robbieraleigh.com

I found this video and had to post it.  It's an old rap video with Charlie Chan and Dangerous D (who ever that is?)  The cool part is they are right in St. Louis, with the the old Busch stadium in the background, and ninjas.  Awesome.httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX4-hQWW8To  Read More

Press the BlackBerry button Click Full Image Click Save Image Go to My Pictures, Set As Home Screen  Read More

Last week I walked over to the Botanical Gardens and was able to listen to Erin Bode's first set.  She kicked of the first jazz concert this summer at the Botanical and was promoting her new album.  I was able to record the opening song and have included it here.  It's titled Out Of Time and I really like it.  You can download it from the RSS feed.  Go out and buy her new CD its titled Little Garden.  [audio:Out Of Time.mp3] [gallery=14]   Read More

Woke up and prepared for my first big day by myself.  Lu had to travel to her parents for the day so I was on my own.  Once again she had given me written directions, and all I had to do was catch a taxi to the Forbidden City.  Pretty easy, and it was once at the Forbidden City I got a ticket and an audio tour and was on may way.  I entered the city from the back, whcih leads directly ... Read More

We arrived at Beijing via an overnight train from Xian early at about 6am.  The train ride worked out great because Lu and I ended up having our own room.  Usually, you have to share the room with two others.  Arriving in Beijing I instantly noticed how well kept the city was compared to Shanghai.  Partially, I'm sure this was because of the clean up that is going on for the upcoming Olympics but in general it felt much more organized.  I'm ... Read More

Woke up this morning at about 10 am finally had a good nights sleep.  I think the beer and food from last night dinner helped.  Anyways, Lu and I had plans to go to the museum but we got there at about 12:30 and they had stopped selling tickets until 1pm.  Strange that they only sold ticket twice a day but by the time we waited and went shopping I wasn’t really that interested in going to the museum.  I future I ... Read More

In the morning we arrived in Xi’an via train, and went straight to the McDonalds for breakfast.  Unfortunately there was no sausage egg and cheese biscuits so I settled for a spicy chicken sandwich.  This was the first time I ate american food in China and it was great. Don’t get me wrong the Chinese food is also great but for some reason McDonalds taste ten times better over seas.  After breakfast we caught a train to Xi’an to see the Terra ... Read More

Today is the day that we experienced the famous Suzhou gardens.. Suzhou is famous for it gardens and water canals.  As far as the canals the city it nowhere like Venice, most of the water canals have been replaced by streets and the few left are only for tourist boat rides and photos.  The gardens in Suzhou are famous throughout China, and where originally private.  Walking through the private gardens it make you wish that you could go back in time and ... Read More

This morning was my first adventure by alone.  Lu insisted that I go and get the deposit for the bike rentals while she took a shower.  So I headed out.  The trip was only four blocks from the hotel and all I had to do was find the bike station show them my receipt and ask for our deposit. Lu even went so far as to write on a piece of paper the sentence I had to say in Chinese and English. ... Read More

This morning we woke up and changed hotels, I'm still not accustom to the hard mattresses and the room we had was right next to the lobby.  So we upgraded, everything is so reasonable around here that it was not expensive a nice hotel is around 50 dollars a night we moved from a 30 dollar a night hotel.  After we switched we ate breakfast, and took a taxi to a wholesale market.  The market was nothing but silk and fabric a a big discount. ... Read More