Greetings From Hong Kong - Originally Posted June 30, 2008
I arrived safely at about 7:30 Sunday night. The flight over wasn’t bad at all. First of all, the airline feeds you non-stop -- typical airplane snack after take off, “Asian” steak with rice and vegetables for dinner (I wonder if they would have called it something different if I were traveling to Europe), pizza and ice cream for a 10 pm snack, and eggs, sausage, potatoes and fruit before we landed. It seems to me if the airlines are truly concerned about saving weight, they shouldn’t feed their passengers so much fattening food.
I arrived safely at about 7:30 Sunday night. The flight over wasn’t bad at all. First of all, the airline feeds you non-stop -- typical airplane snack after take off, “Asian” steak with rice and vegetables for dinner (I wonder if they would have called it something different if I were traveling to Europe), pizza and ice cream for a 10 pm snack, and eggs, sausage, potatoes and fruit before we landed. It seems to me if the airlines are truly concerned about saving weight, they shouldn’t feed their passengers so much fattening food.
The flight was approximately 8500 miles and took almost 16 hours. It passed much quicker than I expected. Each seat had a monitor and head phones. You could track the progress of the flight on the map at any time from your seat. They also had over 300 movies to choose from, TV shows and HBO on demand, and a large selection of music. I only made it half-way through my book that I was hoping to finish.
We traveled north through Canada, around the North Pole and back north over Russia and China. It didn’t occur to me that the flight would be entirely in daylight. I closed the window shades after we were north of the Hudson Bay so that everyone in our row could get some sleep. I opened them again for the last two hours so that I could see parts for China. We were flying at an altitude of 40,000 ft., so it was difficult to make out what was below.
The Hong Kong airport was very easy to navigate and Robin was waiting for me just outside of the baggage claim, sign and all. I guess I am officially a tourist. From the airport, we took a train to Hong Kong Island and transferred to a bus which took us to Stanley Village. Riding on the opposite side of the road is going to take some getting used to. Somehow, the two of us managed to navigate three suitcases through the public transportation system and up and down numerous flights of stairs.
It was dark by the time we were on the bus so I wasn’t able to see much. The business district of Hong Kong Island reminds me of a more modern version of New York. Everything lights up, much like time square.
Robin’s apartment is beautiful. It was completely remodeled right before she moved in so everything is brand new. Her bedroom overlooks Stanley market. I think that we will be leaving this morning before it opens, but I can’t wait to go exploring when we get back.
We’re leaving for Shenzen in a few hours and won’t return until late Thursday night. Robin’s friend Kathy who she knows from college arrives in Hong Kong at 10 pm. We will probably go straight to the airport to meet her on our way back from China, so I may not have access to a computer until Friday. I’ll update everyone on our adventures in China then.
Monday morning we left for Mainland China. The airport we flew out of was in the city of Shenzen, right over the boarder. Robin explained that ten years ago, Shenzen was a small fishing village, but now it is a modern city of skyscrapers, complete with a Walmart.
Adventures in Mainland China - Originally Posted July 4, 2008
We took a bus from Hong Kong, through customs and directly to the airport. The airport was surprisingly easy to navigate considering that 95% of the signs were in Mandarin, but when we it was our turn to check our luggage, the attendant just gave us a strange look and sent us off to the customer service kiosk. It turns out that out that the airline cancelled our 12:30 flight without notifying us. The only other flight that day to Guilin wasn’t until 7:00 at night. We were able to e-mail our hotel to inform them that we would be in later and caught a shuttle bus back into the city.
Robin took me to a shopping mall/market called Lowou. The maze of small vendor stands reminded me of the Berlin Auction, but 7 stories tall with chrome elevators and lights everywhere. Being a foreigner in a Chinese market is quite an experience. You are bombarded by sales people who greet you with “Missy, missy come see… Missy, missy you like…Missy, missy you buy…” I managed to bargain for a backpack and bought it for 1/4 of the asking price which is probably still more than it was worth.
