Three cities in 2 weeks

So after the two weeks in the west coast, we continued our journey to western europe and headed to Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. Paris was gorgeous, Amsterdam was touristy, but Brussels was quaint and sweet - literally with belgian waffles and chocolates everywhere you turn.

Its amazing how many beautiful buildings and architectures in Paris that really after a day or two, you feel really lost in between them, what I really meant is really they all look alike ! Everywhere you turn, there are the same buildings that you already saw like 15 minutes ago or perhaps we just went back to the same spot as we circling the city. Check out the wall sticker that we got from one of the store.




The Lion



The magnificent and mysterious Louvre


Watchalookinat !





















We split the Paris stays and headed to Amsterdam when Francis got a chance to meet his old BFF after 10 years, the picture below is one of the building on the canal not the Jumbo Rest. in HK.





Then Brussels afterwards to check out the old cobble stones city with their famous chocolate and yet we found this picture right in the center of the gay area.



Mr. Croco Disc in the Art District



Trained back to Paris and spent 2 more full days and finally had the last dinner right inside the smallest studio apartments that we ever stayed at yet we managed to create a dining room.



AU REVOIR ! and won't be back for a while !

Here we are again !

We know it has been almost 8 months since the last time we actually blog BUT we promised to keep it updated. It has been a busy year exploring new things here in Asia. Well, let's get it started then !

So that day after went to the Chanel Mobile Art, that very evening we flew to San Francisco starting our two months US-Europe vacations !
SF and LA were the two cities the first two cities, same old same, same fog and clouds in the bautiful SF bay and same attitude in LA but we're glad we did the trip, caught up with some good friends so it was totally worth it !




We rented a studio apartment in downtown SF with a huge walking closet and full kitchen, it was pretty big for a studio around 800 sq. ft.




In LA, we pampared ourselves by staying at the fully renovated SOFITEL right across from Beverly Center and the good thing is we can actually take a quick cab ride to weho (really don't want to drink+drive again). After the two weeks west caost trip, we jet to NY for a couple of nights before heading to Paris and got to experience two of the newest boutique airlines : Virgin America and L'avion.

Chanel's First Stop

On the day of our departure to the U.S. - we made it to the opening day of the Chanel Mobile Art display in Central. It was an amazing audio/visual art display featured inside a futuristic-space-ship structure. The first stop of this world-wide exhibition is actually in HK - and the exhibition will end in 2010 in Paris. Other stops are Tokyo, NYC, Moscow. So we're lucky to get the first look before the rest of the world! Glad we caught it before we headed out. Very cool, if you're in town definitely go check it out (till April). Unfortunately no photos inside so can only share with you images of the exterior of this cool structure! Enjoy :-)

before we return...

only 2 more weeks before it's time for us to head back to the States...at least for a few months. It's kinda strange for me to 'visit the U.S. from HK' when the past 15 years I've only "visited HK from the US". And I can't believe we've only been in Asia for merely 6 short months. We've seen and done so much this past few months, I'm amazed myself. Not only have we visited Bangkok, Bali, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Guangzhou, Jakarta, and of course Macau / Shenzhen... all in 6 short months - I actually freelanced and launched a local ad campaign... I'm pretty amazed myself. heheh

It's hard to wrap up everything in one blog entry so I guess I'll let pictures tell the story... :-)

From Bangkok





To Guangzhou...





To KL... love those buildings...




To Taipei...love the food :-)




Gonna miss HK when we leave for the US but will be back very soon!

The Mother of all children

So basically I have no ideas why I put that subject above. Its just crossed my mind at this second. Hk is getting coller these days afterall winter is coming but thank GOD is not going to be as dramatic as NY. We have gone through winter in NY three times and I think that is more than enough !

I wish I can write more and expressing myself to this share online diary that I have with Vince for almost 3 years now. Its nice to read everything back again what we have done so far and also those pictures that we put which most of them we took it with out own camera. YES they are real !

We did travelled a lot since the past few years. We wanna be citizen of the world but its pretty hard to maintain that status for a long time. Don't we all want to settle somewhere ? Somewhere that we can find our favourite places to crash and burn. I do realize whenever you live, you face the same people, especially the queers. Attitudes, the 'fabalously', the ones who act like the others, the bitchiness, afterall we all are QUEER !

We just saw Beyonce last weekend at the Venetian in Macau, girlfriend rocks ! Although we didn't really like the whole producation and not as xcited compare with Gwen. Buildings are being built everywhere in Macau, just imagine Las Vegas 10 years ago and imagine Macau in the next 10 years.

