Pretty Hongkong

We are super enthu about anything Beijing

FUWA!! We actually hate them.

Star Ferry!

All aboard!

Time to shop! No time to stop! BYE ALL!

The Olympics is approaching. My time to leave is coming. Everyone in Beijing’s excited, but not as madly ecstatic as we perceive them to be. There’s a price tag attached to the privilege of hosting the Olympics. Sure we see vast improvements in Beijing and in certain parts of China but there are the other parts of China that remain neglected. It has become increasingly difficult to travel within the city despite efforts to reduce the traffic congestion. Cars are allowed to drive on certain days depending on the last digit of their car plate numbers. The subways and public buses are crowded no matter what time of the day. Entering the country has never been harder for most of us.

Still, I can feel the quiet energy tingling in the atmosphere. It really is infectious. Everywhere you turn, you see someone wearing an ‘I <3 China’ Tshirt OR a Beijing 2008 Tshirt OR a volunteer’s Tshirt. Chinese sportsmen endorsing commercials on TV are a dime a dozen, not to mention the many Beijing 2008 songs that have surfaced. Sometimes it features Chinese singers who mispronounce their way through English lyrics ONE WORLD ONE DREAM. We try our best to holler along with it no matter what.

Speaking of the volunteers, they are extremely zealous and too happy to help you find your way around the city (probably because it’s their first week of volunteering). Even the 60+ year old aunties and uncles in our estate are volunteer guards. Really, you can virtually hear them screaming ‘BEIJING WELCOMES YOU’. Say what you will about communism and propaganda, but I reckon the patriotic spirit here is admirable and we Singaporeans have a lot to learn from.

Oh yes I’d like to seize the opportunity here to dispel the common misconception that the Chinese are hostile and inhospitable. Most Chinese are very nice when you bother to talk to them! They especially love to hear the story of how our grandparents were from the Guangdong and Fujian province.

You guys see the happy snippets of our adventures in (and out of) Beijing. It looks fun and we truly have a lot of fun! But life over here isn’t always a bed of roses (we try to limit our complaints on the blog). It’s not funny when you desperately need to use the toilet and you know there’s one near you because you can smell it from 10 metres away. I used to get so frustrated when people jumped my queue and all I did was open and close my mouth like a goldfish then imagine a scenario where I’d scold them ‘Is this what you call an Olympic spirit?! Is this your way of welcoming guests? Jumping queue!’. I have ever since gotten braver and I’d tell them to get in line.

In just 2 days’ time our stint in Beijing will be over and in another 8 days’ I’ll be home. I am excited to go home to my friends (A.soh, friday nightsters, taitais and misc friends: it’s been too long), clean toilets, fixed price tags, sterilized food and proper queuing system. I will impress all of you with my new found proficiency in Mandarin!

Honestly I’m really sad to leave Beijing. All of a sudden there are so many places that I need to see for one last time and so many that I haven’t had the chance to see. Who knows when I’ll come back here again? Who knows how much Beijing will change? Will the Hutong hustlers still be around? I’m not sure if I’m capable of muttering a proper ‘goodbye’ to this city without choking on my tears. Serious.

So long Beijing, it’s been good.

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P.S (This is not the end of Hochoy yet. We’ll try to update in HK!)

Once upon a time

My hair was fine

A little too longish

But otherwise quite kind

But one fine day my fingers got itchy

I wanted a pair of scissors to get snippy snippy

I popped by a salon without much thought

Hoping they would make my hair look more hot

I said give me my bangs back!

No give me more!

The gay hairdresser looked at me in horr’r

He said well okay I’ll comb more from the back

And with those faithful words he started to hack

Woe is me!

I have to pay the price

Of not listening to my hairdressers advice

I look like a mushroom!

A mushroom indeed

I can only pray that my hair grows with much speed

FANGBONGAYHOCHOY ON GREAT WALL!

Oh yeah! S Club 5 ish pic!

The previous night when I was watching SATC in my room, Lauren and Gay tiptoed to my room and whispered conspicuously asking me to come out and snap a picture in the living room.

Look what I got here! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

Back to the real content for today- GR8 WALL OF CHINA!

We finally all managed to get up in time and depart for the Great Wall. As you all know, the Great Wall is HUGE (only man made structure that can be seen from the outerspace) so there are different parts of the Great Wall that tourists can choose to go.

Most tourists go to Badaling. But we, the indie tourists, decided to challenge Mutianyu instead. We took an hour bus ride out to the suburbs and took an illegal cab out to Mutianyu.

4 in the backseat! Zebra seats!

Here we are in Mutianyu!

We took the chair lift up the Great Wall. Lauren is terrified of chair lifts.

Hahahhaa

Laugay were in front of Fang and I. We could hear her shrieking all the way.

We’re in the mountains now!

Represent represent! China!

We trudge our way over to begin our trek on the Wall.

Gay <3s Gr8wall

Bong <3s Gr8wall

Bongay <3s Gr8wall

Thankfully it wasn’t hot that day. BUT unfortunately it was raining- so that means we can’t take the toboggan down. We came to Mutianyu for the toboggan! SULKS.

