Out of Order in dates but Guangzhou Explorations!

We went to see Batman v Superman and there was this Hulk Iron Man...I couldn't resist the picture!

Who would I be if I hadn't found another brewery in GZ???

 Neat decor inside!

And...entertainment? outside! They all just started singing this song A Capella outside the bar! China is weird. And awesome.

Neat view from my apartment...but holy smog.

As I was headed to work this lovely Friday morning... I saw them doing a dragon dance.

Just continuing down the street.
It was soooo cool!

This was referred to as "Ground Zero" of Guangzhou (obviously a much different meaning in America) but it was where Guangzhou was started, where Cantonese culture began. 

As immense as China is, Guangzhou is still ENORMOUS, I haven't even seen half of what I want! The days I end up wandering are sometimes the best. I try to remember to take pictures but, sometimes, in certain stores, or certain temples, I feel it's entirely inappropriate, so I keep it logged in my head. Here are some pictures of my latest wanderings:

I was wandering around trying to find the temple from the directions: Leave Exit B from the Metro, walk about 500 meters and you will see the Temple... no, just no. 

This was called "The Bride"

I tried to figure out what this building was, but from where the signs were placed, and how far out the fences were around it, I couldn't read them. I assume governmental something or another.

The temple was down a couple of blocks, around a corner and down a few more blocks... Silly directions....

One afternoon we went to the Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King. The reason this tomb was found was because they started to dig down to build a hotel in this very location, even though this area had a lot of rich history and culture already. Then, they discovered this tomb. Buried with more than 1,000 artifacts this king was buried with 15 courtiers, whom were buried alive to serve him in death, these included concubines, farmers, guards, etc. They even found remains of livestock and remnants of vegetables that were to feed him in the afterlife. 

It just so happened our "Regional Lunch" for Disney ended up on Brianne and Flik's birthdays. They were not entirely stoked for this. We had to come up with videos for "If your center were a TV show, what TV show would you be?" We decided to do LipSync Battle with Disney songs, it was a lot of fun. I did horribly but meh. Then, we had to do a skit/play/dance in front of all of Disney. Sharday and Mike were supposed to be in the front, however, Mike ended up not being able to soooo Haley got to do it!........ so not happy about it. I didn't want to do a dance to begin with. Nobody else volunteered. Gah. Anyways, our video got second place so I guess that's cool.

Then drinks...

Then a walk to KTV (karaoke)

I got a little picture happy...

Also, the food at the annual lunch was terrible..this is 13 Factories...where they have Chicken and Waffles...yup...

On another adventure, my roommate and I decided to go out to lunch, where we initially went had a sad face as the health rating, we decided against and came to this place instead! (The name is currently escaping me Luk something...) Anways, I thought the decor and atmosphere was pretty neat.

Egg rolls and sweet potato somethings

Flower tea! Yeah, it was interesting looking. Definitely something you drink with the lid still on so you get as few floaties as possible!

Mmm decent Chinese beer....

I ate poached frog for the first time! This stuff was CRAZY spicy but frog is pretty good! :)

Spring Break!

As I said earlier, China doesn't have the same breaks as America, obviously. My brother decided to take his Spring Break to come see me! Unfortunately, it was only for four days and I tried to cram a few too many things/places in and jetlag is a cruel, cruel thing. We went to Zhuhai, Macau, and spent a night in Hong Kong. He didn't get the best image/view of Hong Kong which makes me sad but maybe someday I can change that for him! First thing, his plane gets in late, well, landed pretty close to on time, but drove around the tarmac for nearly an hour, yay organizational skills in China!... Then, his luggage is lost. That is fun to deal with when you don't speak the same language. We went to go check in at the hotel and went down to talk to them to try have them send it to the hotel instead of my apartment, so someone could be there to accept it so we didn't have to stay at the hotel all day. So, we assume that is getting sorted out, we go out and explore some of GZ, he gets the culture shock of, "I think we're in the women's department." "Nope, brother this whole floor is Men's Wear." "No, that's got sequins!" "Still Men's..." haha. There was  lot of that. He got a couple shirts since we didn't know when he'd be getting his luggage. Ate some food and went back to the hotel, they'd figured out nothing with the luggage and we were supposed to be headed to Zhuhai the next day. Finally, the next morning we get a call, we can go pick up his luggage or they can have it sent to the hotel. Screw it, let's just go get it. So we go retrieve it and head to Zhuhai, we get to the hotel and decided to head out to get to Macau.

From one of Adam's purchases... I just loved the bag!

On our way to the hotel in Zhuhai!

My Easter and Birthday goodies from home! yay!

Venetian at Macau... it was so very... Vegas, while also being... so very Chinese....

Peking Duck done right... we couldn't get enough, it was absolutely amazing!
And Adam learned the hard way (bad, sister, bad! I forgot to mention...) that there are still bones in almost all meats, including the chicken I ordered... I don't even think about it anymore! Oops! It turned him off of chicken the rest of his stay :(

This is also where we gambled! He won on a risky roulette bet. Then, I started losing lots at roulette, then she paid us out wayyyyyy higher than she was supposed to so he walked out higher than he came in with and I...nearly broke even... We learned gambling in Macau is suuuper expensive!

Coffee shop in the hotel: Thought for the Day: Coffee... yes, yes please!

 MGM at Macau with Lions and all.. albeit strange lions, but lions nonetheless!













By 11, we'd only found one rather expensive bar and decided we didn't want to risk finding another and not making it back across the border into Zhuhai where our hotel was. So, we headed back to what had earlier been referred to as "Bar Street" in Zhuhai. Where we spent the next SIX HOURS, drinking drinks, getting bored and being AMAZED. At one point we were both like, "Well, I can officially say this is my favorite China moment, oh my god..."

 The clubs in China are ridiculous. The clubs in Zhuhai apparently do synchronized dancing and singing! Everyone... employees, clientele, it was ridiculous. I hope for your sake these videos work. They are priceless. This last photo is from the second place we went, when we first walked in, it was some guy rapping in Chinese, then this guy comes out, he looks like he should be in a Chinese telenovela, and sang like that as well. If that makes any sense. But, it was crazy weird. As was this bar, we ended up going back to the first one, nothing exciting was happening there anymore, but we did (possibly) try to get picked up by a prostitute... which is just that much more awkward when it's with your big bro! We stayed out til 5 am because clubs in China just don't close. It was reallllly fun. But, we woke up exhausted and had to head out to Hong Kong on a boat the next day. Turns out, my stomach is not a huge fan of ferry rides that last 1+hours. The more you know... It ended up that I accidentally booked a hotel that was crazy far away from where we wanted to be in Hong Kong. Oops. So, we did some window shopping then took the metro into Hong Kong, found a couple bars, had a few drinks and went back to the hotel so we could head back to Guangzhou the next day. We got back later than expected, went by the mall by my place for Malaysian food and went back to the hotel to sleep because we had to get up at 4 to get him to the airport for his flight!

View from the restaurant in Zhuhai

Pink Elephant beer!

Suggestions from Hong Kong bartenders

This may be why Adam didn't think Hong Kong was pretty...our hotel room view :-/

Overall, it was definitely a blast, far too short but any time spent with my brother is great :)