Landing in Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon

Though I’d been to Vietnam before, I’d never been to Ho Chi Minh City… which according to my friend Andy was “where it’s at” – so of course I had to give him a visit. I had been to Hanoi on a prior trip, but Andy said Saigon had more of a city life so for most of this trip we checked out a lot of cafes, clubs, and local spots.

When I got to Andy’s place, I was greeted with a red Vietnamese flag. It was a national holiday and if you didn’t put up the flag you would be fined Andy said. Haha very interesting, but not a surprise.

Right after I dropped off my bags Andy had some plans ready to go!

First dinner in Saigon

We went to a Japanese style bbq restaurant. It was pretty nice and the water and ice were drinkable without having to buy bottled water. We got too much meat in our system so had to do a little pumping iron pose… and we were getting pumped to go out! haha!

Anyways next up after dinner was a chill hookah place. It was strewn with red satin curtains hung everywhere and had a cozy feel. Andy said it would be nice to open up a place like that in the future. It was a good pre-party hangout location. After hookah we hit up Model Club.

Philip, Andy, and I

We had a group of friends at the table and it was my first experience going to a club in Vietnam. So how was it inside? Comparing to the clubs in China, it wasn’t as big or as packed.. I don’t like it super packed where you can’t move. We had a good group of people at the table and ate, drank, danced, laughed.. so it was definitely a good first night.

Of course afterward we got some late night noodles. It’s funny because normally after going out.. in LA.. I would get either korean bbq or pho.. but in Vietnam we got some other kind of noodles.. and I was totally craving pho. So even though I wanted to try pho immediately, the noodles were still good.. and when I got back to Andy’s place I knocked out.

The next morning however my wish was granted – I wake up all groggy the next morning around 11:30am and stumble out of my room… my eyes half open.. I walk downstairs. Halfway down the flight of stairs Andy opens his room door and groggily says “if you’re hungry just go downstairs and eat some food”. I have no idea what he is talking about.. but I am half awake and a little hungry so I just keep walking downstairs.

I get to the kitchen and Lo and Behold!

Pho Fantasy Feast

I see a freaking entire fresh cooked meal laden all over his kitchen table. There is a fresh steaming pot of beef stew ready to fuse with the freshly cooked pho noodles. There is sliced chicken, basil, fish sauce, and the oh so aromatic toasted garlic flakes. WOW! The smell, the first bite.. I had like 3 bowls.

Best Bowl of Pho

I can’t forget the taste of this bowl of Pho. I think I would have to go back to Vietnam just for this pho alone.

So eventually we all climb out of our half-awake states; I tell Andy I want to do at least one touristy thing and then we can do all the cafes and partying possible. There were 2 touristy things to do on my to do list. 1 was the tunnels + AKs, the other was the Reunification Palace.

Reunification Palace

Reunification Palace, formerly known as Independence Palace, was the equivalent of the White House for the President of South Vietnam. It was also the last stand and site for the end of the war. But yeah… unfortunately when we got there it was CLOSED! I think either we got there too late or it was due to the holiday… so I had no choice but to get some…

Vietnamese Coffee

…Vietnamese Coffee! Also known as ‘ca phe sua da’ is delicious iced coffee with condensed milk. It’s not a trip to Vietnam without some Vietnamese coffee! It’s super strong and got me pretty wired.

After I got all wired we went to dinner with Andy’s friend Tommy and Tommy’s wife.

Tommy throwin down some knowledge

Tommy was hilarious! He was an international model and traveled to all these different parts of the world in the past and over dinner and drinks he kept throwin down all this knowledge. It was interesting and he was comical at the same time. In the picture above we went to a local pub bar type place.. but it’s different from bars in the US because at this bar there are girls that work there that hang out by the bar and you can select for them to accompany you while you drink. The way it works is you ask some to join you and then at the end you give them a standardized tip. In Vietnam and many parts of Asia this is pretty commonplace. At the same time you don’t have to ask them to drink with you. We just sat for drinks and there was also live music so it was a cool spot to chat and hear Tommy’s stories. At night we went to Shadow Club. There are mainly a lot of tables all lined up in there, but didn’t really have a dance floor. Tri dropped by too and we ended going to some cafe afterward.. we ordered food.. the food came.. but by the time the food came we were passed out. hahaha..

Okay, so due to our failure of doing one tourist thing the day before the first thing we did the next day was to check out the Reunification Palace again. This time it was open and I got to check it out (Unfortunately I did not have time to check out the tunnels and AKs this trip because that location was about 2 hours away from where we lived and we didn’t have enough time).

