5&A Dime Gumball 3000 Journey
Aug 26, 2008, 04:49 PM
#31
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Dude thats ****ing nuts, I can't believe you guys are doing all that stuff lol. It's funny that bam and all the jackass guys are there again. That Mass games stuff its awesome
Aug 27, 2008, 08:16 PM
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subscribed... definitely want to keep my eyes on this, it looks like a blast. Been to china, Japan, Thailand, but never been able to get to N. Korea. I'd like to do that someday.
Aug 27, 2008, 08:52 PM
#35
Cool - thanks for the updates.
How did you guys take all of the pics in North Korea? On their Sirius show Bam and Dun were saying that they had to leave all electronics on the plane and they had to sneak a couple pics with a camera they hid. Yours look like they were all out in the open. Of course, they didn't mention the Mass Games either.
How did you guys take all of the pics in North Korea? On their Sirius show Bam and Dun were saying that they had to leave all electronics on the plane and they had to sneak a couple pics with a camera they hid. Yours look like they were all out in the open. Of course, they didn't mention the Mass Games either.
Aug 28, 2008, 01:04 PM
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Cool - thanks for the updates.
How did you guys take all of the pics in North Korea? On their Sirius show Bam and Dun were saying that they had to leave all electronics on the plane and they had to sneak a couple pics with a camera they hid. Yours look like they were all out in the open. Of course, they didn't mention the Mass Games either.
How did you guys take all of the pics in North Korea? On their Sirius show Bam and Dun were saying that they had to leave all electronics on the plane and they had to sneak a couple pics with a camera they hid. Yours look like they were all out in the open. Of course, they didn't mention the Mass Games either.
Aug 28, 2008, 01:18 PM
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Gumball Day 5! Shanghai!
This is a long one, haha
Welcome to day 5 of our Gumball 3000 Trip! We pick up where we left off at the Twin Towers Hotel in North Korea, and we are greeted with a very early breakfeast. I swear they are making us get up earlier and earlier. No rest for the wicked.
Explain to me how Len got this bag through North Korean customs? That looks all kinds of explosive.
The view from the room, Memphis Bleak.
First ones into breakfast. Life's a race, and we are stacking up the wins.
Best lighting goes to this thing. It looks like a mix of cheesy 70's bead curtains and Simon.
Finally, a meal I could eat. I've got to admit, the presentation is extremely impressive.
In the lobby.. Nice stuff. I'm digging the Chia Pet Christmas tree to the left.
The twin towers
There are roughly only 1,500 Westerner visits to North Korea per year. Usually, visitors who have American passports are completely denied visas, unless it's for a special occasion such as the Mass Games. So very few Americans have ever stepped foot in the country. On the rare occasion that tourists do travel here, they must stay in designated guided tours with Tour Guards at all times, no matter what. Our group had two young guides, here they are tripping on the camera.
After talking to them, we found out they had never seen a skateboard in person, let alone ever stand on one. Here's Irons and Aly teaching him as he steps on a board for the first time.
Iron x Sheikh x Aly
Photography is very strictly regulated in North Korea, and as we left the hotel they asked us not to take pictures. I tried to shoot it with our video camera but the guy next to me kept yelling at me to turn off the camera and he kept checking to make sure it was. Even interaction with locals was frowned upon.
The one thing I noticed is that the government buildings were these large, extravegant buildings, while the general living was really poor.
Scrambling to get our passports back
Just to get an idea of just how strict it is, here's a photo of our pile of phones as they were given back to us. Even though there was no chance of our phones working, they confiscated all of them while we were in the country. Just glad to have them back.
There were a lot of pictures of their fearless leaders, Kim il-Sung and Kim Jong-il
Back on the plane to Shanghai. Thanks for the memories NK.
One more meal I didn't eat.
The welcoming party in China.
The China Immigration Inspection would be the last time we would see our Film Camera. Some ******* said that our camera was too "professional" and that we didn't have permission to film in China. We weren't the only ones either, they took four cameras from the Gumball Staff as well. I spent an hour in customs pleading my case, but they weren't budging at all. It was the weirdest interaction too, because the girls there were extremely nice, even a bit flirty...I think they were feeling the moustache. It didn't really matter how much they loved the Stromboli look, we still didn't get our camera back. They said they sent them back to the U.K. to Gumball headquarters, hope to see it soon.
