"ham & cheese & hong kong fun" -john

ok that title's a little misleading since a) john made it up and it doesn't actually make sense and b) we haven't actually done anything in hong kong yet. this post is mostly about shanghai. it's our second day in hong kong and we're just lounging in the morning so i figured it's time for a new post. by the way, i've been uploading a whole shitload of videos sporadically in the post right under this one so check that out. they're pretty fucked up from being uploaded through youtube but i'll learn to live with it. i'm enjoying our little break from living developing nation-style. i'm also enjoying the fact that i finally have my own bed. in beijing we picked up a little stray brit by the name of alex and we took him home with us to hangzhou. like a little puppy. in effect, that meant that i got to sleep squished between him and john in one bed since only john's bedroom is heated. they seem to think i should have felt like the envy of women everywhere. i did not.

we took a day trip to shanghai and unfortunately it was a little disappointing. it's just a whole lotta tall buildings, shopping (generally i'd be all over that shit but since we're ghetto backpackers, i cannot afford it) and smog. however at the bund, which is where you see the famous shanghai skyline, we did see the most phallic building of all time, the oriental pearl tower. it's pink too just to top it off.


we took the wierdest tram ride under the water in the bund and it was just like a series of lasers, smoke machines and neon lights with spooky voices saying stuff like "METEOR SHOWER!!!", "EARTH'S CORE!!!" apparently you're supposed to feel like you're going through the earth as you can see in the description of the ride. i can safely say that that is exactly how we felt.


for some reason or another, the 'package' ticket we got for the tram included visits to an attached marine exhibit and the "china sex culture & sex health exhibition". seemed a little random to us but what the hell. i believe john thoroughly enjoyed the sex exhibit and he even bought a miniature version of this:


aaaanyway, the real highlight of our shanghai trip was.....


ok yeah that was totally silly and anti-climatic especially since you all could totally see the picture right off the bat. we ate copious amounts of swedish meatballs and it was heaven.

on our last day in hangzhou, we went to a SPA. i think the name of it was love story. yeah that's right, love story. and it was some wierd shit. we both got decked out in super sexy purple floral print capri outfits and proceeded to be ultimately lazy for a few hours. they massage you not just with their hands but knees, elbows, feet. they even kick at your inner thighs, it's interesting. and we had the whole deal where they hold onto poles attached to the ceiling and step all over you. anyway it was nothing like i'd ever experienced and i felt pretty damn good afterwards. oh and we both got pedicures.

and so we arrived in hong kong yesterday and didn't really do anything at all cause we had our massive backpacks on us so we ended up sitting outdoors at a cafe in the harbour for a couple hours. then we made ourselves a temporary little home in the mall foodcourt near my cousin's apartment, which is where we're staying, till he got off work. basically we looked like dirty hobos. but now we're nestled comfortably in the apartment and john has a new life partner, a little fluffy dog named little piggy. and now we're gonna head on out and explore the city finally so look forward to more posts from hong kong...

oh yeah! and i tried giving my men's camo jacket away since it's not freezing here, and it got rejected by a begger. he took it, went off and tried it on, and then came back to give it back to us. is that not insulting? i felt very hurt, deep within my very soul. i left the jacket out on a bench.