Here’s a glimpse of what’s inside:

Helicopter at the Reunification Palace

Commanding Room is for Commanders

Pictures on the wall in the Reunification Palace

The inside is what you could expect – it’s just some different board rooms, offices, library room, theater room, etc. Then there’s a helicopter and tank on the premises. Walking through it was a little boring, but at the same time when you realize it was a part of history and then see all these pictures of the war and slaughter, it’s pretty moving that I’m standing in the same place where tanks crashed through and people fought with their lives and struggled through so much.

Upon leaving, I was however touristed into buying some over-priced useless artifacts. Anyways, we headed to meet up a friend and get some coffee. I wanted to try some more food and though it wasn’t dinner time I wanted to try the banhi me and beef stew which I often have in San Gabriel on Valley Blvd. I may have not ordered the exact thing I was looking for but it was pretty good. I was hoping the beef stew would be thicker and more suitable for dipping the bread in.. but overall the taste was still good. With that, I will note one thing – at least from what I saw, though Beijing has a lot more modern looking buildings and some bigger more developed establishments.. the one thing that always nags at me in China is that when I’m eating, I’m not quite sure what I’m eating.. I often get this it’s half food, half synthetic feeling… and I did not have that feeling in Vietnam. Everything I ate tasted good and tasted like real food.

Beef Stew and Banh Mi!

For dinner we went to a really local spot and had some other kind of Vietnamese noodles. I was pretty full after already eating like 2 hours before dinner, but I remember the soup and noodles were really tasty.

spring rolls

After dinner we went to a more western club lounge called Lush. It was my last night and I had to catch a flight the next morning plus we had gone out enough so we took it easy and then headed out around midnight.

look at the picture behind me

So the next morning I’m at the airport. I’m sitting by my terminal going doot da doot.. and then suddenly this URGE for pho starts rising and 30 minutes before it was time to board my flight I run upstairs to the restaurant area and frantically search for some pho. haha! I figured it would be a while since I could get some good authentic pho in Vietnam so I should get one more farewell bite. =P Though airport food is not known to be the best ever, I figure it is still a Vietnamese airport so the pho should still be pretty above par.

airport pho

airport fried spring rolls

I was wrong. The pho was very average. The fried spring rolls were slightly tastier. Not the best, but still tasty. The size of those spring rolls reminded me of filipino lumpia.

Anyways, overall had a good trip. I didn’t really go to Vietnam to do anything crazy or do too much sight-seeing. I just moved on from my job and finally had a chance to take a small vacation for myself and I hadn’t seen my friend Andy in a while so it was the perfect timing. I got to see his pad and personally see and hear what he’s been up to in Saigon (and he’s been up to a lot). It was a good breather in the sense that I didn’t worry about work, training, housing, planning, etc for those few days.

On the other hand it was still action packed because we squeezed in so much in these few short days. So the journey doesn’t end here. There was a reason this trip was cut short. Originally I was planning on staying 1-2 weeks, but life slapped me in the face and said I had things to do.

Find out what was so important that I had to reduce my pho eating days in my next post! – The Life of a Stuntman in China!

Alfred and Michelle Yeoh in Singapore

Here is another back dated post about the first time I went to Singapore. This was immediately following our trip to Vietnam so the main reason I was here was for a Red Cross promotion of Volunteerism. Michelle Yeoh was also in town to support the campaign… hence the picture above.

Now just because I was in town for work doesn’t mean it was all work and no playyyy After the event ended it was roughly time for the lunar new year aka my one official holiday time of the year according to China work holidays. So anyways I had a few days in Singapore to sight see and hang with friends.

Ion Orchard in Singapore

Fortunately pretty much the one homie I know in Singapore (McLangan) is tearin up the nightlife scene with his club Filter among other venues that he promotes at… so pretty much every night was event packed. The first night I rolled out to Ion Orchard and there were a few bars around there.. after which we hopped around to some other events.

Alfred Kristen Traci in Singapore

I randomly ran into Kristen who I knew from ucla and who I also met up with in Beijing. Apparently this girl is just globe trotting it up too and was also mutual friends with Langan. After hanging out, we all went to go eat. Diggin the late night food in Singapore.