Next stop was picking up our Chinese drivers licenses.
A short little power point discussing the rules of the road. The engrish was amazing.
Like I said...
License mugshot. They only use the best photo equipment.
Missed you.
The local government had a welcoming party for all the Gumballers. All those guys with the red ribbon had speeches prepared. It was like a million degrees with 100% humidity, and we just sat there forever. I was thinking it was going to be like this for the entire trip, but it got suprisingly nice.
Lefty's Barber shop love
First one's out the gate in China, where they had a ribbon cutting ceremony to open things up. We know that they tell everyone that it's not a race, it's a rally, but we wanted to prove that our little Evo had no problem keeping up with them.
Police escort to Shanghai.
First stop.. Gas station.
You can imagine just how long it takes for everyone to fill up. Every gas station became a car show for all the locals as well, crowds kept gathering bigger and bigger.
All the gas stations are full service, where they pump your gas for you. Had to get used to that.
So this a super crappy pic, but it's the only one I have to show you guys what we were dealing with. We purchased the China maps from Garmin and we thought it would give is the upper hand out on the road. But if you take a close look at the screen, you'll se that the car is not even on a road. It never changed the entire time we were in China, it just said "recalculating." If you wanted to drive in the dirt, rivers, or lakes in this country, then Garmin China maps is just the ticket.
Lots of these over there and no homeland security.. terrorists welcome.
The check in in Shanghai
View from the room.. I wish we had more pics of the buildings at night but they turn the lights off in the whole town at like midnight.
Trying to do their part on saving electricity..
One of the many typo's.. It's all good though, it's like reading this blog.
So here's some pics of the local talent.
Pic of our local talent.. What tha?
Mike Malbon (Frank 151) came along for the China part of the rally. This dude was on fire and I know for a fact he has better stories then us.
This is how the night ended with our boy Fly having to carry Dunn back to the hotel. Day 6 coming next!
Welcome to day 5 of our Gumball 3000 Trip! We pick up where we left off at the Twin Towers Hotel in North Korea, and we are greeted with a very early breakfeast. I swear they are making us get up earlier and earlier. No rest for the wicked.
Explain to me how Len got this bag through North Korean customs? That looks all kinds of explosive.
The view from the room, Memphis Bleak.
First ones into breakfast. Life's a race, and we are stacking up the wins.
Best lighting goes to this thing. It looks like a mix of cheesy 70's bead curtains and Simon.
Finally, a meal I could eat. I've got to admit, the presentation is extremely impressive.
In the lobby.. Nice stuff. I'm digging the Chia Pet Christmas tree to the left.
The twin towers
There are roughly only 1,500 Westerner visits to North Korea per year. Usually, visitors who have American passports are completely denied visas, unless it's for a special occasion such as the Mass Games. So very few Americans have ever stepped foot in the country. On the rare occasion that tourists do travel here, they must stay in designated guided tours with Tour Guards at all times, no matter what. Our group had two young guides, here they are tripping on the camera.
After talking to them, we found out they had never seen a skateboard in person, let alone ever stand on one. Here's Irons and Aly teaching him as he steps on a board for the first time.
Iron x Sheikh x Aly
Photography is very strictly regulated in North Korea, and as we left the hotel they asked us not to take pictures. I tried to shoot it with our video camera but the guy next to me kept yelling at me to turn off the camera and he kept checking to make sure it was. Even interaction with locals was frowned upon.
The one thing I noticed is that the government buildings were these large, extravegant buildings, while the general living was really poor.
Scrambling to get our passports back
Just to get an idea of just how strict it is, here's a photo of our pile of phones as they were given back to us. Even though there was no chance of our phones working, they confiscated all of them while we were in the country. Just glad to have them back.
There were a lot of pictures of their fearless leaders, Kim il-Sung and Kim Jong-il
Back on the plane to Shanghai. Thanks for the memories NK.
One more meal I didn't eat.
