Chinglish Mega Post

I haven't posted at all this semester, but that doesn't mean I wasn't collecting pictures to share.  Here's my collection of Chinglish from the 2nd semester:

Found this one on our oatmeal package...

Good, I hate it when my food testosterots.  And I've heard many times it's important to meet the daily recommended value of polydextrase.

This next one isn't Chinglish, just an interesting sign I found at a park.

Who's the jerk bringing in dragonflies?

Drink too much of this and the name could come true...

Beam on beaming on...

Cruel joke for those of us going bald...

I know it's a name, but it could also make for a very relaxing massage.

I'm sold...

Also not Chinglish, but it just needed to be seen...

This is from a Karaoke TV (KTV) place...

Does this award really deserve a plaque?

Let's hope it's describing the consumer's digestion.

This was on the wall in the room of a hostel we stayed at in Qingdao.

Don't worry, I only moved one kind.

Two birds, one stone...

Another one from a bathroom...

Soooo relaxed.

Time. is. organized.

I didn't know things were going that poorly for MSN.

Every once in a while we all need to hit that reset button.

Must be some pretty crappy toys & gifts.

I'm not sure that will help bring in more business.

Simple, straightforward, peace-loving.

I dunno, those anifemales can be pretty rough, too.

What do you get when you cross a phone booth with a bathroom stall?

Are they trying to say the coffee was roasted?

This is from the menu of a nearby restaurant.  I had to order that second item...

And this is what they looked like (they were cut-up hot dogs)...

Pssshhhh, goin' to the bathroom ain't no thang.

Kind of depressing, buddy, thanks.

Not gonna use that phrase ever again.

If you're not a child under 1.2 meters....in yo face!

So...it's Korean food.

Ok fine, I won't order the orange fruit.

I still can't figure out what this sign is trying to tell people.

Taking abstract art to an unnecessary level...

This is a typical Chinese toilet...

This must be what they think of Westerners...

 I'm gonna miss you, Chinglish.  :)







       

It's Asia - Chieow Laan Lake Edition

From Krabi we were personally escorted via minibus 1.5 hours away to Chieow Laan Lake, part of the Khao Sok National Park in Khao Sok, Thailand.  Then we took a 45-minute boat ride on the lake...

...in order to get to our accommodations for the next 2 days and 1 night, our very own floating rafthouse... 

There was a group of older raft houses, very basic, and there was a group of newer raft houses with rooms that rival some hotels.  At first we were sad that we would be staying in the newer raft houses because we wanted a kind of back-to-nature experience.  However, after being told that customers in the past complained of rats, mosquitoes, and valuables falling through the floor of the old raft houses we realized that the newer ones would be plenty of a back-to-nature experience for us.  (Our raft house was the third one on the right.)

This was the view from inside our raft house.  I don't think I need to say anything about that.  I forgot to take a picture of it, but you could also see through the floor of the house into the water, which seemed to glow a bright bluish green when the sun was shining, and if you were lucky enough you could possibly even see a fish swimming by.

If you look closely, you can see big blue drums underneath the boardwalk.  These are what kept the newly built area afloat.  The old area was supported by planks of wood and bamboo.

We were also taken on a guided jungle walk, the coolest part of which was our tour guide teasing scorpions and tarantulas out of holes in the side of the hills.  This one was a tarantula....

We even saw more macaque monkeys--in the wild this time.

The crazy thing about this lake is that it was all the result of a dam built in Khao Sok.  At first, knowing that the beautiful lake wasn't natural kind of took away from the splendor of the whole experience.  But the lake has made it possible to discover things like this....

This was a cave that no one knew about until roughly 10 years ago thanks to the dam and lake.  It was absolutely pitch black in there and had some pretty awesome formations (and sorry, but the flash on my camera is terrible, so that's the best in-cave pic I took).

From swimming 10 feet from our hotel room, to the scenic views and the sounds of gibbon in the jungle, it was an experience that we'll never forget.  And to make sure that I never do, I made sure to take a pic of my new all-time favorite reading spot....

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, vacation.






 

It's Asia - Krabi Edition

OK, I promise that these travel posts are not meant to make you jealous.  I just want you to get the chance to learn a little more about some places and cultures that you might not ever be able to visit or experience.

But this post might be tough for those jealous types, and here's why.....

This was just one of the views we got to see everyday for 6 straight days in the beautiful Krabi, Thailand.  That picture was taken from Ao Nang Beach, just a simple 10-minute walk from our hotel.  

One of our 6 days in Krabi included a nice, day-long snorkeling trip to the nearby Hong Islands...

...which included this lagoon, with knee-high water and starfish....

The snorkeling itself was amazing, the best part of which were the Clown Fish and Sea Urchins (with spikes about a foot long!).  If you're a little jealous, don't worry, we were also stung by tiny jellyfish.

On a different day we rented a kayak and kayaked (noun and a verb?) around for a couple of hours...

Even with all of the beautiful views, by far the best part of Krabi (for a couple of animal-lovers) was/were the 40-some monkeys that would roam around and play on the far end of the beach every night before sunset...

The town of Krabi is a pretty laid-back place, but very touristy.  Almost every street was lined with shops or restaurants or street food vendors.  Normally I don't like touristy towns, but this was actually a good touristy....the prices seemed pretty decent, the people weren't pushy, and the fact that there were a lot of tourists didn't seem to ruin the views.

And speaking of the street food, Heather and I discovered one of the greatest ingredients ever: sweetened condensed milk.  They put it in the fruit smoothies, on the pancakes, in the iced coffees...it changed our lives (or at least our diets) forever.  Get ready fam, 'cause everything Heather and Brock are gonna make from here on out is gonna be sweetened condensed milkified (and delicious).

So if you want to find a beautiful place to escape to at a very reasonable price, head on down to Krabi, Thailand, a place where (thanks to the numerous old men in speedos) even the pale-skinned redheads can feel good about themselves on the beach. :)




   

 
 

It's Asia - Kuala Lumpur Edition

Heather and I are in the middle of a month-long vacation, the first 2.5 weeks of which are being spent throughout Southeast Asia.

The first stop on our trip was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which was quite an interesting city.  The airport seemed pretty modern, and it was connected to a pretty decent subway system, but once we stepped outside I was pretty surprised.  I had been told Kuala Lumpur was very modern, but that only seemed to be true for a select few parts of the city.

First of all, there was a strange smell throughout much of the city that smelled like a mixture of curry and sweat.  Second of all, one of the little rivers that ran through the city was brown and full of garbage.  Third of all, the buildings and the sidewalks just seemed dirtier than what I had pictured.


Despite all of those things, Kuala Lumpur still had its very modern sections, the highlight (pun?) of which was/were the Twin Petronas Towers:

 Daytime

 

 Nighttime

The other big attraction  was/were the Batu Caves.  These are some cool caves that Buddhists built some statues in and around.....

           

The main cave was ok, but it didn't have too much to it except a cool opening to the sky.....

Easily the best part of the caves was/were the many many monkeys that lived inside and begged for food, even tried snagging peoples' bags every now and then.  Heather and I had a bag of peanuts and were the most popular humans in the cave for about 30-45 minutes (sorry, none of those pics were on my camera...but check Heather's facebook page soon for some of them).  

And after we were done with the monkeys we got a nice view of most of Kuala Lumpur, and you can see the Petronas Towers in the distance....

 

 All in all, Kuala Lumpur was a pretty cool city.  Everywhere you went you saw native Asians mixed with Africans and Europeans and Americans, etc.  It was an amazingly diverse city with some really nice people.  I'd definitely recommend stopping there for a day or two if you happen to be swinging through Southeast Asia.