Late Night Grub in Singapore

Singapore Hainam Chicken

McLangan Grubbin after a night of Winning

I don’t remember too much of the night because we went to a lot of venues, but I do remember that was some tasty chicken.. solid late night food! I also remember at one point we had a bottle of Dom Perignon from bottle service and since we were hopping around and it was just way too much we hid it in a bush (?!!) I don’t know what we were thinking.. I knew we weren’t going to come back for it.. and we sure didn’t. At food John was sad and kept saying something like.. I can’t believe we put Dom P. – Life’s Trophy… in a bush!

Night Safari in Singapore

The next day Andy, my coworker, planned out a night safari trip with his other friends as well. It was pretty awesome. Going to the zoo is pretty cool for me already, but a NIGHT safari.. that was even cooler.

Crocodile Hsing

When you get there they have a few shows (like with fire or snakes or other animals) and you can even pay to have fish eat your skin! haha… after the entrance area you can enter on this safari car just like in Jurassic Park where you enter the safari and are sometimes only separated from the animals by a little puddle of water or a fence.. then there are points where you can get off the car and walk along certain trails.. then at certain checkpoints you can hop back on the car.

Feet Skin Eating Fish

Fruit Bats on Singapore Night Safari

The whole safari was pretty cool, but a highlight of the adventure was having bats fly all around your face! On part of the walking tour you can enter these caged areas where one door only opens if the other door is closed. You can enter into these bats’ living quarters where bats the size of your head (not including wingspan) fly all around you.. they are HUGE fruit bats.. hella freaky looking.. but also really amazing and interesting at the same time.. walking in there I think I felt 1/100th of what Batman felt when he first fell into the bat cave…

Singapore Night View

The rest of the trip I checked out Raffles Square and my friend Cat showed me some sights including the Merlion which is Singapore’s mascot. It has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. I went to catch up with Cat and see what she’s been up to. We went to chat at Max Brenner – this chocolate bar.. they had realllly reallly tasty chocolate milk. I think to call it “chocolate milk” is like an insult in their eyes.. haha.. it wasn’t cheap either.. but it was really high quality rich tasting chocolate.

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar

Sands in Singapore

Andy and I also visited the semi-recently built Sands Casino in Singapore. This casino is made to attract foreigners income and not locals.. the Singapore government made it such that if you are a Singapore citizen it costs like 100 Singapore Dollars to enter so they check your passport at the door. I also hear they have a sweet infinity pool at the top of the Sands, but I didn’t have time to check it out. Andy won a few bucks playing black jack.. at first I didn’t want to play black jack but since he sat down I played a few hands… as usual I lost in black jack. I don’t think that game has EVER treated me well.. which is why I almost never and should never play more than 3 hands. We left after maybe 45 minutes of playing and checking out the Sands.. then went to eat some high class restaurant pizza. Right before ordering Andy realized we left our player cards back at the Sands.. and since Andy was waiting for a friend.. I ran back to get them (it was just around the corner). When I went back in.. I felt this calling.. it was time – to not lose.. haha. I played basically any other game besides black jack and immediately started winning again. I played 20 minutes of roulette and then was pretty much back up again.. then I called it a day and went back to eat some pizza. So yeah, this pretty much summarizes my first time in Singapore. Not long after this trip I headed back to the US.

Daniel Wu, Alfred Hsing, Pat Lee

Maggie and Alfred at Diesel Party

Alive Not Dead at Racks in LKF

Well its been a while since I actually posted a blog entry with my thoughts in writing. My latest entries have been filled with video blogs of my random and fun adventures in Taiwan. I’ve actually been without a stable internet connection for the past week or two. In Hong Kong I only had the lobby internet and since I moved in to my new place in Taipei, I was also internet-less for a few days. I just got a wireless card from http://www.ivideo.com.tw/rent_memory/video_detail.asp?film_id=39545 yesterday so now I can finally go online at home. Yay!

Let me first give a shout out to Pat / rottendoubt for inviting me to a cool party at the W hotel in Hong Kong and introducing me to a lot of other artists on Alive Not Dead. I had a good time and not just because it was open bar. =P

Seriously though, with the amount of “going out” I’ve been doing in each country bouncing back and forth from Taiwan to Hong Kong to Macau to Hong Kong to Taiwan… its a wonder that I am still alive… not dead literally. Don’t get me wrong.. I am having a GREAT time, but my body has needed to rest/recover from Day 1 upon arriving in Asia. I mean after all prior to arriving in Taiwan I flew from LA to SF to Toronto finishing world games then back to SF before flying to Taipei… so my body was already pretty tired.. then the first day I arrived Sarah took me clubbing at Primo – and since then it has been non-stop.

