dolphin World and also a shark tank at Reef World.

Dolphin Show 1

Dolphin Show 2

Shark Tank Video

Japanese Culture Street Dalian 3

Jiao Jiao and I went out for late night snacks. We turned right at the corner and headed to what looked to be a lighted area. The short alley way had signs labeling it at both ends, like a China town in a small city.

As we walked in, we noticed that it was not your normal street. Actually, it was a street full of sushi bars and the girls that came out to promote the food appeared to be promoting more than food. Jiao Jiao commented that the sign itself means Japanese Culture Street.

We finally settled on a place to sit down and eat fried fish outside the culture street. As we ate, multiple taxis stopped and their patrons entered the bars. A few men came out with companions, including a big black guy. Guess he did not hear that the street was for Japanese guys only. Here is a video giving Jiao Jiao's perspective.

Dalian Part 2

We took the farmers city bus back towards Dalian when we noticed that we kept getting past by a light rail train, so we decided to give the train a try after we got off the bus. We rode that for a short while and then we can upon a park, Xing Hai Park...the most famous park in Dalian. When Jiao Jiao's father was in the Navy near Dalian, it was famous as well.

At the park, we walked around, rented double bikes and rode around and just enjoyed the day. They had glider rides, but we did not participate. We watched a lot of them though.

There was a couple horse statues with a sign asking people not to climb on them and a line of people waiting to climb on them. HAHA

Here we are taking pictures at various places around the park!

We finished off the afternoon with a Ji Dan Bin - Egg Bread Sandwich. Here is the video of them making that. In Dalian they have put a western twist onto it.

Here is the link to the Dalian Photos.

That night, after dinner, Jiao Jiao was still a little hungry, so we went out for a late snack. Behind our hotel was the Japanese Culture Street...You can see more about that place next time.

Summer Travel Part 1 Dalian

    After the wedding, my parents and Jiao Jiao and I went to Dalian to escape the blistering Beijing heat. We had no real focus other than getting out of the big hustle and bustle for a short time. Jiao Jiao had booked us a hotel in Dalian for a very reasonable rate. However, when we arrived at the Dalian International Airport, we were greeted by a China travel representative in the airport and she told us that actually, the place we intended to stay was very far from the city and so we should change. She was more than capable of providing us with a suitable option and she could help us get there. As it turns out, the hotel she sent us to saw that we were foreigners and the manager gave us 2 business class rooms for the price of a standard room.
    We arrived, had a rest and then went for a walk in the city, not looking for anything but seeing what we could find. We could feel that our lack of focus was not going to help us and so we decided to go to the zoo. We flagged a taxi, who said that the zoo sucks, but he could take us to an animal site that was super. And thus we ended up at the Dalian Tiger and Bear Safari. Here you had chicken eating tigers, coke drinking and duck eating bears and a gaggle of Chinese tourists on tour buses. And US!
     It actually cost us about 100 kuai to get to the place, that taxi driver for sure happy about that. The show was not more than 20 minutes, and guess who was waiting for us outside...the taxi driver..."You want to go home or to another place?" he asked slyly. This almost never happens to Jiao Jiao and I, but it happened this time. Here is the video of the park.

    After we finished, the taxi driver asked us if we wanted to go to the beach nearby, he then dropped us off at  a place that was closed and took off...a really odd thing to do...but I think foreigners were not allowed where he had taken us and he hit the road quickly, leaving us to wait for a local bus. What a fantastic day!

    All in all, I would say that it was pretty fun considering we made it home unscaled.