In Shenzen, I also had my first experience with chopsticks. It’s amazing how quickly one can learn a new skill when the only other option is to skip lunch.
We landed in Guilin around 8:00 and started on the two hour tax ride to Yangshuo. As we left the airport via a dirt road with potholes almost big enough to swallow the car, it finally hit me that I was in a foreign country.
Our hotel in Yangshuo, the Morning Sun, was absolutely beautiful. The entire lobby opened to the street via mahogany French doors. The furniture and check-in desk were a matching mahogany and the floors and countertops were marble. Our room was on the second floor and overlooked the central courtyard. The rooms were even more stunning than the lobby, with hardwood floors, mahogany furniture and wood work and to my delight, a western style bathroom.
Tuesday morning, we awoke early for a Tai Chi lesson. Tai Chi, is a series of graceful movements to help balance the yin and yang, but can also be used as a very effective way of fighting. Our instructor taught us yang style Tai Chi which consists of 21 movements. He only taught us the first six but I don’ think that I can make it past number one on my own without following his lead.
From there, we walked down West Street, the main street of Yangshuo in search of a traditional Chinese breakfast. It was actually far more difficult than we thought as most restaurants advertised only “western style” cuisine. We finally found a place where we could sit outside and enjoy Guilin noodles and dumplings which I managed to eat with my chopsticks, although Robin commented that she didn’t think that the Chinese twirled their noodles on the chopsticks like the Italians twirl spaghetti on a fork.
After lunch we look a bamboo raft ride down the Yulong River. The rafts are made of 6-8 pieces of bamboo, lashed together with rope and are navigated by a driver who uses another bamboo pole to push the raft down the river. Shortly into our ride, our driver informed us (in very rudimentary English) that we were approaching a waterfall and was insistent that we hold on to our chairs. The waterfall ended up only being about a three foot drop, like a small log flume. A few yards from the “falls”, there was a raft anchored in the middle of the river with a canopy. Some of the villagers had set up a computer, printer and laminator, all powered by a generator, in the middle of the river and were using a digital camera to snap pictures of the rafts as the went over the “falls”. I was so impressed by their ingenuity, that I broke down and bought the picture. Of course by the time we hit the fifth “waterfall”, each with its own set of photographers, I was somewhat annoyed at have to stop and politely decline another picture. Besides, these people were set up on the river banks, far less work in my opinion.
From there, we took a taxi to Butterfly Springs to see the caves. We didn’t realize that this would be a guided tour rather than a walk through at your own pace attraction, and since the tour was in Mandarin, we couldn’t understand any of it, but it was still impressive to look at all of the rock formations within the cave. We also got to walk across an Indiana Jones style suspension bridge. One of the girls on the tour asked if she could have her picture taken with us. After we left, I asked Robin if she ever encountered this before and she said that it was quite common for Chinese people to ask to have their pictures taken with westerns. She said if we had blond hair and blue eyes, we would be in even grater demand.
We made it back to town, just in time to meet our instructor from the cooking school. She took us through the market and pointed out some of the common ingredients used traditional Chinese dishes. There were rows upon rows of fresh fruits and vegetables, spices, live chickens, fish and sea food and freshly slaughtered meat. At the cooking school, we each had our own wok, burner and ingredients. We made egg wrapped dumplings, stir fried pork with vegetables and oyster sauce, steamed chicken with mushrooms, green vegetables with garlic and eggplant Yangshuo style. By the time we were done eating everything we made, we were completely stuffed.
After the cooking school, we made another mad dash back to town to catch a bus to see Impressions, a cultural show performed on the Li River. Once again, the show was in Mandarin so we didn’t know the story, but the imagery was spectacular. I bought a DVD of the show with the hope that it’s subtitled in English.
We finished off the day with a pot of fruit tea at a café down the street from our hotel and climbed into bed absolutely exhausted.
On Wednesday we took a Chinese painting class. Our instructor started by teaching us how to make bamboo leaves and then to incorporate that technique into a traditional Chinese painting of bamboo stalks.
