Strange but true China signs

There are many strange, funny signs here.  I have started to take pictures of  them and thought I would share.   Hope they brighten your day!

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The ladies restroom sign. No translation needed!

Mens room!

I did not have the courage to try any of these wines...

  This was posted at the Great Wall.  I have never heard about this warning before.

You can not be naked around flames....

 These signs were in a Chinese restaurant in Beijing...I am not sure what kind of service you get if you hold up these paddles..

  Posted on a fruit tree, that had no fruit on it at all..

Icky...I am not sure what ingredients are in fried enema..

And my favorite one of the week... :)

Phuket Thailand

We had the chance to visit Andy in Thailand at the end of May.  He is deployed on the USS Nimitz and had a few days of liberty in Phuket.  It was fun to hang out with him and his navy friends near Patong beach.

Drinks at the pool are in order everyday :)

At night we tried to party with the sailors on Bangla street.  There is a lot of weirdness there and all sorts of strange human behavior!  We ended up at the Monsoon bar...too much beer and strange blue shots of some kind of liquor that tasted like kool aid.

Poor Dennis the day after :)  

  

Rode in a tuk tuk to Joe's restaurant -- great dinner, nice views, awesome company.  Thanks Paul and Ashley for hanging out with us. 

After Andy returned to the ship, we did some sight seeing.  This is Big Budda temple.

Dennis has a new friend. The elephants were amazing.

Sorry --- I could not figure out how to rotate this one :(

Lou the frenchie had to stay in Shanghai with his Aunt Jodi...he was a good boy!

Art Galleries, The Fashion Walk, Shikumen and more Wine please !

Lately I have decided to take an art tour with the Shanghai Expat group and it was interesting....the first few galleries were "modern" art or weird in my opinion.  The last gallery was really cool.  But you be the judge.  Here are some of the gallery works.

Yes -- these are golden dentures under glass....

Wings---on the floor

An eye with the image of an old masters painting reflected in the cornea---

 This one above is done with stickers!!

 I agree with the artist :)  If you hate your work, just put a big X through it.

 This one is creepy on many levels....

For my NICU friends---yes it is "art" but it looks like monitors gone wild!

YES---this is in the art gallery---? really?

I should have never painted over my kids "art" in their rooms....

This one had a long winded story about balance and life :)  

??????

Made from leather, paper and I am not sure what else.

This is my favorite--an oil painting of the artists face with the image of currency superimposed...


A trendy shop in Xintiandi had a mini fashion show---it was fun---I stayed close to the food table in case of hunger...

We attended a flower arranging class at the Zen store and learned the Japanese and Chinese arranging style---it was very fun and we got to vote on the winner at the end.....

                                      My "chinese style" creation....

I took a tour of the French Concession with one of my Lanson friends today...we toured a Shikumen home that was built in 1920...and four generations of a family have lived there since.  Today it is a museum and madarin/culture school.  The man that gave the tour is a decendant of the original owners and spoke of his life in China in the 1950's and '60s.  Under Mao, he was sent to the farmland and worked as a laborer for 10 years and could only see his family once a year during spring festival.

"Shi" means stone, "Ku" means garage, and "Men" means door.  This is part of the door, there is one like it on the other side.  

The alley way in front of the Shikumen houses.

The front room or parlor...the outdoor courtyard had a huge fig tree growing off to the right, plus a bird cage, a cricket cage and a container for fish.



On to the "wet markets" in the concession.....the veggies looked great but the odor of the meat in the market was nauseating....

Any kind of egg you can imagine....

And tofu...........

A Traditional Chinese Medicine Shop

New weight loss product!!  Drink some of the orange stuff all crushed up into a powder, add H2O and drink three times a day and "poof" you are skinny :)  Yea right..

Geko---used to treat asthma and other respriatory ailments.

After all that---wine "tasting" and dinner out with friends!