Puff Cigar Discussion Forums

Harpo · 01-17-2008, 01:45 PM

Greetings fellow Gorillas!

Well I've been out of the jungle for a month as I've been visiting mainland China and Hong Kong. What a crazy place! A real mix of ultra-modern and charming ancient culture. To (briefly) sum up: the food is absolutely amazing... I went to a 7-story karaoke mega-complex and sung 'We Are The Champions' with Chinese businessmen... chicken feet is eaten for breakfast... you can buy fake products by any designer label you can think of for pennies... and most of the toilets are squat-type affairs. Awesome!

I tried a few domestic Chinese cigars, mostly sold at little tobacco boutiques by wrinkly old ladies. All the bands were in Chinese, so I have no idea what I was smoking... but let's just say the Chinese won't be breaking into the premium cigar market any time soon.

On the plus side there were a few decent Habanos retailers in the bigger hotels, although prices were steep compared to online shopping and they kept them a bit too dry. I couldn't find any non-Chinese NCs at all, so either I wasn't looking hard enough or there aren't any.

Anyway, me and the gf had a crazy time and lots of fun!

Photos:

Buddhist temple, over 1000 years old apparently. That's incense being burnt on the left.

The total opposite, tons of skyscrapers being built everywhere.

A quiet weekday... seriously!

YUMMY!

Dinner... pick what you like and they'll cook it. Worms? No thanks!

DixieLandMan · 01-17-2008, 01:54 PM

Great pictures! I bet that you had a great time over there.

RHNewfie · 01-17-2008, 01:55 PM

Great pics! Thanks for sharing!

vstrommark · 01-17-2008, 01:59 PM

Got to agree about the food. When we were in Shanghai, the building boom was crazy. Say what you want about Chinese traffic, but it was much easier to get around Shanghai via taxi than NYC or Boston. Probably the best 10-day trip of my life and it was for work! Of course, I only had to give a two hour talk on the first and last days there and the school provided interpreters and sight seeing trips, so it was more or less a very cool, comp'd vacation.

str8edg · 01-17-2008, 02:00 PM

Where did you visit in mainland China? I ask because I lived in Chengdu for 6 mos... I would love to get back one day.

Thanks for sharing, loved the pics

GrtndpwrflOZ · 01-17-2008, 02:12 PM

AWESOME, JUST AWESOME

I envey you guys on the board that travel abroad.
I just don't ever get around to it. Linda doesn't really want to travel to anywhere exotic. I would love to vacation in another country and "hang" with the locals.

Harpo · 01-17-2008, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by str8edg

Where did you visit in mainland China? I ask because I lived in Chengdu for 6 mos... I would love to get back one day.

Thanks for sharing, loved the pics

Guangzhou, which isn't a million miles away I think. I'd love to go back too and explore more of the country, especially north.

gamayrouge · 01-17-2008, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vstrommark

Say what you want about Chinese traffic, but it was much easier to get around Shanghai via taxi than NYC or Boston.

If you want to see crazy traffic, take yourself a trip to Vietnam. I went back two years ago with to visit my dad's side of the family. Let's just say I would NEVER want to drive over there. I'd end up inadvertently killing people.

Glad to hear you had a nice trip!

Texan in Mexico · 01-17-2008, 03:08 PM

What a great trip and thanks for the photos. Did you make it over to Macau?

daniyal · 01-17-2008, 03:35 PM

Welcome back Andy! missed you around here. The pics look awesome! and the squat toilets rock they're great for bowl movement

. I'm sure you and the gf had a blast.

wayner123 · 01-17-2008, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harpo

Guangzhou, which isn't a million miles away I think. I'd love to go back too and explore more of the country, especially north.

First off, great to have you back!!

Secondly, you were in the world's largest replica city. Guangzhou has more replica factories than legit ones. Probably more than all of China combined!!

I couldn't imagine anything there would be real.

gnukfu · 01-17-2008, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by str8edg

Where did you visit in mainland China? I ask because I lived in Chengdu for 6 mos... I would love to get back one day.

Thanks for sharing, loved the pics

I was in Chengdu for a week and Beijing for a week a couple of years ago! Great people and incredible food there! Best meal was at a "hot pot" restaurant...they kept bringing more and more food and more and more drink. It was great and I was hungover as hell the next day.

I also got a $2500 Tag Heuer watch for about $12.00 in Beijing

. Looks great, stopped working 2 weeks after I bought it, still looks great

Oh and the smog in Chengdu was crazy!

Here's a pic of me on the Great Wall - don't worry I won't post any more of the bazillion pictures I took.

Bubba -NJ · 01-17-2008, 05:13 PM

Welcome back . I'm not into eating worms but they sure look big and juicy . The thought of eating them is gagging me as I type this . I'd like to see Anthony Bourdain(TV show - No Reservations - on the Travel Channel) eat some of those worms , he'll eat just about anything .