By Kendall, on July 25th, 2010
I was at Yam Cha (Dim Sam) today and of course they gave me Jasmine tea without even asking which tea I wanted. Being a non-Chinese person I couldn’t possibly drink anything but, right? I asked for a different tea and they only had Pu’er or Wulung. Since the Pu’er there is horrible I chose the Wulong (which turned out to be just as bad).
Something funny happened though: A man walked in who looked Chinese, but couldn’t speak Cantonese at all. I knew this because when the waiter asked him ＂飲咩呀茶＂(What tea do you want to drink?) he put up his hand and showed two fingers saying, “Two people.” They only ask you what tea you want to drink if you look Chinese. Really annoying. I like asking them why they didn’t ask me what tea I wanted and seeing their confused reaction.
By Kendall, on July 1st, 2010
I’m in Hong Kong spending the night before heading out tomorrow by Air-o-plane. I had dinner at a nice and (relatively) cheap vegetarian restaurant. I’m not looking forward to the 24 hours of travel that await me tomorrow.
By Kendall, on June 23rd, 2010
Yesterday Tony, Jay, and I went to a vegetarian yamcha (dimsam) restaurant. I’ve been looking for a vegetarian yamcha joint since I became a vegetarian last year. Until now I’ve been going to the regular ones and only had a small selection. We were all very excited to find this place and it was delicious, really close to my house, and extremely cheap! I think I’m going to fatten up again because I will find it hard to keep away from this place!
By Kendall, on June 4th, 2010
On Tuesday Tony and I went to the tea market in FongChun (芳村) to accomplish three things: drink really expensive tea for free, buy some really inexpensive tea, and do some filming for our blog at tea legends. And yes, in case you were wondering, we didn’t pay them to film there, so that was free too!
Overall the tea was fantastic. We had a tea called, “Fragrance of a Thousand Miles,” and another called, “Golden Quick-Horse Eyebrows,” and yet another called, “Big Red Robe.” Of course you’d think that Fragrance of a Thousand Miles would taste the best, but Golden Quick-Horse Eyebrows outdid it. Big Red Robe, also known as Da Hong Pao (大紅袍) was the one that knocked our socks off. It’s the strongest of the three and was also the most expensive. We had two varieties. Expensive and really, really expensive. One of the teas cost over $1,600 per kilogram. That’s about $8 per brew. Each brew gets about 4 small Chinese style teacups which, when poured into a western style mug, would be half a cup. So basically it’s $16 a cup!
 The Master at Work The girl preparing the tea didn’t mind showing us as many teas as we pleased (rhymes eh?), so we sat there for a solid 3 hours drinking and drinking. By the time we got up I had the tea shakes. Tony joked that if I started to shake the girl would get some cakes for me to try to counter the effects of the tea. I put my hand above my cup and started to shake it, and sure enough she ran to the cupboard to fetch some cakes. She told us she had been working in this same teashop for 6 years. Every day she prepares tea for customers and drinks it with them. We often see her identifying different types of tea laid out on trays just by smelling them! She’s a true master!
 Tony's Rating System Here you can see Tony’s 5-Star Rating System. A tea that get’s 5 stars is said to be orgasmic. A tea that you would find in a restaurant in Chinatown (or any tea that comes in a bag; not that I don’t like teabags) wouldn’t get a star on this list. It just can’t compare.
If you want to see more pictures of the day, you can have a look at my Tea Legends set on flickr. Below I leave you with a picture illustrating a glass pitcher being used to cool the water before using it to brew the tea. Some teas require not-so-hot water apparently.
By Kendall, on May 28th, 2010
I saw a common sight today. Common, yet not so common. It was a man smoking right next to his 5 year-old daughter. Parents in China often smoke in front of their children, so that’s not what made this guy special. What made him special is that he was waiting outside a children’s hospital with her, and she had an I.V. bag hooked into her arm. He was holding the bag on a long pole and smoking his cigarette. It just seemed a bit ironic! Take your kid to the hospital to get better, and then enjoy a refreshing cigarette while you wait!
By Kendall, on May 27th, 2010
I finally moved to my own server! I said I’d do it here, but never got around to it until now. It’s about time!
I’ve also been experimenting with reverse lens macro. Basically you take the lens off your SLR and flip it around to get a makeshift macro lens. Great results!
By Kendall, on May 13th, 2010
I deleted my facebook account on Sunday. It’s now Thursday, and the info and pictures won’t actually be deleted until next next Sunday. Yep, it takes two weeks for them to delete an account. I doubt all my info and pictures will be deleted permanently. There are probably backups hidden away somewhere in an underground facility in Texas. Just like in the movies.
Why delete the account? The reasons are many. The main reason is a personal reason, which in retrospect won’t be helped by posting all my information publicly on the web, but I’ve done it nonetheless! Other reasons for my getting drastic are discussed here and here I’ll be using this blog from now on to keep family and friends updated with my life over here in the Magical Middle Kingdom.
Today I met my friend Kenny in T-Mall and we had lunch in the Spaghetti House. They had a vegetarian lasagne that wasn’t bad. I really liked the soup. Can’t remember what is was called now, but it was delicious.
Yesterday I had dinner with another friend and was entertained with a Chinglish sign on the way to the bathroom.
That’s right. It’s not the toilet anymore. It’s the Hoilet. Now you know.
While waiting for a taxi the other day, Kenny and I noticed a woman waiting to cross the road holding her baby carriage out onto the road while she waited on the side-walk. We didn’t think it was the smartest thing to do with your baby, but we aren’t parents yet. So what do we know?
By Kendall, on April 23rd, 2010
When I go to Hong Kong to renew my visa I usually only bring one pair of contacts because it is only a day trip. This time, however, unbeknownst to my friend and I, was the Canton fair, so we couldn’t get a train back and had to spend the night. I thought I’d keep the contacts in so that the next day I wouldn’t be blind, but in the Guest house there was a special on the tube about eye health. At that particular moment they were discussing how imortant it is for your irises to breathe. You can imagine why I took them out.
Next day until about 2:00 PM I walked around seeing things like the picture above! It was horrible. On the bright side I’ve learned my lesson.
By Kendall, on April 20th, 2010
This is me having a victory drink after finally beating my landlady in the battle of the fridge! What is that you may ask? My fridge broke down some time ago and the landlady had to pay for it to be fixed. That’s normal. The second time, however, she told me to handle it myself. My friend helped me call the repairman, but he charged us to fix it again (wasn’t under warranty apparently). The landlady wasn’t happy about this saying she would have bought a new one had she known about the fee. Convenient for her to say that at this point. She expected me to at least pay for half the fridge. I refused. This photo was taken on April 12th. The rent was due on April 4th. I still hadn’t paid the rent at this point. I wasn’t planning on doing it either until she called a few hours before this photo was taken to say that she would pay for the it. Ha! Victory!
By Kendall, on March 22nd, 2010
When I used to live in Clifford Estates (祈福新村) in Panyu (番禺區) last year, I would often employ the services of the motorcycle taxi guys (摩托佬 this literally means moto-guy  ) waiting outside the Hanxi Chimelong Metro station (漢溪長隆站). I used them because if I took the public bus to Clifford, and then the internal Clifford bus, it would take me 30 or more minutes just to get home. After a long day I didn’t want to do that, so I would pay the 8 kuai and take the bike back. I did this quite often and, looking at this video now, I’m surprised I wasn’t killed (you’ll see why about halfway through).
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