However! My partying has not been in vain. I have met some really cool friends and had really memorable experiences that you can’t put a price on. Also I met an agent through randomly going out. The agency is called Evert agency – www.evert.com.tw – Has anyone heard of it? If so, what are your thoughts as far as their capability in the tv and movie area? I would like to be referred to a few more agencies so I can see what they are all like. Evert just sent me out to an open casting for a 7-11 commercial. It was my first experience auditioning in Taiwan. I think the casting guy was cool with me, but I could use more practice nailing the feeling he wanted faster. I am going in for headshots on Friday. So far the agency has been cool and quick with things, but I haven’t signed anything and just want to learn the ropes out here first.

One thing I do notice out in Asia is that casting is a lot “easier” in some ways. I don’t mean that it’s necessarily easy to get work, but I just noticed that the day I went in to talk to the agency, the next day they were able to send me to an audition.. the reason being.. its Taiwan so more than 90% of commercials/work are FOR asians whereas in the US asian males most likely only audition for roles that specifically mention “Asian Male” or possibly “Mixed Ethnicity” which is far less roles out of the total possible. Anyways, it will be interesting to see how it goes out here this month.

JC Stunt Team Victy Wong

Meanwhile, while I was in HK I met up with Jackie Chan stunt team member Victy Wong who mentioned he would be interested in having me teach wushu for an action/martial arts/stunts school he is opening up for kids and actors. Of course these were just talks and I was just in HK for a week so we will be in touch and playing it by ear. I also met Daniel Wu and also ran into Jackie Chan’s son at Racks.. apparently I hear he is out partying in Taiwan quite often as well.

As a means to clear my own thoughts I came up with my GOALS for the acting/entertainment world.

1) Star or Co-star in:
1 HK gangster feature film
1 Chinese Wu Xia Period feature film
1 Hollywood action blockbuster
1 National Commercial

2) Demo for or work with Jackie Chan in a film
3) Host a Travel Channel show

Those are my clear cut goals. If I achieve that I would be pretty happy with my acting/entertainment career.
…and if you are curious why I want to be in those specific types of movies, it’s because I love action and those are the movies I grew up loving. I want to be a part of the movies that inspired me in so many ways and contribute to paving new paths in those movies to keep inspiring others.

I think I’ve also decided I would like to give Asia a shot and live here for a while, but first before I do that I really need to get my ass in gear and set up my businesses properly in the US. When I get back in January, it’s purely hard work and focus.

That’s it for now, time to eat. I’ll be uploading more taiwan and hong kong adventures soon!

Then the girl in the group loses.. and is forced to “holla” at the store clerk and get his number.

The next clip is after the entire night of partying.. we went to eat and I am groggy and stumble to meet up with Kevin.

Later that day .. Sarah, Kevin, David, and I head over to say hi at Annie’s bday party!

Then we also have some fun at my birthday dinner at Kan Pai restaurant. Delicious meat! I cant repeat this enough.

My actual birthday was on Monday, but we all ate over the weekend. This was my first time spending my birthday abroad in Taiwan. Thanks to all who made it and all who wished me a happy birthday. I want to reiterate that I am very grateful for my friends and family. I am so happy to have met such cool friends in Taiwan. So many people (in taiwan and throughout my life in general) have helped me and been there for me that I cant thank you all enough. I have a good life and am having the time of my life. Thanks for making it awesome everyone who is and has been a part of it.

Prepare for a special leg of the journey as we take a trip down SOUTH to Kaohsiung. Some VERY VERY special things happen here. Look out for the super secret special footage along with an inside look at Taiwan’s National Team Sport Training Facility.

Me and Kevin at Babe18

This week was filled with craziness from clubbing to bar hopping to club hopping to lounge hopping to more drinking. Yes, it was a very productive week for my liver. I went out probably 5 nights in a row- Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun.

Wed- Jazz lounge near Shi Da with Kiyoshi, Ray, Doug, Christina from HK, and a few others.
Thurs - Babe18 with Kevin. The only night I really get pretty messed up. The other nights I did take a little easier.
Fri - Room18 followed by Primo with Kevin and Max.
Sat - SOHO with kev, sarah, monica, kiyoshi, followed by good food place with Ma La spicy ass food and then Sarah going crazy and still wanting to go KTV at 5am and me wanting to pass out.
Sun - Barcode and then Babe18 again with Jeff and Charlie. Jeff just flew in from the US that morning I believe.