We accosted a random tourist and requested for a group shot. Check it!!!

Hahahahahhaa

Woohoo. V formation! V for Victory!

It was nice and cooling. We were on cloud 9! Or Cloud10?? I can’t tell.

We are Chinese hear us roar

Kisses for China!

Laugay

After the Great Wall, we travelled back to the city. Since our guests have been so fun, Laur and I decided to buy them a duckie meal (Peking duck!).

Don’t play play. It’s QUANJUDE okay – the LV of all ducks (Can be found in many places and lots of copycats). Not cheap.

HAHAHAH EVERYBODY DROOL

We had Yoshi for breakfast! Which explains the groggy look

I want to sleep. And I’m wearing the same thing as the previous night cos I pay for my own laundry. Better wear it till its gawd-awful smelling before I send it to wash!

They want to sleep (see Fang chugging on coffee?)

Gay goes for smoke break.

After dragging our asses off the chair, we reluctantly trudged our way to the subway station. We had to change trains at the Xizhimen station. Summerpal is located somewhere in the suburbs of Beijing, so travelling time was estimated to be slightly more than an hour.

XIIIIIIIIIII ZHIIIIIIIIIIIIIII MENNNNNNNNNNN is as long as the walk in Citylink. Or maybe I’m exaggerating!

HOBBITS. We are the Xizhimen warriors!

14 yuan cab ride later, we arrived in Summer Pal! It was hawt

I pretend that I know how to read maps, Fang pretends to be excited about reading maps, Bong smiles for the cam.

Preparations for Summerpal being: Lots of water and film!

Love in Summerpal (macham Love in Harvard muahahaha miso funnie)

I hate this picture! But all my friends like it so I will post it *grumble*

LTB MATES REUNITED IN BEIJINGGGG!!!!

It was a madhouse in Summerpal. Humans everywhere, umbrellas threatening to poke your eyeballs.

Check out how mother huge Summerpal is! As big as the entire west side of Singapore?

(Credits: kinabaloo.com)

We were lazy bums looking for lazy method; we rented a pedal boat (is that what it’s called?) to cruise around the Kunming Lake to view the attractions around the lake.

Go hamsters! Pedal hard!

I take some pictures of nekkid boys

You can see the Longevity Hill behind! We were supposed to climb that so our families will live forever. But we were lazy lazy lazy

Okay see there’s Empress Dowager Cixi’s marble boat. I just read up on it on Wiki and it’s actually made of wood and painted to look like marble! Coool

I think Lauren took over the pedalling

Lauren has fantastic sense of direction. Perfect passenger!

Woohoo Fang photohunts me!

We are about to cruise through a bridge. I pretend we’re in Suzhou (the Venice of China)

It is so hot that Zhicong decides to traumatize all the visitors with the sight of his topless body

I’m the captain of the boat!

Lauren was nipple-whacked when Zhicong reached over to take something from Bong. (Lauren was feeling ill)

We returned the boat and explored Summerpal on foot

Fang is insistent that this is where Huanzhugege was filmed

Okay we were tired of exploring. We wanted an early dinner! So Laur and I brought them to the Korean restaurant that Brenda brought us to before.

Check out Bong! He is about to drool!

CHOYHO

FOOD, WE WANT.

Next step, add in the cheese

Ready for consumption!

We took a cab home (40 freaking yuan!!!) to shower and show Bong the most beautiful shopping mall in Beijing, The Place! The Zara here is HUGE and this is where the best looking people of Beijing can be found. That’s why we’re there!

I am now 3 shades darker than pre-Summerpal and pre-TOH. Sob.

The morning after our happening Friday night we planned to wake up at 9am to embark on our trip to the Great Wall. Most unfortunately however, we all overslept and only managed to leave the house slightly after 11am!

We dragged our tired butts down to Mcdonald’s for brunch.

Healthy Bong was exclaiming over the calories in our fries. We pointedly chose to ignore him.

We decided that it was way too late in the day to head out of the city where the section of the Great Wall was, especially since we missed the morning tourist bus and were rather clueless as to how to get down by ourselves and went instead down to the southern part of the city where our favourite tea house was, leaving the expedition to another day.

THE BONG PAU CONNECTION

Bong and his err manly rose tea

After several “paos” of teas and rose cookies (Bong loved them so much we went to the wholesaler so he could bring some back for his family) Pauline and I reluctantly agreed to go with them to the temple of heaven for the second time.

It was better than expected! In my opinion, TOH is the most beautiful structures in Beijing, and managed to take my breath away for the second time.

WOOT couple shot sorry guys

Gay gets anti-gravitational with his practical but obiang to the max crocs

Da BoYzZ

Pretending we’re Huanzhu again..

HOCHOY! We’re so pleased that its not just the two of us anymore. Last time when we went sightseeing we would have to badger random people to help us take a picture of us together! NO LONGER!

And because it was a BLEEDING HOT DAY, our top two essentials:

WATER!

SUNSCREEN!!!

And lots and lots and lots of shade:

Hiding from the sun behind one of the temple buildings

Yay TOH!!!

