Re: Sanxiang, Zhongshan
 

U never jio me this trip.....sad sad......

Kerle in Xinjiang !! U lucky man. Been there just before the damage was done. BBS there ? Did u hv a peek to know which provinces the MM cum from ....interesting !!! Got KTV there or not ? Muslim Not suppose to drink alcohol....Hehe....

May be i shld consider taking a trip next mth...everything around 50% off... including airfare n hotels.....wanto join me ?

Re: NORTHERN EXPEDITION (a personal trip to China’s DongBei & Russian Far East)
 

Bro Mekatulia,

nice adventure recount,thank you, its really helps me in building my expectation if i do travel to this part of china. More please, this thread is suddenly becoming very interesting and useful... first with bro Huzhige and now you.:)

Re: KTV Smack Down
 

Veterans become Veterans because they have accumulated more kenna chopped experience than others... haha :D

I never go to the extreme, at most if I am really pissed, I just keep quiet and leave. Afterall, we are not locals, you don't know what will happen, safety first.

The drinks bill came up to be alright, just that the tipping tactics was the one that pisses us off.

You are right, this can happen anywhere not just Northern China... but as I mentioned, the gals and mummy gave me the feeling that everything that happened was pre-planned. If I may correct myself, it that is the way things are in that particular ktv, if the next time I am back in Shenyang, I won't be going there again to get chopped.

Re: Sanxiang, Zhongshan
 

Oops LT, arrive back home, no warm body, me feel very lonely, still got so many more work to plan and think, very headache, suddenly see your post, so I also add my 5cents (五分) worth lo...

Geez... sorry, you see, that's what you get when you post early in the morning, got the name mixed up. I wanted to check with the name card, but I realise I threw it away already, don't think I will be going back to the No.2. So, it is 金碧辉煌

Re: Sanxiang, Zhongshan
 

Xinjiang!! That's really the frontier man!

Heard from LT there are MMs with blue eyes and can speak 普通话... exotic!

When LT and I were in 三乡, I got a MM who claims to be 维吾尔族, from 湖北. She explained that besides 新疆, 湖北 has the 2nd largest community in China of the 维吾尔族 minority group living in 湖北 province.

Basically, my MM said, these days, they don't really follow the strict rules, they start to eat pork as well, and especially that my MM works in a ktv but that nite we had a special arrangment to just pick the MM and not go to ktv, I am pretty sure she can drink too.

Re: NORTHERN EXPEDITION (a personal trip to China’s DongBei & Russian Far East)
 

Hi bro kingx3,

Me and my LT are a bit slightly different from the normal travelers. There are more than enough information about the big cities like Shanghai, Beijing and even CP and DG area in this forum which should be adequate for many travelers looking for some fun.

We put in the exciting parts of our travels, the important information, etc, but left out the boring stuff.

Imagine, we actually traveled from 扶远, the most North-Eastern city of China, to 佳木斯, to 哈尔滨, to 长春, to 沈阳...

扶远 to 佳木斯 = 6 hours bus ride
佳木斯 to 哈尔滨 = 6 hours bus ride
哈尔滨 to 长春 = 6 hours bus ride
长春 to 沈阳 = 4 hours bus ride

That is something not many would enjoy. Even our local Chinese friends gave up halfway and decide to fly back to Beijing straight... :D

And, after been to that many places, for me, I only get 1 bonk, and 1 ktv session...

That's not exactly a bonking trip for us, we did visit some of the museum in 长春 and 沈阳 and really walk around every town A LOT!! By walking, we were exploring, hoping to find some action, but based on our results, the ROI seems to be a bit low hor...:p

Re: NORTHERN EXPEDITION (a personal trip to China’s DongBei & Russian Far East)
 

Dongbei

I will provide some brief info on the towns in Dongbei that we visited, as well as some info that may be of use to other planning a trip to the area. As for the hotels, these are ones that we stayed or introduced to, listed for your info and do not reflect our endorsements.

I have previously mentioned Heihe (黑河) – from there we traveled to Russian Far East. For those who want to know, the best hotel is Heihe International Hotel (黑河国际饭店; Tel: +86-8276189; RMB288 for lower floor) that is located right on the water-front and so very convenient if you want to jalan jalan on the long waterfront. It claims to be 4-stars but I would say the standard is more of 3-star. Since it is the best, it is often full and reservation is suggested. However, there are many alternatives, including the JingJiang Guoji Xiu Xian Hotel (Tel: +86-6778777) RMB140/nite nett. This has no relation to the real JingJiang despite using a logo that resembles the real JJ – that’s China for you) but it is conveniently located between water front and Buxingjie步行街. There is also a hotel on Buxingjie called HuaYuan华源 at RMB140/nite nett. All hotels have internet access For more tourist info on HH, please see: www.hhlyw.com but only in Chinese and Russian though.

Also, the damage for the MM introduced by the massage centre mentioned in earlier post was 130 s/t and she asked for another 10 for taxi fare.


