A romantic cruise in beautiful Shenzhen (Part I)

Last weekend Kelly and I decided to get away. To leave mobile phones and laptops at home. To spend time just... together. Getting to know each other again. Remembering why we fell in love. Gazing into each other's HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh... my god... *wipes tear from eye*

Sorry. We went away last weekend because we saw this amazingly kitsch hotel a few months ago in Shenzhen and we haven't been able to stop thinking about it. So off we went to... Cruise Inn:

This is an old cruise ship that used to be docked in Shenzhen Bay. But as the bay was reclaimed around it, it became landlocked. It's now a hotel/restaurant complex and it is a wonderland.

First the completely-over-the-top (even for China) lobby:

You can't tell from the photo, but yes - that is a moat filled with koi surrounding the grand piano.

And then on to our room. Kelly booked the "Romantic Seaview Cabin", which looked something like this:

(the most tiles I've seen in a bathroom, ever.)

But... why is this "romantic"? Because the bed is pink? Oh no. It's because that big pink bed is a waterbed. *cue 70's porn music*

After we stopped hysterically laughing, we went to explore the ship. This place is like the Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory of alcohol. Everywhere you looked there was a different bar with a different theme. There was the German beer garden (that brews its own beer) on the top deck:

The Sichuan place for Tsingtao and grilled corn:

The "gentlemen's club" for brandy and cigars:

And then "X-Ta-Sea" - a sports bar teeming with obese 70-year-old white men with young Chinese hotties on each arm, and an intensely bad cover band:

Lastly, here's Kelly at the demolition site in front of our hotel. This was an amphitheater and shopping area last time we were here, but is now completely destroyed. Of course Kelly was fascinated and we spent several hours (okay, minutes; but it seemed like hours) each day staring at the bulldozers.

Next post, what we did in Shenzhen (primarily, EAT).