The welcoming party in China.
The China Immigration Inspection would be the last time we would see our Film Camera. Some ******* said that our camera was too "professional" and that we didn't have permission to film in China. We weren't the only ones either, they took four cameras from the Gumball Staff as well. I spent an hour in customs pleading my case, but they weren't budging at all. It was the weirdest interaction too, because the girls there were extremely nice, even a bit flirty...I think they were feeling the moustache. It didn't really matter how much they loved the Stromboli look, we still didn't get our camera back. They said they sent them back to the U.K. to Gumball headquarters, hope to see it soon.
Next stop was picking up our Chinese drivers licenses.
A short little power point discussing the rules of the road. The engrish was amazing.
Like I said...
License mugshot. They only use the best photo equipment.
Missed you.
The local government had a welcoming party for all the Gumballers. All those guys with the red ribbon had speeches prepared. It was like a million degrees with 100% humidity, and we just sat there forever. I was thinking it was going to be like this for the entire trip, but it got suprisingly nice.
Lefty's Barber shop love
First one's out the gate in China, where they had a ribbon cutting ceremony to open things up. We know that they tell everyone that it's not a race, it's a rally, but we wanted to prove that our little Evo had no problem keeping up with them.
Police escort to Shanghai.
First stop.. Gas station.
You can imagine just how long it takes for everyone to fill up. Every gas station became a car show for all the locals as well, crowds kept gathering bigger and bigger.
All the gas stations are full service, where they pump your gas for you. Had to get used to that.
So this a super crappy pic, but it's the only one I have to show you guys what we were dealing with. We purchased the China maps from Garmin and we thought it would give is the upper hand out on the road. But if you take a close look at the screen, you'll se that the car is not even on a road. It never changed the entire time we were in China, it just said "recalculating." If you wanted to drive in the dirt, rivers, or lakes in this country, then Garmin China maps is just the ticket.
Lots of these over there and no homeland security.. terrorists welcome.
The check in in Shanghai
View from the room.. I wish we had more pics of the buildings at night but they turn the lights off in the whole town at like midnight.
Trying to do their part on saving electricity..
One of the many typo's.. It's all good though, it's like reading this blog.
So here's some pics of the local talent.
Pic of our local talent.. What tha?
Mike Malbon (Frank 151) came along for the China part of the rally. This dude was on fire and I know for a fact he has better stories then us.
This is how the night ended with our boy Fly having to carry Dunn back to the hotel. Day 6 coming next!
Aug 29, 2008, 02:28 PM
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Gumball day 6: Xuzhou
It's another very early morning wake-up on Day 6 of the Gumball Rally. Today would mark the longest drive of the trip, and it's gonna be a rough one. We got a quick breakfeast then headed back to the cars to get our trip started. We would take a short drive just oustide the city to the Shanghai Circuit, a Formula 1 race track, then make a 10 hour trip to Xuzhou.
Another sweet view from our room. Gumball chose only the finest hotels to stay at, and it shows.
On our way out the city. We broke necks driving by the crowds.
Not only were all the on and off ramps closed to the public for us, they also shut down the expressway as well. Take 30 or so high performance cars, add an empty highway, and you get high speed mayhem! I did feel kinda bad for all the locals who were trying to get to work on time though.
The building on the far left was our hotel. People were saying that it was in the new Batman movie.. I have to believe them
So after our video camera was seized at Chinese customs we went out and purchased this little guy. I hope it's not bootleg because we paid four hundo US for it. It held up for the remainder of the trip.
Next stop, Shanghai International Circuit. The track opened in 2004, and plays host to many racing organizations, includin Formula 1 and MotoGP. We were looking forward to visiting the track, and were in awe of just how overwhelming it is.
Driving thru one of the garages to get to the pits. It's like Gran Turismo...but real.
As luck would have it we were one of the first again to the staging area. Chalk up another win for us.
Best picture of the trip.
The Gumball crew working on the next part of the off road series.
What a beautiful sight. It must be amazing to see those stands filled with 200,000 spectators cheering you on.
They made us do a couple parade laps to get used to the track.
