Karaoke

I went to ktv last night. It was good fun. We’d gone out for seafood then (as usual with this group of friends) went off to ktv. My parents are visiting so this was their first time to ktv hehe they weren’t impressed with their own singing but they really liked the setup. I think specially funny was my friend’s friend who got incredibly drunk, stuck an orchid behind his ear, and individually introduced practically the entire staff of the ktv to my parents as his big/little brother or sister. They also learnt how to play the dice game, played everywhere round here where alcohol is drunk. One of the biggest pasttimes in Shantou is karoke, more commonly known as ‘ktv’ - this being a good thing because you don’t need Chinese to be understood. Karoke here is nothing as it is known to the West. Here there’s no embarassing standing up in front of a big crowd, oh no, here you hire your own room and have a private party. Oh yeah, you might not be used to ktv. You hire a room size according to how many people you’ve got - I’ve been with just two friends before, or you can get rooms that seat 30 people up. Then order your snacks and drinks, work out how to choose songs, and go for it. Good Place KTV has Bacardi Breezers woohoo the only place in Shantou with alcopops. I love ktv mainly coz you don’t need to sing in tune. Go with your friends and have a competition, how many songs can you ruin. Local people are often great singers (I think!) but the tone deaf ones are equally enthusiastic when with friends. And after a drink. It’s so different from the normal British attitude to singing, and what’s more you get your own room to have a party in. It’s great. There are lots of ktv places around, some older some newer. A lot of them you have girls to ‘accompany’ you, if that’s what you want - I don’t. The two biggest, best value, and have the widest and most modern selection of songs (inc English lang) are Good Place (好地方, Hao3Di4Fang1) on Chang Ping Road长平路 outside Walmart, and Happy Day (欢乐地, Huan4Le-Di4) on the corner of Jinsha Road金沙东路 and Huashan Road 华山南路. They also have no girls for hire. These two places battle it out for business so there’s lots of offers on and although night time (spec weekends) can be expensive, daytime is usually really cheap.