KTV, as easy as 1, 2, 3!

A little after the day itself, but here’s a post all about my first birthday in China! Now I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22 - and at this mature age (and because I’m in China) a normal drunken birthday night out is off the cards. Instead, I went to the next best thing… KTV! 

Now I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before on here somewhere, but if I haven’t KTV is, simply, karaoke. But it isn’t the run-down, pathetically-depressing karaoke we’re used to in England. Oh no. In China (as well as Japan and South Korea I believe) it is an INSANELY popular alternative to a bar or club based night out; in fact, most of my Chinese friends don’t go to bars or clubs, they go to KTV for their big night out LOL. KTV clubs (are they called clubs? Dunno) are very frequent here, the best chain being Agogo with a better choice of foreign songs. All you need to do is book a room (depending on the number of guests) buy the booze and snacks (needless to say they have so WEIRD stuff available) and settle in for a long sesh of screaming until your lungs get soar. 

One of the stewards distributing our alcohol and snacks!
Lovely people. Strangely accommodating though

Delicious fruit platter. They have these in clubs too.
Such a good shout, I'm definitely going to miss these when I'm home

Left: the screen for choosing your songs. Slightly difficult to navigate in Chinese, but hey.
Right: the 'music video' for a Chinese song. It appears as though they use any film they want for the video for some of these songs. Here for example, is Donald Duck and co. 

Top left: Ana and I. Top right: Tina, Sunny and Cuby
Bottom left: Cletus and Nathan. Bottom right: Sunny, Cuby and I

Top: KTV in action
Bottom left: Jane, Angela, Tina, Sunny and Cuby
Bottom right: Cletus and I

Left: Ana and Mark
Right: Nathan and Kennis playing the dice game EVERYONE plays at every bar/club

Two birthday cakes! YES!

KTV clubs stay open until about 2am, which is about the same time as normal bars and clubs – in Fúzhōu at least. So we partied on there until then and in classic lăowài fashion went for street food afterwards. The perfect end to a night out! I love me some 炒面.

All for now!

xoxo

A Snapshot of 'Real' China

Super sorry it’s been over a month and a half since my last post guys! Long story short, I’m actually busy these days. This is only a short one though, soz.

Anyway, since arriving (nearly 9 months ago now – Jeeeeez!) I’ve been collecting photos of what I call the ‘real’ China. You’ve seen the many skyscrapers and temples and food pics I’ve posted already, and although all of that is the norm, there are a few things that I can’t really tell you about, I had to take obnoxious tourist photos of instead!

One day whilst taking a stroll near my flat, I came across
this little river and walked along it. These houses were
ridiculously dilapidated on the outside.

Also here! Note the plastic sheet covering the roof. Madness.

Casual snooze on one's scooter. You see this a surprising amount.

China's answer to barbed wire... broken glass! Of course!
The best ones are the broken beer bottles you see.

Gambling on street corners. Another thing you see a fair bit.
Gambling is actually illegal in China, but ya know, whatever.

Dogs! Strays? Owned? Dunno

Plant stall on a guy's bike.
You get the strangest things sold off of bikes.

Fuzhou from my friend's building

Personal fave: street food. This is just a small sampling of what I eat on a regular drunken basis but it's
usually kebab type things that are cooked on a make-shift barbecue.
So maybe it wouldn't pass health standards in England, but it's damn good food.

Things I was unable to capture: crazy crowded buses, the non-existent road rules and rush hour, women selling small animals/birds from portable stalls (now THAT is one I will definitely try to get later), flimsy-looking scooters carrying whole families (I’m talking father, mother, child and baby – all without helmets of course!) and much, much more. Oh China.

This post is in no way meant to be condescending or cause any offence by the way! I just wanted to show people who have never experienced China, or a completely different country to their own, how unorthodox things could be!

All for now

xoxo