So anyways! FRIDAY I lost my precious casio exilim digital camera which I have been using to document my trips around the world and specifically documenting tons of stuff here in Taiwan. =( I was sitting on the curb with Kevin and Max and I was making some video commentary. Then I set the camera down to relax for a bit. After a while we got up and walked 20 feet to go get our hands stamped at Room18. Not more than 10 minutes pass and I realized I left my camera on the curb. I run up to find it and lo and behold… its gone! It’s obviously my fault for leaving it there, but it was snatched up pretty quickly by someone looking to slang my camera for a few bucks probably. At this point I am pretty bummed because I just lost my digital camera along with my memory card that has pictures and videos on it!

I still make the most of our outing and have fun. Max gets a call and has some friends at Primo so we head on over. It was lightly raining this day so we had our umbrellas. Long story short, at the end of the night, I get in the cab to go home and realize I left my umbrella at the umbrella check-in and forgot to pick it up so in one day I lost my camera and umbrella. Losing the umbrella just tops off the night.

I am and have a been a believer that whenever bad things happen that means something good is about to happen. It’s my own personal idea of karma or a circulation of energies. Also, having a positive outlook on negative situations tends to help turn the situation around anyways so whether I’m right or wrong, it’s been working for me. Also a quick interjection – whenever something good happens I don’t believe something negative will necessarily happen because that “good thing” is probably the result of hard work, energy put in, or positive attitude that helped cultivate that positive situation. Additionally, I do try to repay any super awesome good luck by giving back in some way or helping others in some shape or form. (This is my random tangent on positive vibes.)

The night after I lose my camera, I wake up to find a fantastic surprise in my gmail inbox. In fact the email was justly titled “got a little surprise for ya.” Well to me, it was much more than a little surprise. A friend who I recently got to know through common interests in wushu, entertainment, and business knew that I was going to HK in a few weeks and decided to reach out to some Hong Kong actors/stuntmen. This act alone, I am already really grateful for. It means a lot that someone has faith in your abilities and capabilities that they would refer you. However, on top of this, Les also helped me make this incredible resume package! I have a few headshots and a film resume in a word document. I was just planning on cleaning up my resume and making something a little more professional looking when I got back to LA. I was so surprised when I opened this attachment and found this:

Alfred Resume. Thanks Les!

You can click it and see it in slightly higher resolution. It is a professionally done alfred hsing entertainment resume package! I’m pretty excited about everything and how this turned out. I’m not going to go into all the details, but I know a lot went into making this. You should see my old resume. It looks so wack compared to this. In the midst of all the hectic cool and crazy things that have been going on, I think this really stood out and surprised me. I honestly can’t express my thanks enough so I just wanted to blog about this and share it with everyone. Hope that’s cool. It means a lot to me!

Other good news that I need to report on.
* Angels Tea SOLD OUT in the 2 stores that they are being sold at in LA. In the process of restocking them. It would be easier if I were in LA, but not a major problem.
* Cirque du Soleil contacted WushuKicks and made an order with us. We at WushuKicks are very excited to work with Cirque du Soleil because it is such an awesome show and I have friends in Cirque! Cheers!
* Randomly found this article online on 2 sites.

http://www.cn.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1011/1/9/3/101119381.html?coluid=49&kindid=972&docid=101119381&mdate=1030102106

http://big5.chinanews.com.cn:89/hr/hr-mzhrxw/news/2009/10-30/1938857.shtml

I can’t really read it that well, but I think the reporter thought there was another gold won in female sanda in the past. The US sanshou coach said there were no sanda golds in the past so I’m not sure where the reporter got her info. In any case, cool article. I am glad I am getting myself out there in Asian news.
*I was interviewed by CTV and on the 7 oclock news in Taipei. They had me demo and talk about wushu at Bei Ti Sport University. Been on TV in Taipei twice within my first week here!

US Wushu Team with Taiwan Wushu Team

I have a few more videos to upload for Taiwan Adventures part 2, but until I get a new camera… I won’t have any more awesome picture updates. This is the new camera I plan on getting to replace my old casio exilim.

Hopefully my new camera soon.

Do you guys know if it would be cheaper to get this in the US, Taiwan, or Hong Kong? =P
If I get this camera I will probably do a mini review on it and let u guys know what I think of its functionality.

