Real Love

When our Chinese friends said they wanted to take us to sing karaoke, we had totally the wrong idea. We were hoping for the classic bar/restaurant setting with the possibility of just laughing at other people singing. We were so wrong. After a short walk, we came to a nice, tall building and were greeted by a young guy in a really nice suit. He took us up in an elevator that opened up into this trendy, empty lounge area. Then we walked down a black hallway and he opened a door into our own personal room with a huge couch, and TV.

Turns out, we get to just sing out hearts out privately—they don’t want to hear us anyway. They had a very extensive list of English songs (Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson) along with plenty of songs in Chinese. We sang for about an hour and a half, but then had to go back for dinner. It was a strange experience, kind of like the Pleasure Palace: a big building that you can’t see into, people dressed really well escorting you around, and the overall feel like you are in Vegas and you don’t really know what you might find behind the next door.