Before we ran our hot laps, Len checked the air pressure and made a few other adjustments to make sure we didn't fly off the track.
Aly ran his hot laps in what little shade there was.. We also ditched our luggage thinking we could squeeze out a few more MPH.
We were only able to do three laps per car so being that Len was the superior car dude we let him do work on the track.
Check out the G forces on our tree.
Temperatures were in the "kill me please" on the tarmac.
Letting the car cool down after our hot laps on the track. This being our first Gumball, and the Evo X MR being such a new platform, we decided to keep the mods to the car light. As much as we would have loved to strap on a bigger turbo and really test the 4b11t, we really didn't want to take the chance of having something go wrong in the middle of China. So we stuck to a couple of simple bolt-on's with the Greddy Ti-C exhaust and Cusco coilovers. The stance on the car looks amazing too with those RE30s. The Evo X not only lived up to expections, it surpassed them. We had no problem keeping up with all the big boys on the track, and the car never hiccuped along the way. We might have to bring it back next year if we do Gumball again.
HUH? I don't even know what to say except it was really hot and I think it got to Mike and Aly's brains
this was at about a hundred miles an hour, Bam and Dunn hitched a ride with the Vdub guys for the China leg of the rally.
Random billboard.. I wonder what it says. The kid's got a nice arc and great aim though.
One of the eight thousand tolls we went through...
And one of the eight thousand stops for gas. If there is one negative about the Evo, it would have to be the gas tank. It's pretty much the same size as a 2-liter bottle. We had to refuel like every two hundred miles or so.
The SLR trying to do burnouts. Check the cop just watching and not doing anything.
My favorite on the China portion of the rally. Mercedes McClaren SLR
He had to check back to this map a few times. See where it says "Fill up here?" That only works if your gas tank is bigger than a thimble.
Because our tank was an issue, we got lost from the rest of the pack. We made good friends with Darren, the driver of the Aston Martin. He also had to drop by the station to fill up. We also hooked up with one of the Chinese dudes that was taking some of the broke down gumballers to Beijing. He had navigation so we followed him all the way to the next destination.
This was a rest stop along the way.. What a trip. Much nicer than those gnarly one's here in the states.
Every stop we made drew a crowd. If it wasn't the car, it was our weirdness for sure.
The reason Darren's laughing at us was the preceding moments. I didn't notice that they were pulling off the freeway to get gas until the last second, and I yanked the steering wheel into a massive four-wheel drift over multiple lanes of traffic to get off. Tires were groaning and I'm pretty sure I got whiplash. Oh, the spirit of Gumball...
Not sure what these things are but he had to keep them watered.
Aly shutting down after a long day of driving.
So I know there's no closing pictures of day six and this falls into the "We should have taken pictures but we forgot category." I think somewhere in the middle of the day the other Gumballers stopped for lunch and we didn't know. We kept on driving and because of it we were the second car to the Xuzhou stop. Driving into Xuzhou was so sketchy because it started pouring rain and everyone was just out in the streets; bikes, pedestrians, dogs, goats you name it. I was even driving on the wrong side of the road for a while before I realized it. The city seemed more farm like so we thought our hotel was going to be sorta the same. When we finally made to the hotel we were plesently suprised with how nice it was. There was a really cool pool right in the center of the spot and our dinner was really nice as well. Of course I had to pick through the food again. They also had a jazz band playing back ground music the only thing was they kept playing the theme song to the Pink Panther movie over and over again. It might have been the only song they knew. I have video of Carlton Banks telling a story while the Pink Panther is playing in the back ground. I'll try to upload it for you guys it was so surreal.
Day seven next........Beijing here we come
Another sweet view from our room. Gumball chose only the finest hotels to stay at, and it shows.
On our way out the city. We broke necks driving by the crowds.
Not only were all the on and off ramps closed to the public for us, they also shut down the expressway as well. Take 30 or so high performance cars, add an empty highway, and you get high speed mayhem! I did feel kinda bad for all the locals who were trying to get to work on time though.
The building on the far left was our hotel. People were saying that it was in the new Batman movie.. I have to believe them
So after our video camera was seized at Chinese customs we went out and purchased this little guy. I hope it's not bootleg because we paid four hundo US for it. It held up for the remainder of the trip.