Time to get some chong you bings now. I haven’t eaten all day and its 3:50pm.

Chong you bing's on yong kang jie

...in the palm of my hands

It is technically my fifth day in Taiwan this morning. I have done a lot of fun stuff in a short amount of time. Let’s do a picture update.

Fri- Went out to Primo.

Outside Club 7

Needless to say, it was very fun. I met a bunch of cool people. A lot of people were from UC’s and USC on study abroad. I also met the band members of CoolSilly (http://www.coolsilly.com) who were Sarah’s friends.  One of the band members Tony grew up in the san jose bay area so we had a lot in common and a lot of mutual friends. It is pretty cool when you are so far away and meet people so close to home. The picture above is with Ray, one of the singers in the band. I’ve only heard one of their songs, but it’s catchy.

Next day we went to this Firework Festival. SO many people came out. I didn’t even know what the event was for exactly.. except for the fact that there was a concert with singers and then there were fireworks at the end. There were SO MANY people that I felt like the entire city literally congregated in that one area. CoolSilly performed at this event which is why we went. Here it is live:

It was cool meeting and partying with Ray, Tony, and Leeway the night before and then seeing them on stage performing. I had a chat with Tony and we both feel the same way doing our respective arts – seeking to inspire and  follow our passions. I love the feeling of being on stage performing. That’s when you know it is a calling.

Straight after this performance everyone went home and just knocked out. Everyone was pretty drained and needed to recharge. The next day Sarah and I went bike riding with her Aunt Francis.

Xindian Bike Ride So Fun

We rode from Xindian back to Xingsheng nan lu. The view at Xindian was quite beautiful and the ride itself was pretty fun though there were so many people that it was hard to really ride long without having to stop or evade other bicyclists.

I’m going to try NOT to post too many pictures of food after today because then I could just have a blog dedicated to eating after this trip. There has been so much good food this trip that I must make a short picture post on it. Here are some of the foods/drinks I have eaten so far.

Dan Bing

Cool Coffee Shop

Coffee with Hennessy

Din Tai Fung Dumplings

Dan Dan Mian

Zha Jiang Mian

Organic Food Shabu Shabu

Mouthwatering oysters and clams

Smoothie and Porridge Breakfast

The dumplings above were from Din Tai Fung which we have in LA, but they are so delicious I had to post about them still. The last picture is what I’ve been having for breakfast at Sarah’s place. It’s very healthy and she makes it for her dad. At first I had to get used to the smoothies because it’s not like a Jamba Juice smoothie, but yeah its super good for you and pretty tasty.. and with all the other junk food I’ll probably be eating its a good balance.

Here is a funny picture of me with Sarah’s fam.

Dum di dum elavator time

Haha, It’s pretty funny because her parents have been so cool to house and show around this random wushu friend of Sarahs and I really appreciate it. Her fam has been super cool.  In any case, its like her fam.. and then.. me just chillen which is what I feel this picture captures.

Now to the progress of my goals.
1) Having fun? Check

2) Entertainment – Met band members of CoolSilly which is related to entertainment. Hopefully we will all be able to collaborate together in some way. Also another friend who was a former TV show host submitted me to be on a TV show where I would perform wushu. My mom (love this woman) also reached out to some contacts and a TV person called me this morning to get me on a TV interview for Channel 10 possibly. I’ve only been here for 3-4 days so nothing is confirmed but I do feel I am making progress on this.

3) Living information – Did some research on hotel, hostel, and apartment costs. Found hotel rooms from 1,000-7,000 NT. Found apartments for 7,500NT a month but of course it all depends on the area. I like the Zhongxiao Dunhua area, but nearby areas are cool too and it would depend on my location if I had a job or not. Job wise – I emailed and called a few tutoring places. One of them responded to me this morning telling me that I would need to submit a resume and citizenship information. I will get back to them today.

4) My Chinese – I have been consciously trying to read signs while I’ve been here. Usually I will just glaze over signs, but this time I have been trying to recognize words and remember them. Also, I will look into signing up for some Chinese class at Shi Da University (National Taiwan Normal University) but since I am here for only 2 months, I may not be able to enroll on their scheduled enrollment periods. Also, depending on my schedule I am looking for some acting classes here.

5) Business – I haven’t gotten much on teas yet, though I did meet Tony’s friend Annie who is a fashion designer and has contacts to manufacturing clothing. This has been something I have been looking for for my martial arts clothing design. I already have the pattern made but need a source for fabrics and a place to mass produce.

