The Chengdu Pics.....

Sooooo....less start from the beginning -

Noticed that Al Fresco's in Ha Noi had a Messkin discount program this month (where they put out flyers that said - "Buy One Mexican, Get One Free!").  Went for the "Buy-a-pitcher-of-Margies-get-a-pitcher-free" and that made for a nice sleep the night before departure to Chengdu.... 




Tam at The Shamrock, enjoying that traditional Asian favourite dish - "Pie Of The Shepherd".....

Shortly thereafter, "Lisa" at The Shamrock gave us directions to an optical shop just down the street, where Tam was set up by her new best friend from South Viet Nam with a pair of sexy nerd glasses.....she decided to celebrate by provocatively eating a cherry.....

Now, with clear vision restored, I treated Tam to some gamblin' at The China Welfare Lottery (no shit - that's really what it is called).  Sadly, we lost and were not deemed eligible for Welfare  :-(

Naw worries, though - we won fifteen bucks at the scratch-off counter at the airport on the way out!!!

.....interesting how their scratch-off games are identical to the ones that we have in The States - 

Tam standing next to a large Native American statue at Global Centre

Global Centre and the surrounding buildings were just MASSIVE.....just insane!  Here is a Chinese bank office building in front of Global Centre -



Another Chengdu Mega-Mall with a Mega-Lo-Mart inside it.  We went in forra joke.....the Mega-Lo-Mart was absolute crap!  Just imagine all of the low-quality, shit merchandise that United States importers rejected at dock-side, and this Mega-Lo-Mart in Chengdu is what you'd have!!  Absolutely scary part was that a lot of the stuff IN that Mega-Lo-Mart was priced HIGHER than the same exact items in The States were.



Really neat looking faux-retro wooden bus that DOES appear to be part of Chengdu's public transit system.  Reeeaaalllly wanted just to hop on one for the hella it, but, I had NOOOOOO clue WHERE we'd end up, so I had thought better of that idea.....



Really clever attachments to slap onto the handlebars of one's skooter during the winter months -




Tam is all smiles as we sit down to enjoy our first-ever authentic Sichuan HotPot......


....truss me on this - by the end of the meal - all smiles would be a distant memory as, again, real Sichuan food is a special kind of pain! Tam did not dip into the translucent grey mild side of the Hotpot enough and, instead, dared to enter the red, nuclear, forbidden side of the HotPot.  She would pay for this decision later.....



China is thee ultimate Nanny State!  Not only do they have a sign warning you to be very careful whilst walking under escalators, but they actually cushion the area just in case you just don't grasp what a large exclamation point in a bright yellow triangle implies......


.....and finally, a series of pictures taken of a poster listing rules and regulations on the tube in Chengdu.

Please feel free to add your own captions to them!  The funniest captions (as judged by a panel of Me, Myself, and I) will win a prize of five thousand Viet Nam Dong per picture


Picture Number One......



THIS green-haired Chinese lad has already punched his ticket for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janerio!  His event??  The three-metre turnstyle hurdles! 



Picture Number Two.....



.....I'm jes' gonna leave this one for y'all to caption......


Picture Number Three.....



Believing the advertising that there would be a real live Japanese Ronan appearing in the Chengdu Subway at the bottom of the escalator today, patrons were saddened and cried when all they witnessed was a fake red-haired Chinese knockoff of a Ronan!!  If you look carefully, the young man at the top-left-ish part of this picture already had LASIX surgery on his right eye performed by a knockoff Chinese Ronan, and wanted no part of this entire situation!

Picture Number Four.....

"For only an additional 30RMB, you too can enjoy all the luxury that The Chengdu Subway has to offer by experiencing our new elegant sleeper-class accommodations!  Spaces fill up quickly, so reserve your bench now!"

Picture Number Five.....



"Ralph Wilson and The Buffalo Bills proudly announce the expansion of their 'International Series' by removing a second home game from Western New York and playing it in Chengdu, China (due to, as Wilson puts it - "An attempt to regionalize our franchise").  Due to a shortage there of suitable practice spaces, The Bills will hold their team drills on The Chengdu Subway!"

Picture Number Six.....

Batman, not impressed with the hygiene of Superman's feet, looks away in disgust!



Hope you enjoyed 'em!

More soon.....

-E-