Fuyuan 抚远口岸

The signage 东方第一港(First Port in Far East) greeted us on our arrival in the sleepy border town of FY after the 1.5hr boat ride from Khabarovsk. The Immigration Officers came on board first, and they heard that there are two foreigners on board other than the Russians – they asked to see EZ and my passports and happy that we are “overseas Chinese” who can speak Chinese. Obviously, we are rare commodity but glad that we then became the “honorary” Chinese since the Chinese gives the Russians a piece of their own medicines – the Chinese will disembark before the Russians. But I must say the Chinese are more organized – asking the Russians to wait onboard while the Chinese clear the immigration & custom first. And FY is the only customs check point in China that I have had my laptop turned on to check for any naughty files. When I commented about the same to the SYT Customs officer, she admitted that life is boring and she just wanted to turn them on for fun although she went through all the folders religiously. Luckily she found no naughty files on mine, but found a TV serial on EZ’s and they chatted away about it. Maybe she thinks foreigners should have porno clips on their laptops.:D

The best hotel is the Fuyuan GuoJi Daxia Hotel 抚远国际大厦– but there was a VVIP in town, with the whole area around it blocked off on the day we arrived – so, unable to stay there. Another hotel near to Guoji is the Fulinmen福临门 but the staff was honest to tell us its internet access was erratic at best, although we heard this is the case for the whole town. We ended up staying at a cheaper hotel with bath house called KaiLai (凯莱花园宾馆; Tel: +86-454-2188888; rate RMB138/nite; no internet access.) The huge but basic hotel room has no shower facilities in the attached bath room, but you can go for unlimited bath in the bath house. This hotel is conveniently located directly across from the long-distance bus terminal. We checked the “Resting Area” out and had our foot massage for RMB10 each – but there is no extra service here, much to GT’s disbelief and disappointment.

It was kind of late after we finished our dinner and the only nocturnal activity we found are BBS-like joints with the tell-tale pink lights. We visited three near GuoJi, each with 2-5 MMs. There was actually one SYT that I would like to take language lessons from, but they do not allow take-out and dine-in would cost 100 s/t. We did not see the rooms, but I think they are pretty basic although the MMs appear to be staying in the allocated rooms.

But the cost of living is very affordable – the dinner for four with plenty of beer cost us RMB110 and the sumptuous buffet (Chinese style) breakfast at the restaurant next door cost RMB10/each.

BTW, since the town works on Beijing time, it geographical position means it has long day with the sun rises around 4:00am during the summer – maybe that’s why the restaurant next door started to sell breakfast at 4:00am!


Jiamusi 佳木斯

We traveled from FY to JMS by bus – the six hrs journey cost RMB98each, with one 10-mins lunch stop – reasonably comfortable although the very spoilt GT complained about the long journey.

We arrived like four blind bats – none of us has even checked the internet for info since internet access was unavailable in FY. But we took a taxi driver who turned out to be reasonably honest and had him take us to a hotel that is centrally located and preferably where we can find MMs. He took us to JinShi 金世饭店 (RMB189/nite nett; Tel: 86-454-6065555) that is a 3-star hotel centrally located on XiLin Road (西林路) since it is in the city centre and within walking distance to the river front, and the bustling bazaar malam is right in front of the hotel. And more importantly, we subsequently found out the main concentration of the BBS-look-alikes (in the form of ZY, BaoJianFan etc with all the tell-tale signs) is near to the hotel – on and near the Yonghe Alley (永和胡同) near the Changcheng Hotel(长城饭店). And of course, there is no lack of bath-houses (洗浴) like all the towns in Dongbei. All the older apartments in China do not have bath rooms – thus, such bath houses are extremely common – and with the 改革开放, many of them have evolved into providing “value-added” services that cheongsters enjoy.

However, things were rather low profile during our visit due to the ongoing YD, and in one joint that we visited the MMs actually were behind a locked door within the shop. The taxi driver did tell us many joints will not allowed their MMs to go out due to the YD, and this proves to be true when we visited some of the joints. One mummy was bordering on being rude when she asked us to quickly make up our minds to have the MMs at the site or get lost – her exact words: 快选,不要就拉倒 :mad:– so much for service - needless to say, EZ and me decided with our retreating feet. The rate (from my failing memory) is RMB100 (or was it 130?) at site and 150 delivered to hotel. Although JMS is the place where many of the Dongbei MMs in big cities such as Beijing & Shanghai came from, we didn’t really see many with look that knocked the sock out of us – maybe all the prettier ones have gone to larger cities for better pay.;)


… to be continued (Harbin, Changcun & Shenyang)…

Re: NORTHERN EXPEDITION (a personal trip to China’s DongBei & Russian Far East)
 

The SYT Customs Officer checked my laptop, specifically ask me to show her the Pictures Folder, she was having a bit of trouble navigating my laptop as I was using English MS Vista Ultimate OS.