Misc catch ups...

since so much has happened since we posted, a few more minor 'catch-ups' including...

got the iPod touch (one each)... both of us are addicted...



saw francis's fave gal Gwen in concert in HK



had a great housewarming party (can't believe we made so many friends already!)


and heading to see Beyonce at the new Venetian in Macau in a couple of weeks!! Can't wait!!

Asia - here we are

Are we 'home'? Honestly, having lived away from Hong Kong for most of my life... coming back and living here is less like HOME than experiencing a new foreign country for me. Which is fascinating although there's still quite a bit of adjustments.

We were lucky and found a great apartment with a nice ocean view...





And traveled extensively since we arrived. First we went to Bangkok. I tell you, the design sensibilities of the city is remarkable... from the malls to even the little hole-in-the-wall restaurants. There was so much to see and it's so much more developed than I had imagined...





We then jetted off to Malaysia and KL. We stayed at the mandarin oriental which was very nice and elegant - great service BTW - highly recommended if you visit KL.



The Petrona twin towers there have pretty much become my all time favorite skyscrapers now - edging over the Chrysler Bldg... it's truly spectacular and breathtaking against the skyline - like 2 silver bullets. Overall KL was a gorgeous city as well...



F went back to Indonesia a few times and was great for him to see his family. As for me, of course, my parents, grand-dad, and cousins are estatic about my return.

So far, I would say we are still adjusting to life here - but hey, we don't call this blog the ADVENTURES of Vince and Francis for nothing!!

last couple days in NYC

Included our last (for now) broadway show HAIRSPRAY!



And a trip to the FAB Hamptons... :-)



And on the last night we took in the sights and sounds of E.village with a last meal at one of our fave restaurants mo pitkin's... famous for their fried mac and cheese (altho the portion's pretty much shrunk to a 1/3 of it's original size since it opened)...



Our 'last supper' was unfortunately accompanied by an obnoxiously loud geeky-garage-type rock band... which we could have done without

Half way around the world...

So it's been over 6 months since we last posted. We had left you guys at the end of winter in NYC and...now it's Oct 07, it's almost winter again - except this time we're living in ASIA. Yes yes, how times have changed. :-)

In the past few months, we moved from the Big Apple to Hong Kong - home sweet home for me and 'closer to home sweet home' for F. Yup, big change and it's been an amazing experience.

After packing all the necessities which needed to be shipped over (god forbid they don't sell Garnier shampoo in HOng Kong...):



...we jetted off for a last-hurrah trip to the West Coast - starting with Seattle mainly to visit the original Starbucks..



And up to beautiful vancouver...



Where we stayed at a boutique hotel with HORRIBLE service... and a very bitchy front desk woman :-P (yes, that's the one in the picture)



... then all the way down to Vegas...



Yep, great trip indeed, perfect before our big move to Asia!

Last days of winter - finally!!

Well supposedly....

fyi here's our subway stop in brooklyn, i like this pic so just putting it in here:



Last weekend it still looked like we're in the dead of winter. I guess it's like 80 degrees in Hong Kong right now. :-)





so we're planning our move right now - including going through our closets and dumping stuff we don't want. it's incredible HOW much clothes 2 gay guys can collect... stuff I don't even remember we had. we dug out 8 large plastic bags worth of clothes to try to sell to buffalo exchange -- the rest i guess we'll just donate.

After 3 months...

or 4... not sure, it's really been a while since we updated our blog. Lots have happened since November - of course Xmas / New Years and all of winter. we've also changed our life plans as well, since now we have finally decided to move to Hong Kong this summer! it's gonna be a big change I must admit (esp the humidity and weather - i think that would take the most adjusting to). at least we'll definitely lose weight over there :-))

so we went to New Orleans last weekend. it was both our first time and it was fun - although quite creepy. I actually just woke up from a dream set in a "New Orleanish" place - in the dream I saw a few tornados and I immediately looked up what it meant online. Something about unpredictability or disasterous future or something - I don't really believe in it. I'd rather think of it as a 'new beginning' and wiping out the past.

Here are some images from New Orleans... creepy...but beautiful city.

Here's our room at the W Hotel:


Great architecture:





We actually went ahead and took a Vampire Tour, it was very interesting and very well worth it. I think it's mainly because the guide was an amazing story teller...





He dressed the part with long stringy hair and a pale face. He was wearing a cape! But I think the most interesting thing is that he has genuine interest in the history of vampire-like activities in New Orleans.

Here's probably the most haunted house in the French Qtr. It used to house a pair of brothers who kidnapped people and brought them back to their house, (second floor here) and skin them and drank their blood thru straws. They would torture their victims and will use acid to decompose their bodies and throw into the missippi river... chills...