In Sanya China our goal was to hit the beach for a little while. We got in a cab and the cabby was supposed to take us to a close beach. The cabby kept driving and driving and driving. We must have passed about 4 beaches and we still were not where he was thinking of taking us. Finally we had him just pull over and we walked across the street from a bunch of hotels and plopped down on the beach. There was a little Tiki restaurant on the beach and it was the only thing around that was close that had food. This Tiki restaurant mainly sold Italian food. Italian food is the last thing I wanted on the beach let alone having Italian food in China. I should have known this was a sign of a crappy meal. The menu was interesting. It let me pick the noodle and the sauce for my pasta. I decided on a gnocchi Carbanara. Sounded great when I order it….then it came. I honestly had no clue what I was eating. The gnocchi was so large and it was totally a moosh festival. It was horrible and I ended up having to share the pizza my friend ordered which was worse than a frozen pizza. The only thing that was nice was the blue drink and the beach was right there. Ugh, Italian in china… never again. To make matters worse, the cab driver back to the ship kept putting his hand on my leg. The cabby kept laughing and I was also at first but after 4-5 times I had enough. Then he wanted my sunglasses and kept asking me for them. Getting back to the ship never felt so good.

Rotating Restaurant in the Pearl Building, Shanghai from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

The Pearl Building in Shanghai is a really cool site. It is manly used as a TV/Radio station and tower. That occupies the 1st main pearl. They have a see through floor, a post office and a revolving restaurant in the second pearl. Where the tourists go. The see through floor was really cool. It was like you were walking on air. We were very hungry and decided to stay high up in the sky and eat at the revolving Chinese buffet. It was fun and the view was nice even with the smog/pollution. The food was better. Lots of things to choose from (a.k.a. buffet). At one point I missed an entire section of the buffet. However, you know me, when I found it I tasted each and every plate. It was a fun experience.

Shanghai is a really REALLY big city. Over 20 million people live here. Some how we managed to find this really small area that has lots of restaurants and cafes. The area is really tight, like ally ways making up a maze. We went to a little sushi restaurant up stairs called Akurah and sat out on a balcony. It was about 10pm and there was hardly anyone around. We ordered a lot of sushi, sashimi and chicken curry. We were having a good time laughing and trying to communicate with the staff until the cops came. We were being so loud and really didn’t realize it but the residents of the area started to complain. Maybe it was the drinks, maybe just being around good friends but what ever it was, bottom line, we were so loud that the cops came. We became as quiet as we could be. Didn’t want to get hulled away to a Chinese prison for disturbing the peace.

The food was outstanding except for what I thought was an egg roll. It tasted like a sponge dipped in toilet water. Not a typical egg roll I was thinking about. The two sushi rolls we ordered were great. One had tuna and the other eel. We ended up ordering another roll after because they was so good. It was a nice little area of the city. Apparently earlier in the evening it is really busy and people are all dressed up to go out there for coffee and dinner. That would have been nice to see but we all had to work later than we wanted. After dinner we hit the town!

Eel roll

Tuna Roll

Egg roll (a.k.a. Toilet water)

More pics

Ohhh Shanghai, what a great city. It was a perfect day. I started the day off by winning the World Series. It’s great to be on top again. Then took off into Shanghai and found my friends at the Yuyan gardens. It was so peaceful and beautiful then did some bargain shopping and got some Christmas gifts. Another friend had to stay on the ship for the day and asked if I could pick up his tailor made suits. I felt sure why not, it was in the neighborhood. On our way to pick up the suits we made a turn down a market street and we found a butcher on the street cutting up some meat. Not to surprising, I’ve seen that a bunch of times. What I saw at first was the picture you see above. What I saw second is the picture below.

I always thought it was just a myth but no….That’s a fucking dogs head on the table!

U. B. C. Coffee, Shanghai China from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

After going to the floating teahouse in Shanghai we were ready for a real meal. It took us a little while to find a Chinese restaurant believe it or not. We almost got pulled down an ally by some locals (very shady place). Thank god we didn’t go because then we would have never found U.B.C. Coffee. They had traditional Chinese foods and very comfortable couches to sit in while we ate. Here is the run down, a caramel tea, Tiger beer, eel, eel hotpot, bullfrog with chili’s, pasta, and the appetizer was snail parmesan. My favorite was the snail parm and the eel. The Bullfrog tasted like chicken and was good as well but the chilis were super hot.

Floating Teahouse, Shanghai China from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Old Shanghai is quite amazing. The buildings really remind you of the ancient time of China. We heard about the floating teahouse in old town and figured we needed to experience tea time. The Tea House is in the middle of this village and is surrounded by water. There are 4 zig zag walkways that lead to the Teahouse. We ordered a bunch of different tea which were refilled about every 5 minutes. As soon as you take a sip or 2 the waitress comes by with hot water and fills you up. They also gave us a bunch of treats to eat with our tea. The video will show the tea and some of the different treats. The experience was great and the teas were something we had never had before. Deeeelicious!

Lunch in Dalian China from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

My first time in China and we sailed to Dalian. This is one of the larger cities in China. It is modern, but also has the local down an ally markets. There was a lot of food to try in the markets but some things were so dirty that I didn’t have the stomach to try it. Lot’s of dust and flies all over the food. I did want to go into a traditional Chinese restaurant and have some lunch and that is just want my friends and I did. Enjoy the video.