Choy Gay Ho Bong loves TOH!!

We hopped home quick after that cause we were all freaking sweaty and wanted to shower before the arrival of FANG!!!

Fang’s here Fang’s here!!!

Where else but Xidan for suan la fern slurps

Er and fruit time and kao you yu and rou jia mo. Look how fat and happy we are!

1. Curling up with your immense collection of pirated DVDs
2. A night on the town

Seeing as we are such law-abiding citizens and DON’T SUPPORT PIRACY (heh heh heh) there was no doubt as to which option pho-bong-lau-gay chose! Plus it was the less loser way to spend the start of the weekend.
First up! The initiation of Bonggay into the cult of KUANDIAN aka the place with the damn yummy spicy chicken wings. I am glad to report that it received two thumbs up from Chef Bong and Connoisseur Gay!

Pregame dinner at DONG FANG JIAO ZHI WAN dumplings dumplings dumplings

Two hungry angry men

Tsingtao and wings… no better combination

Still waiting….

THEY’RE HERE THEY’RE HERE!!! round one

yum

Note the extremely glazed look in Bong’s eyes

Gay doesn’t even bother slowing down as I wave my camera in front of him

ANNIHILATION!!

Thanks to extensive research (flipping through the Beijinger which I stunned from Hyatt) we did, we found Beijing to offer an extensive selection of clubs and bars. We first decided to hit Block8, a Beijing institution, known for its various rooms/bars such as The Beach, i-ultra lounge, and Haiku by Hatsune. We however were more interested in checking out the selection of good lookers.

Still sober at the White Rabbit

Upon reaching there we found the dance floor empty, the drinks exorbitant, and to get a table you have to spend a minimum of RMB2,500. WHAT????!!!??? We quickly split and bunnyhopped over to White Rabbit, an underground dance club which was touted as “best place to dance the night away” with the “best sound system” where the MORSE party was going on.

Getting there..

When we got there we were slightly disappointed once again. The club was only about as big as your regular 3 room HDB flat and it was kinda.. dingy. But nevertheless we persevered and hit up some much-needed alchy and took the dance floor by storm!!!

After working up a sweat we decided not to waste our entry to Block8 and skipped back where the four cheapskate Singaporeans sipped on free water at the bar and ogled Beijing’s best.

I can’t tell if it was the alcohol, but the locals at Block8 DID look much better. However, the problem remains that there weren’t even enough of these rare creatures to fill a dance floor space, much less a vast city.

Last friday, while Laugay went on their lo-man-tick dinner date at Vinyard, Team Xidan here had a very important mission to accomplish.

吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西

Okok, enough. You get the drift!

First stop, my favourite food in the whole wide world: SUAN LA FEN

Omg, I am salivating right now.

Comments on the Beijing guys by Bong:

“Wah I think I’m easily the buffest guy within our 10m radius”

LOLOLOL! Okay but it’s true.

Don’t focus on criticizing how distorted my face is- LOOK AT HOW DELISH THE SQUID IS!

Oooh heaven is a place on earth

I was pleased that Bong really enjoyed the BJ street food, and relieved that he didn’t have diarrhea the next day.

Then after this, Bong went Bonkers in Zara and FCUK (mainly Zara)

Sale? Hell yeah!

FCUK scuks. They might as well not have a sale with the kind of prices they charge after 20%.

After we were done with 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西 吃东西 买东西, we met up with Team Vinyard for drinks at Houhai! Houhai is the Clarke Quay of Beijing, in case you’ve forgotten.

Man, I love SATC.

I was really lucky to sit beside this kitty. It had a popcorn stuck to its ass. I tried to detach the popcorn for kitty, but kitty snared at me.

Awwwww

Check out Bong’s shopping. He bought more chopsticks to add to his 12389712937912 collection.

Laugay is (singular, not plural) like the kitty with the popcorn. 2gether 4ever!

Group pic! Not very flattering for the Hochoy. Lauren flashed her panties and my forehead looks like its oily enough to be frying some omelette on it.

Proceed with caution.

So as most of you know (from two entries back) my 21st birthday was last Thursday! On the day itself Gay took me out on a special date to celebrate! We had dinner at the Vineyard Café, a charming little courtyard restaurant tucked away in the hutongs around the Yonghegong area.

Getting ready at home!

Pauline and Bong were in the meantime heading to Xidan for the first of Bong’s gastronomic adventures! More about that in the next entry.

At Vineyard Café! We had Potato skins for our appetizers (please note the DOF thanks to my lousy camera’s macro function!)

Food Food lots of food! We shared the Quattro Formaggi pizza and meatball spaghetti for our mains and everything were DELISH

The man who made it happen, looking chui in his specs

Finally a not so blurry shot of me…

Vineyard by night.

Not many pictures but it really was a lovely night. After our meal we sat there for a bit just relaxing and enjoying each other’s company as Gay had a post dinner cocktail. It’s been forever since we went out on a date, and an unexpectedly perfect way to celebrate the passing of another year, and the coming of age (OKAY CHEEZE I KNOW) .