From there, we took a taxi to the town of Fuli where we rented kayaks and went for a three hour trip down the Li River trough the town of Liugong and ended in the town of Puyi. The views from the river were spectacular as the river wound between the mountains. Occasionally, we would pass someone on the river bank or a bamboo raft out fishing but for the most part, it was just Robin, me and the water buffalo that were swimming in the river. It’s amazing how quite a place can be when there are no cars or airplanes in the background. When we got out of the kayaks in Puyi, we had to walk through town to catch a bus that was parked outside of the local school. It appeared that the town was a victim of the flooding created by the typhoon out of the Philippines that hit the week before. All along the road, people had lined up their belongings to dry. The trip back to our hotel in Yangshuo took about an hour and allowed us to see parts of the area that I never would have seen on my own.
We spent the night walking around town and visiting all of the shops that line West Street. Yangshuo has a vibrant night life as many of the restaurant convert into night clubs that either play western music or have bands covering western songs.
Thursday we left early so that we could make it to the airport only to find out that our 10:30 am flight had once again been cancelled and the next flight back to Shenzen wasn’t until 9:00 at night. This was the first time that not speaking Mandarin was a huge problem. After about an hour, we were finally able to find to book a flight that left direct to Hong Kong at 5:00 pm. We stayed in the Hong Kong airport and had dinner as Robin’s friend Kathy was landing at 10:00 pm so we really didn’t have enough time to get back to Robin’s apartment. Despite having spent the entire day in an airport, I’m still glad that we made the trip to mainland China. Seeing how the residents outside of the major cities live has made me appreciate all that I have back in the U.S. I’ve also developed a new appreciation for foreigners traveling in the U.S. Thankfully, everyone we encounter in the mainland was very helpful and even those people who spoke just a small amount of English were anxious to practice with westerners so it made it easy for us to communicate.
I have tons of pictures and hopefully I’ll be able to post some of them before I leave.
On Sunday, Robin took us to visit her school, Hong Kong International. The campus is beautiful. The main building of the school is eight stories tall and overlooks a reservoir which is surrounded by mountains. The classrooms are arranged in a semicircle and the hallways are more like balconies which overlook an outdoor amphitheater (auditorium) and cafeteria. The school has a large gym and outdoor athletic fields. With the shortage of space in Hong Kong, it's unusual for a school to have its own fields. Additionally, the school provides on-campus apartments for some of its staff.
From there, it was back to TST for a Chinese Cake Making class. Two master chefs showed us how to make moon cakes and egg rolls. Moon cakes were traditionally available in October for the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival but now, the bakeries carry them year round. During the revolution, people used them to transmit information by hiding messages inside. We made our moon cakes by pressing a piece of dough into a flat pancake, placing a piece of white lotus seed paste in the middle, wrapping the dough around the paste and pressing the entire cookie into a mold to put a decorative pattern on the front. The egg rolls are made similar to a thin crepe and then rolled around an aluminum bar to make a hollow cookie.
Then it was back on the MRT to Kowloon for a night of shopping at the markets. We made stops at the Flower Market, the Bird Market, the Goldfish Market, the Ladies Market and the Temple Night Street Market but only actually shopped in the last two. I think that I would have had a difficult time getting a parrot back to the U.S. in my carry-on.
Wednesday morning we set out for the top attraction on my list of things to do in Hong Kong – ride on the world's longest escalator. The escalator is actually a series of escalators and people movers which totals 2,600 feet and takes nearly a half hour to ride. It was built to ease the commute of residents between the residential areas of Mid-Level and the business district of Central. We stopped at the mid-point for breakfast at the Frying Pan, a western style diner that serves breakfast 24 hours a day.
Exploring Hong Kong Part One - Originally Posted July 6, 2008
Friday was our first opportunity to really get out and explore Hong Kong. After stopping for breakfast at Delifrance, a cafe right outside of Robin’s apartment in Stanley Market, we set out to hike up Dragon’s Back.