Next stop, Shanghai International Circuit. The track opened in 2004, and plays host to many racing organizations, includin Formula 1 and MotoGP. We were looking forward to visiting the track, and were in awe of just how overwhelming it is.
Driving thru one of the garages to get to the pits. It's like Gran Turismo...but real.
As luck would have it we were one of the first again to the staging area. Chalk up another win for us.
Best picture of the trip.
The Gumball crew working on the next part of the off road series.
What a beautiful sight. It must be amazing to see those stands filled with 200,000 spectators cheering you on.
They made us do a couple parade laps to get used to the track.
Before we ran our hot laps, Len checked the air pressure and made a few other adjustments to make sure we didn't fly off the track.
Aly ran his hot laps in what little shade there was.. We also ditched our luggage thinking we could squeeze out a few more MPH.
We were only able to do three laps per car so being that Len was the superior car dude we let him do work on the track.
Check out the G forces on our tree.
Temperatures were in the "kill me please" on the tarmac.
Letting the car cool down after our hot laps on the track. This being our first Gumball, and the Evo X MR being such a new platform, we decided to keep the mods to the car light. As much as we would have loved to strap on a bigger turbo and really test the 4b11t, we really didn't want to take the chance of having something go wrong in the middle of China. So we stuck to a couple of simple bolt-on's with the Greddy Ti-C exhaust and Cusco coilovers. The stance on the car looks amazing too with those RE30s. The Evo X not only lived up to expections, it surpassed them. We had no problem keeping up with all the big boys on the track, and the car never hiccuped along the way. We might have to bring it back next year if we do Gumball again.
HUH? I don't even know what to say except it was really hot and I think it got to Mike and Aly's brains
this was at about a hundred miles an hour, Bam and Dunn hitched a ride with the Vdub guys for the China leg of the rally.
Random billboard.. I wonder what it says. The kid's got a nice arc and great aim though.
One of the eight thousand tolls we went through...
And one of the eight thousand stops for gas. If there is one negative about the Evo, it would have to be the gas tank. It's pretty much the same size as a 2-liter bottle. We had to refuel like every two hundred miles or so.
The SLR trying to do burnouts. Check the cop just watching and not doing anything.
My favorite on the China portion of the rally. Mercedes McClaren SLR
He had to check back to this map a few times. See where it says "Fill up here?" That only works if your gas tank is bigger than a thimble.
Because our tank was an issue, we got lost from the rest of the pack. We made good friends with Darren, the driver of the Aston Martin. He also had to drop by the station to fill up. We also hooked up with one of the Chinese dudes that was taking some of the broke down gumballers to Beijing. He had navigation so we followed him all the way to the next destination.
This was a rest stop along the way.. What a trip. Much nicer than those gnarly one's here in the states.
Every stop we made drew a crowd. If it wasn't the car, it was our weirdness for sure.
The reason Darren's laughing at us was the preceding moments. I didn't notice that they were pulling off the freeway to get gas until the last second, and I yanked the steering wheel into a massive four-wheel drift over multiple lanes of traffic to get off. Tires were groaning and I'm pretty sure I got whiplash. Oh, the spirit of Gumball...
Not sure what these things are but he had to keep them watered.
Aly shutting down after a long day of driving.
So I know there's no closing pictures of day six and this falls into the "We should have taken pictures but we forgot category." I think somewhere in the middle of the day the other Gumballers stopped for lunch and we didn't know. We kept on driving and because of it we were the second car to the Xuzhou stop. Driving into Xuzhou was so sketchy because it started pouring rain and everyone was just out in the streets; bikes, pedestrians, dogs, goats you name it. I was even driving on the wrong side of the road for a while before I realized it. The city seemed more farm like so we thought our hotel was going to be sorta the same. When we finally made to the hotel we were plesently suprised with how nice it was. There was a really cool pool right in the center of the spot and our dinner was really nice as well. Of course I had to pick through the food again. They also had a jazz band playing back ground music the only thing was they kept playing the theme song to the Pink Panther movie over and over again. It might have been the only song they knew. I have video of Carlton Banks telling a story while the Pink Panther is playing in the back ground. I'll try to upload it for you guys it was so surreal.