6) Martial Arts – Went to the Taipei wushu place once, but they had to practice for an upcoming performance so I didn’t get to practice. I have decided I definitely want to improve my Tai Chi while I am here. The 5 hour bike ride I went on was my exercise for the trip so far.

Notice how there is no one in both videos! I get bored training by myself.. so I start to record things or keep myself entertained somehow.

I figure I should at least post a vid of me doing something. Here I am a few weeks back doing a jump outside 540 at the end of my practice. I already took my shoes off, but decided to do a few more kicks for the heck of it.

Yesterday I trained SO much that I probably inverted time and space and went into another dimension where I was training myself because I trained so much. I probably even regressed in skill because I trained so much yesterday.

I went to train at NWTC (National Wushu Training Center) in Hollywood and as usual it was just an alfred on alfred training session. It went surprisingly well though because I had a game plan when I went there to train. I had a few things I really wanted to work on and I just didn’t leave until I finished all of them. On top of that I threw in a full form and a few half sections for endurance. I probably ended up staying there for close to 5 hours. All I know is when I got there, it was bright, when I left there was no light.

While on the topic of NWTC, I spoke to Eric Chen, the owner of the school and also someone I worked with on Spike TV’s Deadliest Warrior… and he mentioned that the original intention of the school had always been to be a training center for the US Team. It could be a place for them to meet up together for a couple weeks before international tournaments and train with coaching and it could be a central location with proper training carpet. According to Eric, the powers that be didn’t agree with this. (He said this was many years ago and since NWTC has developed into a more Hollywood and stunt industry positioned center)

Having just discovered this though, it definitely made me think that we should get something going for the future teams where they can all meet up for 2-3 weeks prior to World Games and all fly out together as a team. It would be nice to develop a bond with the entire US team aside from just the few days you see each other at the tournament. Also currently the US team (or US team parents.. lol) pays for all their travel expenses and competition expenses with the exception of Tiger Claw / Kung Fu Magazine which has been gracious enough to sponsor some teams expenses and team jackets. Gathering money to sponsor 10 team members should not be a hard thing if everyone rallied together under a central wushu organization. I know that some schools in California alone have decent connections with colleges, corporations, and the entertainment industry. If our federation could work in harmony with all the wushu schools who support the art and our national team I think a few companies could definitely sponsor the team. It would be a few dollars to them (the large corporations) and mean so much for team members. It would also add more prestige and sense of pride making the sport grow and making new athletes that much more interested. It’s a win win situation. If the sport grows the athletes feel more inspired and respected and the schools or corporations with financial or community interest have a bigger piece of the pie to market to.

That’s my schpeal on that.

Then since I was in Hollywood for training I dropped by my buddies place and we went to Les Deux. I was a good boy of course and didn’t drink or do anything your grandma wouldn’t do- in other words I sat and just chatted with some friends. Especially 2 weeks before my competition I am not going to do anything. I haven’t been eating anything greasy like pizza or burgers.. no ice cream.. no alcohol.. no nothing. Eat, sleep, vitamins, training, other dimension training, and internet work is what I do.

Oh. I do however have a funny story involving this person.

Illegal hot dogs

There are always delicious smelling street dogs which satiate drunk people’s appetites quite well at the end of a good night of partying. However in this case the police officer in the back was doing his job of destroying this cart of defecated goodies by pouring mayonnaise and ketchup all over the hot dogs – almost just looks like hes cooking them (The police officer said they shut these carts down for health reasons because he has seen people defecate and then start cooking hot dogs). Jen was giving him shit I believe and saying they could feed the homeless (or me!).. instead of throwing it away to which he replied that the city could get sued if a bum got sick off the hot dogs. He also said “Where does Mayonnaise belong?… In the fridge!” .. as he poured it all over the cart.

Anyways, that wasn’t even my main story.

So I run into Jen the next day at Les Deux and she is a little tipsy and I started to SARCASTICALLY say “hey, im drunk”. As I mentioned earlier, I was not drinking at all because of my competition.. but in her drunken state she did not detect my sarcasm and she said something to the effect of “you are such a liar, you are terrible at pretending to be drunk” so then i said “let me pretend to be drunk then” so i started to pretend to be drunk.. you know- stumbling around and all that. Then I got a little carried away and sorta knocked over all these cups at the bar while the bartender was trying to make a drink.. she freaked out and called the bouncers to kick me out. Instantly it became a scene out of Bourne Identity where I was dodging and evading bouncers while trying to covertly escape and blend in with the other party-ers. I spent part of the night almost getting kicked out and trying to hide out from the crime scene, but I must say it was fun.

