aan den rijn

How in the world does having an Au Bon Pain makes a place hip? There are ABPs in completely unhip backwaters like Keene, NH. I remember seeing at least two of them at the PA bus terminal in NYC.

Soraanaam seeing how you've been to Cerritos too I think any place is hip compared to Cerritos, no?

bahaha. everyone has such a green, hippy image of saratoga that just isn't true. downtown is surrounded by suburbs and developments, and there are quite a few old money families.

The free sulfur-sniffing in that one park definitely makes it a lot hipper than the rest of Upstate NY though, no?

i'm surprised no one even mentioned san francisco or berkeley. goddamn, that's motherfuckin' hippie central. i feel the hippy phenomenon is an american invention, and so the most hippy city would have to be located in the u.s., although other cities may exhibit more "hippy" characteristics...thoughts?

I see your San Fran and I raise you Saratoga Springs, NY.

i heard theres a few japanese girls in vermont.

From the number of people who said that I'm the first Asian they've ever talked out outside of a Chinese restaurant in their life I don't think there are a lot.

Well shit I'll be in Brattleboro by Monday time to load up the New Hampshire booze and sit out the winter again.

But where else in LA can you get a ridiculously overfattening hot dog and pick up a prostitute on the same street corner? You ain't gonna be able to do that on Robertson.

Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles is always the correct answer. Google for their website since they have a bunch of locations and pick one closest to you.

I was just hoping to see some sights and eat good food. just wanted to be pointed in the right direction. No shopping though, thats what I 've got the city for.

I can't absolutely say what's the best food but I've had a lot of fun going to afternoon tea at, say, the Park Plaza, going to a play on Stuart Street, and concerts all over the place (Paradise Rock Club is a very nice venue and very intimate). There are standard sights to see like the Freedom Trail and the Commons and whatnot but it's kind of dull, to be honest.

Well, what sort of stuff are you looking for? You'll be recommended to shop on Newbury St., walk around the commons or Back Bay if the weather's still nice, and maybe grab some seafood, but Boston's pretty huge and there are acres of things to do if you have any specific interests.

I did my circuit around Shanghai and Suzhou last couple of months and clubs were really disappointing, but I've been spoiled by NY and Montreal and Los Angeles. Some French girl directed me to some shady dude who sold me a ludicrious amount of hash for virtually no money in Shanghai, and my taxi driver in Suzhou directed me to a club about a block away from my apartment that sold K and E through the bathroom attendants. However the most fun I had was just randomly getting drunk with people I didn't know for free since a lot are pretty impressed at the fact that I can be as Chinese or American at the flip of a switch. Oh yeah, and Chinese people can't dance, totally true.

I'm Chinese but pretty whitewashed and I didn't have trouble pulling chicks. I'm more of a Suzhou native than 50% of the city itself though, even if I haven't been to Suzhou in 10 years. The most bizarre club I went to was actually a karaoke bar that had a row of escort girls for us to pick from when we went in, but the girl I picked decided to chug half a bottle of Jack with me. She of course didn't know that I've spent the last two years holed up in a wooden shack in Vermont drinking handles a weekend to keep warm and she passed out on me before anything happened, so I found her a blanket and let her in the little VIP room and left without paying.

Chivas and green tea was the most bewildering thing for me. I like alcohol and I like tea but the two together is like having urine in my cereal to start the day.

I've stayed at the huge one at the corner of Amsterdam and 103rd as well as the Chelsea Star next to Madison Square Garden. They're both dirt cheap and decent as hostels go. The Chelsea Star is a bit more convenient nightlife wise but it's pretty loud when and if you do want to take a nap or something (Metal floors, who's bright idea is that).

Yep, Shanghai's high end stores stock outlet-grade stuff at high end prices, totally a rip off. Nobody really goes to Shanghai for Dior though, people go there for the $2 t-shirts in the gigantic clothing flea markets north of Suzhou Creek. I picked up a few dozen crazy Engrish t-shirts for pocket change a few weeks ago.

i remember we camped out at the place we played the show at. the owner was smoking crack in the trailer he lived in behind the show. and he let us shower in the morning, and was caught staring at one of our tourmates. weird place.

Yep, good ol' central southern Vermont, that's Wilmington for ya. Why Wilmington and not Brattleboro? At least in Brat we kicked all the trailers to the north side and west side of town and fenced them off (no joke) and made a very half-assed attempt at gentrifying downtown like refusing to sell the house at 420 High Street to the seven of us trying to make it into a frathouse.

you can take buses to montreal?

how cheap / fast?

from where?

do they check for passport at the border?