Day seven next........Beijing here we come
Sep 2, 2008, 03:33 PM
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Day: 7 Beijing
I couldn't really tell what a beautiful place Xuzhou was the night before due to the rain and darkness,but I woke up the next morning pleasantly suprised. This was the first night of the whole trip where I was able to get a solid eight hours of sleep. I actually slept in a bit and found myself rushing out to the car to make the eight o' clock start.
Here's that pool I was talking about in the prior post. Looks amazing.. Too bad I'm scared of the water.
I actually was shooting our exit out of the city with the video camera so I forgot to take pics. We are going to try and make a mini video from our trip. I just hope the footage is good enough so you guys can see everything in better detail, and so you could also see everything I forgot to take photos of.
Aly reliving his youth barefoot style.
So here's another example of excellent Engrish. I found this little sign in the breakfast buffet. I loved it so much I stole it and brought it back home.
The one thing that makes traveling on the Chinese highways awesome is the crazy amount of gas stations. Way better than the U.S. I can go for miles and miles here and never find a gas station, but in China, they're there when you need them.. Each of them always comes complete with a market and large public rest room (*** smell included.) The markets can be really random at times. Take this one for example, it had your average assortment of food and beverages, but it also had nick knacks. I saw a miniature plane made out bullets and glass case full of knives and assorted weaponry.
Here was my purchase from said market. An old timey replica musket that also had a butane lighter built inside. Aly bought some kung fu stick thing. This was one of my many random purchases made though out the trip. How am I going to sneak this thing on to the plane?
These dudes loved the free ****..
Mike (Frank 151) looks like he's up to something.... and I want in on it..
Doing work son
The lunch time stop was crazy. This was the absolute one spot I wasn't eating at for sure. It was buffet style with all kinds of random stuff... I saw a basket of sautéed chicken heads.. Yeah?.... No.
Look at this perfect roadway. The highways in China were all smooth, way better than the pot hole infested ones we have in the States.
Iron Mike got tired of holding the camera so he rigged up this thing using the busted Garmin suction cup. We like to improvise.
Due the fact that we had the tiny gas tank we got lost from the group again and this time we didn't have the Chinese dude with navigation.
Some of the road signs are confusing so we went right when we should have went left, which forced us through another toll booth. The problem was that we needed to go back the way we came and the way back was being held up in a effort to keep the expressways clear and Beijing smog free. That meant that each of the tolls were regulated to when they could be opened up. The one we needed to go through had a two and half hour wait, or at least that's what the toll booth guy told us. To make matters worse we were stuck at the very back of a long line of semi trucks. We sat there for a minute and discussed our options:
A. Sit it out and wait
B. Try to find someone that speaks english and see if there's another way
C. Try to talk the toll booth guys and see if can get through somehow.
After frustration set in, I got out of the car and ran up to the toll to see if I could talk to someone. I'm not sure how it happened, but I some how convinced them that we were in the Olympics and we were late and had to get through. He spoke it over to his boss and the next thing I know the boss comes out yelling something at me, but Aly was like "they are telling us to hurry up to the front and they would let us through." I can't believe it worked..
We were so close to the city but couldn't figure out how to get there. At this point we were driving around randomly till we got closer and closer.
We randomly ran into this guy at one of the lights that spoke perfect English. He had heard that Gumball was coming to town too, and was nice enough to guide us to the hotel. Take a look at the CCTV building on the right. I can't believe that thing stands up. I wouldn't want to be in that one part that looks like there no support
Lots of this around the city. Wish "Amazing Awaits" was here.
Pulling into the Westin Hotel for the final stop of the Gumball 3000 2008. We made this place our home for the next three days.
Here's the crew that got us to the hotel.. Thanks for the help Jamie
This pic says it all.. We made it.. Max, Neals and Cuban Brothers joining in on our excitement.
Look at what I got for three days.. So good....
"Comfortable" babyface
We had a nice little awards ceremony at the hotel night club. We all got medals made by the same company that made the Olympic medals.
