What Would Happen If...: ... Blatant staring became the new norm?

I've never been anywhere as homogenous in appearance as Shenzhen, China. As two white, blonde, relatively tall girls, Anna and I definitely stood out from the crowd but the stares we received when in public seemed borderline malicious. Or maybe we were just being paranoid.

The most obscure instance was when we went to a beach an hour or so away. We walked towards the ocean and saw lots of fully clothed Chinese people underneath umbrellas with one particularly loud group of rambunctious men gathered around some scene snapping photos. We walked over to see what was going on only to find three Russian girls prancing around and posing in these scandalous thong bikinis. Somehow we ended up chatting with them and they let us know they were working in Dong Guan (the sex capital of China). We may or may not have made some assumptions about the type of work they did there... Anna and I walked to the far end of the beach to get away from the crowd and tried to lay out in our (slightly more conservative) bathing suits but we still attracted a few creepy men who weren't at all self conscious about coming right up and taking photos of us without asking. Neil tried to explain how we're unique to them and how it's culturally acceptable but I couldn't help but be a bit freaked out wondering where the hell those pictures were going.

Other interesting/different things about China:

- Some babies have holes in the back of their pants and moms just hold them up on the side of the street to poop in public

- Restaurants serve hot water instead of cold to drink with meals

- Squatter toilets (enough said) and no soap or paper towels in bathrooms

- Chinese girls love Neil Loomis

The last point there is probably the most important... Chinese girls LOVE Neil Loomis. I've never seen anything like it but I now understand why he loves China so much. As a tall, goofy, kind of pale white guy, he is instantly charming to them (not that he isn't in America. You know what I'm saying). Whatever the reasons, he seems to be doing pretty well there and I'm super happy for him.

Anna and I had a really interesting time in China overall - while neither of us necessarily loved Shenzhen as a city, we had a blast with Neil who was a really great host. He introduced us to a ton of his foreign friends and we spent a lot of late nights eating street food and out at Coco Park - a big going out area for foreigners. We somehow ended up staying out until about 6am every other night meaning our days were kind of wasted away typically with a few dumpling runs (so good) and some couch time for a Game of Thrones marathon. Can't decide if I'm embarrassed or proud that we watched all 3 seasons in 2 weeks. It is what it is.

So China was a fun out-of-our-comfort-zone experience but we're excited to head to Bali next. Of course we ended up frantically running through the airport to our boarding gate and having to book a last minute flight for our Visas, but we made it on the plane and will be in Indonesia soon enough!

A few photos...

Amazingly cheap and delicious street food on us first night in Shenzhen