I tossed out the latest bus schedule as I won't be back in VT until late August but I think there are at least 2 or 3 buses going from the bus station in Burlington on Route 7 south of Downtown up to Montreal. Takes about 3 or 4 hours or so? They check everyone's passport at the border but it's not too big of a deal. You can get bus tickets reserved on Greyhound.com but I typically don't bother and just show up because I've NEVER seen the bus full ever. It's like 30 or 40 bucks, possibly less? It's pretty cheap and if you don't have a car it's definitely worth it.

Although if you have a car you can just take the drive and since Canadian cops don't stop American speeders it seems and you don't have to pay parking tickets, and the border's seldom clogged unless you go on Friday nights or Saturday nights. Coming back is always a bit more of a hassal because the American customs ask WAY more questions than the Canadian ones. This is true for busses too, btw.

brattleboro is so ghetto. we played a show up in wilmington once. shit was so white trash.

Yeah I couldn't decide whether to live in the hippie district or the trash district and I chose the hippie district, which ironically is closer to the Wal-Mart than really anything else. I go to school on Route 9 halfway between Wilmington and Brattleboro and the weather's absolute shit for about 11 months out of the year, and so is the shopping.

How do you go to NY by train? The Vermonter goes from St. Albans to DC via NY daily You can get your tix online @ Amtrak.com. I'm not sure where the station is though in Burlington though. There's only one train a day though, so you're gonna have to stay overnight in NYC since the train back is also in the morning. The Greyhound also runs to NYC although I think you have to change buses in White River Junction which is never a fun occasion. The train does NOT run to Montreal though, which is the biggest bitch, but if you can find a ride across Champlain you can hop on the Adriondack to Montreal by train, but if you're taking that much effort you might as well as take the bus up which is pretty cheap and puts you a block from the Berri-UQAM Metro stop.

On the contrary I've lived in Vermont for much of the last two years and I haven't snowboarded beyond riding a lunch tray down a snowy hill. Burlington's a cute little town, although this past spring has been hellish with the snowstorms and whatnot. Bring some gloves and you'll be fine, I've pushed cars up hills in APCs and a single-breasted Armani overcoat (with nothing underneath) during a storm and didn't even get frostbite.

I'm in Southern Vermont btw so your mileage may vary. I don't even have cell phone reception and as far as I know I'm the only Asian within 15 miles of where I lived, although now I have an apartment in downtown Brattleboro which is slightly better than... say random house on the side of Route 9 in the middle of fuck-all.

Off the top of my head:

NYC: Shop - The Strand bookstore, Eat - Norma's

Boston: Shop - Louis of Boston or Stel's, Eat - Afternoon Tea at the Park Plaza

Montreal: Shop - Anywhere on the corner of St. Laurent and Prince Arthur, Eat - Schwartz's

Random selections, not necessarily the best, but definitely of some interest.

I bring most girls to Fred 62 and they love it, but that's only when we're both wasted but got the munchies. Or get some tapas at Minibar.

I stayed at a place on Jiangxi Zhong Lu just north of Beijing Lu a block from the Bund. The name escapes me, but a 6 people dorm including a lockable closet and en suite bathroom is only $5 a night. It's pretty clean too. Neighborhood's a tad sketchy at night but nothing too terrible compared to the rest of China, to be honest.

Yeah there are spending limits there but it's in RMB so you only have to spend like $120 - $200 to not have them bother you at all, and just chat with the bar staff and they won't give a shit. Annoying gold-digging Chinese girls do suck very much though. Some lady was trying for me to get her a drink and left a poem that started with "The Whore of the Orient".

I had a great time at 18 on the Bund's Bar Rouge. There's a Zegna there as well. Also 3 on the Bund's pretty posh and all that, if you're into that kind of thing.

Post trip report: Ended up spending way too much at Bar Rouge and ended up at dkd where they were handing out free hair gel for some reason. Not cheap, but pretty fun nonetheless.

I'm actually flying back to Los Angeles then Boston on August 23rd from Shanghai, and I live in Suzhou, not Shanghai per-se. But if time allows I'd be down.

Can I get an address? Google shows a few bars with Windows in their name. Also I feel like there would be some hilarity happening there, but whatever, it's Shanghai.

I'll be in Shanghai periodically for the next 2 months and staying with a friend who lives close to the Bund. What sort of clubs and bars are popular in the area, preferably without being too ludicriously expensive? I don't want to stray too far from where I'm staying. Thanks.

Century Blvd is so dead nowadays. I lived in Inglewood last winter and there was only one gang related shooting, so lame.

Serious answer, go for some tapas at the minibar lounge before a show at the troubadour or something. I also have caught a bad habit of acting extra gay at Mark's so they don't card.