I showed her, and of interest, she saw a Folder resembling some "naughty" pictures inside. I downloaded some pictures of this Jap Actress - Haraku Ayase, who acted in this movie called - 我的女朋友是机器人 (My Girlfriend Is A Robot). Turns out that I bought the DVD in China and I thought it must be quite a popular movie here, and happens the SYT Customs Officer also watched that movie before. So she didn't give me any trouble after knowing that... :D


I woke up around 3:30am and the sky was already starting to get light.


Along the way when our bus just entered into 佳木斯, I saw a couple of tell-tale shops along this road - 杏林街 also. Just happen we did not stay near there so didn't have the chance to explore this place.

The rate is 130/150. Pay RMB 50 to the OKT first if you wanna take the girl out, then pay RMB 100 to the girl.

LT, do you remember that incident, the recommendation from LN, we arrive at that blue neon sign house as the last stop of our night walk, we asked the OKT what's the going rate and he tried to fleece us by saying it was RMB 200? We countered him saying that we were recommended by a friend and it was only RMB 150, the OKT immediately acknowledge.

Re: Xinjiang
 

Aiyah, bro – cannot say I never jio you – our trip was mentioned months ago, even Uncle Ho was thinking of joining us but timing was bad for him. Then again, we know your “Mayor” duties are keeping you busy.

I’ll go to Xinjiang again in a heart-beat. One of my favorite places and love the southern part since many Han Chinese are too scared to go there, and you see very few local Han tourists – thus, no pushy, loud and arrogant local tourists who give the Han a bad name like you see in most other tourist attractions in China. And I find the locals extremely friendly, provided we show the cultural sensitivity – something that Singaporeans and Malaysians are better attuned to.

I know your preference is KTVs – yes, there is no shortage of that too. There’s even a “BabyFace” in Kerle, although I was not sure if it was related to the more popular places in Beijing and Shenzhen of the same name. Nevertheless, it was hopping with fun loving locals when I was there. I also went to a couple of KTVs in Urumuqi – the hardwares are as good as any where else and I saw some really hot & chio ladies around. Unfortunately, I was with lady friends from Singapore and cannot do more meaningful market survey.

If only I do not have any prior engagements in northern Malaysia, I would love to join you to go Xinjiang next month (a good time to visit Xinjiang, being early Autumn – just the right weather) especially when everything is supposedly discounted, to do a reckky trip for our 西游记. BTW, drinking and bonking can be mutually exclusive. And some members of particular religious beliefs are more progressive than other. Meanwhile, I have to be contended with northern Malaysia for the next three months – may make a trip to border town of Dandok since I’ll be in an area only 20mins drive away. Believe it or not, even though I have been in that area often enough over the past 6 months, but I have yet to visit Dandok. Bro KLkool, you coming?;)

Re: NORTHERN EXPEDITION (a personal trip to China’s DongBei & Russian Far East)
 

Re: Blagoveshchensk

Huzige: Did you apply for a Russian visa online, through the Russian Embassy in Singapore, or did you do the all the paperwork in HeiHe?

Re: NORTHERN EXPEDITION (a personal trip to China’s DongBei & Russian Far East)
 

According to his FR they applied the Russian visas through a travel agency in Singapore. About S$100+.

It's always good to do all paper work in Singapore unless you're unable to come back for certain reasons.

Re: NORTHERN EXPEDITION (a personal trip to China’s DongBei & Russian Far East)
 

You need 2 things,

1. Invitation Letter from a recognised Hotel which you will be staying, OR a Travel Agency. Cost = S$110 for regular service (3 working days)

2. Russia Visa, apply through authorised travel agent (or self application at Russian Embassy also can). Cost = S$126 for regular service (5 working days)

Total cost for necessary documentation = S$ 236

Self application of Russian Visa at Embassy might be cheaper at approx S$90+ but if there's any problem, your Visa application gets rejected and you have to re-submit the appropriate paper work, very troublesome even if no extra charges incurred.

Supporting documents/information required are:
a. 2 recent passport size photos
b. Completed Visa Application Forms
c. Travel Insurance Policy Number
d. Exact name of the cities that you intend to visit (other than the common Moscow or St. Petersburg if you are going to visit other cities)

Hope this info helps :D

Re: Xinjiang
 

Wa bro! Long time so see no hear from you..... until Uncle Sino pointed me to this thread. ;) Hope to see you again real soon.

Re: Xinjiang
 

Yah lor, bro Spoon – I have spending most of my time running around Malaysia this year, and have not been cheonging much – have not even visited Dandok even though I am only 20mins drive from it often enough. We must catch up again soon – sounds like you are now a regular in CP. It’s the long Merdeka weekend here and I should try to finish my write-up on Dongbei for this posting before my old brain fails me.;)

Re: NORTHERN EXPEDITION (a personal trip to China’s DongBei & Russian Far East)
 

Good to see contributions from the 2 of you. Been so long that I almost forgot your nicks...haha...anyway who bothers when we are family....