Hibachi Teppanyaki Training

Now I am proficient in straight sword, broad sword, and teppanyaki spatula! This was for some sort of documentary/commercial type shoot. A friend told Eliver and I last minute so I actually woke up at 6:30am all groggy and tired from a night of sake bombing and stumbled into my Hibachi chef suit. Anyways, check out my Hibachi skillzzz.

In other news, I got Angels Tea business cards made. I think they look pretty nice.

Tea Business Cards

Tea Business Cards

Quick Recap of the week:
Thurs - Trained at UCLA gym. It was good seeing old faces.
Fri - My friend Eric came in from up north. We went to Opera.
Sat - Picked up Eric from Venice beach and on the way home got a ticket. I got the ticket because a lady just put her foot down in the cross walk as I was finishing a left turn. Went out to Halo with Eric and Hue. Ended up chilling at that one pizza place until almost 4am.
Sun - Did some light sparring/24 Hour Fitness training. Went to Sherry/Zero’s awesome Luau with Glen. I played with fire. I messed around and played with those fire torches that are used in fire performances.
Mon - Went to SCWA for some real hardcore training. It was good seeing Sifu Ho since I havent been back since after team trials. Dennis, Ngan, Andrew, and Justin Yu were there. We did each section 4 times for empty hand and then same thing for short weapon. On top of that I did one full form and 3/4 of a full form for straight sword. Came back and had a meeting with a friend over some marketing points for my tea demographic. It really helped clear my path and direction for the business.
Tues - Cold Case auditions. The reading was fun. I was the son of an asian store owner that meddled with the mafia. Got a FLAT TIRE when I got back to my car. Maybe somebody didn’t want me to make it to that audition! Spent the whole rest of the day getting my tire repaired. Ryan, Joanna, and Yenny swung by. Did some guitaring and then went for dinner and sakes.
Wed - Woke up at the crack of dawn. Went from child to Hibachi Chef in an AC-less room with fireballs (literally) and nothing but warm water in the course of 10 hours. Trained at 99 after Teppanyaki-ing
Thurs - Got a whole bunch of errands done like getting a printer, mailing out tea orders, going to the bank, paying bills, and of course training wushu.

AngelsTea.com goes live August 18th, 2009. Our teas have arrived. Our chocolate truffles are in (and they are delicious with the tea I might add)!

Angels Tea has actively been in the works for the past 12 months from designing, to labeling, to finding the perfect blend of teas, to creating a site fit for our image, and to having our products ready to be tasted by everyone out there! It has been a fun process and many people are to thank for making their individual contributions to getting Angels Tea to where it is now.

I want to let you guys know that other flavors are in the works, but right now we have four unique flavors that each stand out very boldly: Exotic Orange Oolong, Sensual Berry Rooibos, Seductive Jasmine Green Tea, and Naughty Masala Chai!

To give you a little background and insight to how the concept for Angels Tea came to be, we jump 12 months back. I was sipping on some warm tea after a hard workout and felt so relaxed and soothed as I drank my fresh loose leaf tea. I thought about it for a second and realized – even though tea does seem to be gaining popularity in the states, the teas we drink are mainly sweetened, chilled, bottled beverages. A lot of these drinks are tasty and good, but there still seemed to be a perception that loose leaf teas where you sit down and boil water and steep teas was a thing for older people. At the very least, it’s not the first thing you think of when you imagine the “young” “cool” “wild” party vibe. I wanted to change this perception and create a movement to promote health and delicious loose leaf tea in a young fresh light.

Angels Tea comes in silk tea sachets, which is the highest quality material for tea bags, so that you can drop it in your water and enjoy a delicious healthy cup of tea. Our selection of teas taste wonderful without needing to add any sweeteners or additional ingredients. Typically the tea is served warm, but you can enjoy cold or warm!

…and that’s the story behind Angels Tea. It started out as an idea and came to life this August 2009. I know that we will be working out some kinks as we first launch and that we will go through various stages of new product development and growth so bear with us and thank you for your support.

We hope you will support Angels Tea’s movement of promoting health through proper diet and exercise by remembering “It’s Sexy to be Healthy!”

- www.angelstea.com

Angels Tea Berry Roobios

Angels Tea Chocolate Truffles