They are mad official. Picture of the medal coming soon.
After our long journey through the outskirts of Beijing, we finally arrived, relieved that we would be staying put for a couple days. We still had the Olympics ahead of us though, and our journey was finally coming to an end. Day 8 coming soon.
Here's that pool I was talking about in the prior post. Looks amazing.. Too bad I'm scared of the water.
I actually was shooting our exit out of the city with the video camera so I forgot to take pics. We are going to try and make a mini video from our trip. I just hope the footage is good enough so you guys can see everything in better detail, and so you could also see everything I forgot to take photos of.
Aly reliving his youth barefoot style.
So here's another example of excellent Engrish. I found this little sign in the breakfast buffet. I loved it so much I stole it and brought it back home.
The one thing that makes traveling on the Chinese highways awesome is the crazy amount of gas stations. Way better than the U.S. I can go for miles and miles here and never find a gas station, but in China, they're there when you need them.. Each of them always comes complete with a market and large public rest room (*** smell included.) The markets can be really random at times. Take this one for example, it had your average assortment of food and beverages, but it also had nick knacks. I saw a miniature plane made out bullets and glass case full of knives and assorted weaponry.
Here was my purchase from said market. An old timey replica musket that also had a butane lighter built inside. Aly bought some kung fu stick thing. This was one of my many random purchases made though out the trip. How am I going to sneak this thing on to the plane?
These dudes loved the free ****..
Mike (Frank 151) looks like he's up to something.... and I want in on it..
Doing work son
The lunch time stop was crazy. This was the absolute one spot I wasn't eating at for sure. It was buffet style with all kinds of random stuff... I saw a basket of sautéed chicken heads.. Yeah?.... No.
Look at this perfect roadway. The highways in China were all smooth, way better than the pot hole infested ones we have in the States.
Iron Mike got tired of holding the camera so he rigged up this thing using the busted Garmin suction cup. We like to improvise.
Due the fact that we had the tiny gas tank we got lost from the group again and this time we didn't have the Chinese dude with navigation.
Some of the road signs are confusing so we went right when we should have went left, which forced us through another toll booth. The problem was that we needed to go back the way we came and the way back was being held up in a effort to keep the expressways clear and Beijing smog free. That meant that each of the tolls were regulated to when they could be opened up. The one we needed to go through had a two and half hour wait, or at least that's what the toll booth guy told us. To make matters worse we were stuck at the very back of a long line of semi trucks. We sat there for a minute and discussed our options:
A. Sit it out and wait
B. Try to find someone that speaks english and see if there's another way
C. Try to talk the toll booth guys and see if can get through somehow.
After frustration set in, I got out of the car and ran up to the toll to see if I could talk to someone. I'm not sure how it happened, but I some how convinced them that we were in the Olympics and we were late and had to get through. He spoke it over to his boss and the next thing I know the boss comes out yelling something at me, but Aly was like "they are telling us to hurry up to the front and they would let us through." I can't believe it worked..
We were so close to the city but couldn't figure out how to get there. At this point we were driving around randomly till we got closer and closer.
We randomly ran into this guy at one of the lights that spoke perfect English. He had heard that Gumball was coming to town too, and was nice enough to guide us to the hotel. Take a look at the CCTV building on the right. I can't believe that thing stands up. I wouldn't want to be in that one part that looks like there no support
Lots of this around the city. Wish "Amazing Awaits" was here.
Pulling into the Westin Hotel for the final stop of the Gumball 3000 2008. We made this place our home for the next three days.
Here's the crew that got us to the hotel.. Thanks for the help Jamie
This pic says it all.. We made it.. Max, Neals and Cuban Brothers joining in on our excitement.
Look at what I got for three days.. So good....
"Comfortable" babyface
We had a nice little awards ceremony at the hotel night club. We all got medals made by the same company that made the Olympic medals.
They are mad official. Picture of the medal coming soon.
After our long journey through the outskirts of Beijing, we finally arrived, relieved that we would be staying put for a couple days. We still had the Olympics ahead of us though, and our journey was finally coming to an end. Day 8 coming soon.