Hong Kong has 23 county parks and 4 major hiking trails. Dragon’s Back is a shorter trail, 4.5 kilometers in length. The views as we hiked up the mountain were absolutely spectacular. We were able to see Tai Tam Bay, the South China Sea, Clear Water Bay and Shek O Village. At the end of the Dragon’s Back trail, we picked up a section of the Hong Kong Trail and hiked down to Big Wave Beach.
In my opinion, Big Wave is more of a cove than a beach, and there really weren’t any waves, but it was stunning. That’s the first time that I have sat on a beach that was surrounded by mountains. Robin and I attempted to go swimming, but the water didn’t appear to be very clean so we opted to sit on the beach with Kathy instead.
After a quick stop back to Stanley, we were off to Causeway Bay to meet up with some of Robin’s friends for a night of Karaoke. We arrived in town early so that we could see Times Square, Victoria Park and the all important book store and public library. It turns out that Kathy is as obsessed with books as I am, but we both made a conscious effort not to spend the remainder of the night in the bookstore.
Karaoke in Hong Kong is nothing like Karaoke in the United States. Each group gets their own posh private room with flat screen televisions, microphones and a sound system. You’re free to choose from a variety of songs in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Robin’s friends speak several different languages so they performed some local Hong Kong favorites for us. There’s also a buffet dinner that takes up two rooms. Most of the food was local Chinese cuisine and the signs labeling each dish were in Cantonese so we really had no clue what we were eating, just grabbed things that looked good.
On Saturday, we took the MTR, Hong Kong’s subway, out to the New Territories where we made a stop at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum to attend a Cantonese Opera Appreciation class. Our instructor showed us how to differentiate between the various roles - male and female (almost all of the characters are played by women), royalty vs. military, and good vs. evil (white faces are used to depict evil characters). We were also able to watch an excerpt from an opera being preformed at the Museum.
The Heritage Museum had an interesting exhibit on Canto pop, a type of popular rock music the developed in Hong Kong around the 50’s. In many ways, Canto pop seems to mirror the evolution of western pop music. I could key in songs at the listening stations in the exhibit and easily tell the decade from which they came.
From there we hopped on the MTR back to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) where we had dinner at a Korean restaurant, a new adventure for all three of us. The food was delicious. We ordered barbequed pork which the waitress cooked on a grill in the middle of our table, a rice bowl, and a something called a pancake with seafood and green vegetables (it was more like a potato cake than our western breakfast dish).
After dinner Robin took us to Nathan Road, one of a seemingly infinite number of shopping streets in Hong Kong and Knutsford Terrace, a small side street lined with high end restaurants. Knutsford Terrace reminded me very much of one of the streets we went to in South Beach Miami last year, it was all about seeing and being seen.
Then it was off to the Cultural Center where we had tickets to a Peking Opera. Modern Peking Opera was a government sponsored art form and thus an instrument for political propaganda. We saw excerpts from the Red Lantern, which as you probably guessed from the title, was laden with communist propaganda. I especially enjoyed the music as the instruments were unlike anything we encounter in western operas.
The Cultural Center sits on Victoria Harbor and has the most amazing views of the skyline of Central. We spent quite a bit of time on the waterfront before the opera while it was still daylight and then more time at night when the buildings were lit. We took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor to Central and caught a bus back to Stanley.
Exploring Hong Kong Part Two - Originally Posted July 8, 2008
On Sunday, Robin took us to visit her school, Hong Kong International. The campus is beautiful. The main building of the school is eight stories tall and overlooks a reservoir which is surrounded by mountains. The classrooms are arranged in a semicircle and the hallways are more like balconies which overlook an outdoor amphitheater (auditorium) and cafeteria. The school has a large gym and outdoor athletic fields. With the shortage of space in Hong Kong, it's unusual for a school to have its own fields. Additionally, the school provides on-campus apartments for some of its staff.
Robin suggested that we hike from the middle/high school campus, around the reservoir to the elementary school campus in Repulse Bay. She assured us that it was an easy hike, but if that was her definition of easy, I’m not sure that I could make it on one of her difficult hikes. There were several small waterfalls leading to the reservoir that we needed to cross and many steep downhill descents, but once again, the views were spectacular.
We quickly headed back to Robin’s apartment so that we could shower and make our way into the city in time for church. After church, we hopped on a double-decker trolley and Robin took us to Happy Valley for Dim Sum. I read that the British originally used this area as a cemetery and gave it the name Happy Valley to ward off any evil spirits. Now, the area is packed with apartments and stores although they somehow managed to preserve the horse racing track which is the largest area of open space I’ve seen in Hong Kong that wasn’t a county park.
Dim Sum is a traditional Chinese breakfast, but some restaurants serve it all day, especially on Sunday. Typically, a waiter pushes a cart around the restaurant filled with dishes and each table just takes what they want off of the cart. We opted to go to a restaurant that had a menu as none of us are familiar enough with the cuisine to tell what we’re picking just by looking at it. The dishes we chose were served family style so that we each had the opportunity to try a little of everything.
From there, it was back to TST for a Chinese Cake Making class. Two master chefs showed us how to make moon cakes and egg rolls. Moon cakes were traditionally available in October for the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival but now, the bakeries carry them year round. During the revolution, people used them to transmit information by hiding messages inside. We made our moon cakes by pressing a piece of dough into a flat pancake, placing a piece of white lotus seed paste in the middle, wrapping the dough around the paste and pressing the entire cookie into a mold to put a decorative pattern on the front. The egg rolls are made similar to a thin crepe and then rolled around an aluminum bar to make a hollow cookie.
When we left the Cake Making Class, it was raining heavily but we still ventured over to the Jade Market to do some shopping. As its name implies, nearly everything in the market is made from Jade. I’m getting better at bargaining and these vendors were much nicer than those we encountered in Shenzen.
By the time we left the Jade market it was pouring so we opted to just head back home and try out some recipes from our cooking class in Yangshuo. Surprisingly, we did well on our own and everything we made tasted almost identical to the dishes we prepared in Yangshuo. Robin picked up some Lychee for dessert. Lychee is a fruit that grows in mainland China. It looks almost like a Strawberry but you peel off the thick skin to reveal a translucent fruit - very sweet. I need to stop in the market before I leave and pick up some of the sauces we used and the moon cake molds and ingredients so that I can make some of these things at home.
Monday, we awoke to another rainy day, but we tried to make the best of it. We made our way over to Central and rode the Peak Tram up Victoria Peak. The Peak Tram was built in 1888 to satisfy the needs of the colonial elite who preferred to live on the peak. Prior to the opening of the Tram, passengers were carried up the mountain on a sedan chair. The Peak Tram pulls you up a grade steeper than any roller coaster I’ve ever ridden. When we got to the Peak Tower, it was too cloudy to see anything so we opted to have lunch at a Tai restaurant instead.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon in Central, first visiting the Zoological and Botanical Gardens and then Hong Kong Park. Visiting the gardens in the rain actually worked out well as they weren’t crowded, it wasn’t too hot, and most of the animals were still out and about. We were able to see the aviary, primates, reptiles and green houses. The gardens offer an unusual juxtaposition of lush greenery and exotic wildlife against the modern steel and glass skyline surroundings.
Hong Kong Park is similar to New York’s Central Park in that it offers residents a break from the crowded streets, but Hong Kong Park has kept up with the changing pace of the city whereas Central Park has preserved much of its original integrity. We entered the park through a fabulous children’s playground, hiked down to the Edward Youde Aviary which was bustling with activity despite the rain, walked through Garden Plaza which is currently converted into an Olympic Park, and ended with the Fountain Walk. Unfortunately, there were some sort of protests scheduled for the afternoon and the police would not allow us to see all of Fountain Walk.
While in Hong Kong Park, we stopped at the K.S. Lo Gallery for a Tea Appreciation Class. The Tea Master explained how the different types of tea (black, red, green, white and oolong) are made and then showed us the proper way to brew both jasmine tea and black tea (or as the Chinese call it, wet tea).
After our class, we walked around the skyscrapers in Central and took the elevator to the 43rd floor of the Bank of China Tower where we were able to view the city and Victoria Harbor.
Then it was back on the MRT to Kowloon for a night of shopping at the markets. We made stops at the Flower Market, the Bird Market, the Goldfish Market, the Ladies Market and the Temple Night Street Market but only actually shopped in the last two. I think that I would have had a difficult time getting a parrot back to the U.S. in my carry-on.
Tuesday morning we awoke to heavy thunderstorms and thought that the day would be a complete wash-out so we opted to explore Stanley. We walked down to St. Stephen’s Beach and the Stanley Military Cemetery which is dedicated to the soldiers who lost their lives defending Hong Kong in World War II.
From there we walked back to Stanley to explore the markets. We stopped at an Indian Restaurant around the corner from her apartment for lunch. While we were eating, the rain stopped and the sun started to peek out, so we quickly made our way over to Lantau Island.
Lantau is the largest of the islands and remained virtually undeveloped until the airport was built in the 1990’s. At the end of the MTR line, we caught a cable car to see the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery. We climbed the 280 or so steps to the top of the Buddha and then spent some time admiring the architecture and statues in the monastery. I’m sure if we were Buddhist, this part of the trip would have far more significance than simply to admire the visual imagery as we saw several visitors lighting incense at the statues and praying in the monastery.
At the Monastery, we could catch a bus to the other side of Lantau Island where we hopped on a ferry the crossed the West Lamma Channel and docked at Central in Victoria Harbor. We made a quick stop at a tea store and then jumped on a trolley to Causeway Bay where we met one of Robin’s friends for dinner.
Tuesday night’s dinner adventure was Hot Pot. As the name implies, the waiter brings a pot of boiling soup stock to the table and you order various raw meats and vegetables to cook in the pot. Robin’s friend is from Hong Kong so we let her pick the dishes. We tried things like eel, ostrich, pig’s neck, fish paste and pigs liver. Surprisingly, I like most of the things we cooked.
Exploring Hong Kong Part Three - Originally Posted July 10, 2008
Wednesday morning we set out for the top attraction on my list of things to do in Hong Kong – ride on the world's longest escalator. The escalator is actually a series of escalators and people movers which totals 2,600 feet and takes nearly a half hour to ride. It was built to ease the commute of residents between the residential areas of Mid-Level and the business district of Central. We stopped at the mid-point for breakfast at the Frying Pan, a western style diner that serves breakfast 24 hours a day.
From there, we took a walk down Hollywood Road, through SoHo to the Man Mo Temple, Hong Kong's oldest and most important place of worship. I especially liked the cone shaped spirals of incense hanging from the ceiling. Then it was off to Cat Street, Hong Kong's antique market, and back on the MTR for a visit to the Chi Lin Nunnery and the Nan Lian Gardens. Because the nunnery is still in use, only the lotus gardens, Hall of Celestial Kings, second court yard and main hall are open to tourist. It's a more reverent and serene atmosphere than the monastery we visited on Tuesday.
The Nan Lian Gardens were built in 2003 in the classical circulatory landscape style of the Tang Dynasty in order to promote traditional Chinese culture. Many of the rocks located thought the garden were imported from mainland China.
Our travels then took us to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. The kitschy atmosphere of this monastery was a stark contrast to the nunnery we had just left. Kathy, Robin and I all agreed that it should be named the Ten Thousand Steps Monastery as we had quite a hike before we made it to the main temple. (The guide book says it was only about 400 steps.) The entire path leading up to the temple is lined with giant gold Buddha statues and when you enter the main temple, the walls are lined from floor to ceiling with small Buddha statues. (Be sure to check out the video we made at the Monastery under the "video" link).
We had hoped to stop at Kowloon Park on our way back into town, but Mother Nature had other plans as we found ourselves caught in yet another torrential down-pour. We quickly ducked into the Hong Kong Space Museum and spent time looking at the exhibits before celebrating Robin's belated birthday with dinner at the YMCA. (Thanks Mom!)
When Robin chose the YMCA for dinner, neither Kathy nor I could figure out why she was so anxious to go there. It's nothing like the YMCA's in the U.S. This is a high-rise hotel with conference centers and dining rooms in addition to the typical services offered by our YMCA's. We had a buffet dinner of both western and local foods at a table that overlooked Victoria Harbor and the Central skyline.
After dinner, we walked out to the harbor to watch the Harbor Light show when all of the buildings along the harbor turn on their multi-colored lights. The entire spectacle is choreographed to a musical sound track. When the show was finished, we walked down Hollywood Road where popular Hong Kong actors are given stars with their names, and sometimes handprints, much the same as here in the U.S. From there, we hopped back on the Star Ferry and made our way back to Stanley.
My Final Days in Hong Kong, Macau, and the Return Trip Home - Originally Posted July 17, 2008
Wednesday night, after I went to bed, Robin had a major flood in the bathroom so Thursday, we needed to stay close to home waiting for the plumber. Thursday morning, we awoke to heavy thunderstorms so it actually ended up being a good day to stay home.
In the afternoon, Kathy and I ventured out to finish exploring Stanley Market. The weather cleared just about the same time that the plumbers finished so Robin and I went out for a quick hike around Bowen Road. I think that this must be the only flat hiking trail in all of Hong Kong. It circles the top of a mountain and has stunning views of Happy Valley and Central.
Thursday night we had dinner on the water front in Stanley and then Robin and I headed off to Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong’s night scene venue with a concentration of restaurants and night clubs. I think that it’s more of a tourist trap for westerners as the majority of the people there appeared to be either of European or Western descent. It’s a wonderful place to people watch. Robin and I found a club that had a great cover band. Hong Kong bands are just like American bands complete with bleach-blond hair and mohawks.
Friday morning we finally awoke to good weather so we decided to head over to Macau for the day. We took a Boeing Turbo Jet Ferry from Central across the mouth of the Pearl River. The ride took only an hour and it was definitely the fanciest ferry on which I’ve ever ridden.
A new country means new adventures on the public transportation system, but we did very well and made it to our first destination without any problems. We spent the afternoon exploring the historical sites of the central peninsula. We started at Largo do Senado, a beautiful town square with restored colonial buildings. It was an interesting mix of the Portuguese influences from Europe and popular American conveniences like McDonald’s and Starbucks.
We stopped at Igreja de São Domingos, a Catholic church built in the Portuguese Baroque style of the 18th century; the Cathedral of Macau and Cathedral Square built in 1576; the Lou Kau Mansion, one of the few Chinese style mansions still standing in Macau; the Fortaleza do Monte, the city’s principal military defense structure built in 1617; the Macau Museum; and the Ruínas de São Paulo, of which only the façade remains.
After our historical walk, we set off to find the Macau Wine Museum and the Macau Grand Prix Museum and then had dinner in a restaurant serving Macanese and Portuguese style cuisine.
In the evening, we stopped at the Casino Lisboa, an ornate casino with many eastern influences and the Venetian which I almost identical to the one in Las Vegas except that it has the distinction of being the largest casino in the world. We headed back to Hong Kong just in time for me to finish packing and catch a couple hours of sleep before leaving for the airport in the morning.
Hong Kong has a wonderful system for checking in at your airline. If you take the MTR Airport Express, you can print your tickets and check your bags at the train station in Central and avoid the long lines at the airport. The added bonus is that you don’t have to drag your suitcases on and off of the train.
The flight home was an hour shorter and I had anticipated sleeping through most of it. Instead, I found myself watching 14 hours of movies. I think that I went through customs a total of 11 times in 2 weeks and I have to say that the US customs at Newark was the only one where I ended up in the wrong line. I found it to be poorly marked and the attendants to be very unhelpful in comparison to the customs I encountered in Hong Kong, China and Macau.
My family was waiting for me at the airport with a sign that said “Bridgeport Speedway Express”. I had made sure to schedule my flight so that I would be home in time to see a good ol’ American dirt modified race and somehow managed to stay awake through the last feature race.
