travels part 1: Hong Kong and Macau

One week in Hong Kong. Had time to meet my dear old friends, make new ones and do the touristy stuff. Lantau island, Victoria Peak, Sai Kung national park and beach, markets and Hollywood Road, Soho, Wan Chai party district, art museums, Victoria Harbor and the Avenue of Stars. Hong Kong did not impress me too deeply. It's a mix of Western and Asian, yet unlike Bangkok I didn't find that something that makes it still authentic and special. Also, I managed to catch a cold. Damn AC. But I can only blame myself as every time I was inside I ran towards the ice-cold air-conditioner. The weather was super hot and humid.. No matter day or night, sun or no sun, the moment you put your nose out of the conditioned room you melt and drown in sweat.

TIMES SQUARE

Lovely contemporary art-shops and galleries

Hong Kong is a huge city, a special administrative region of China. Population more than 7 million on 1092 km2. Cantonese and English are the official languages, so did not have much problem with English, altho it often seemed that the elderly generation understood perfectly but did not want to speak English.

Hong Kong did not seem expensive at first as I was straight out of Australia. On a second look food is not that cheap in supermarkets nor is shopping in general. Markets ask often very high price so you have to have the patience and determination to bargain. Eating out totally depends, can get a nice local meal for 4 dollars, or go for yummy, little dodgy-looking street-food, restaurants on the other hand are expensive-ish. Even technology is not that cheap as people think.Transport is cheap. What I heard from my friends, rent and living costs are really expensive. A room-mate or couple is a must!

The “Avenue of the Stars”. Situated in Victoria harbor, offers a great view of the skyline. Dedicated to Hong Kong and Chinese film. Based on Hollywoods “Walk of Fame”. Would be an incredibly lovely walk on a breezy afternoon, under mid-day sun it was a bit suffocating, yet again I didn't feel any breeze at any time during the week!

“Symphony of the Lights” - every evening at 8 pm. Music, lights and lasers show for around 10 minutes. 44 buildings, 5 themes: awakening, energy heritage, partnership, celebration. Is definitely worth seeing once, but is a bit too hyped up, so I did expect something more breathtaking.

Victoria Peak. Took a tram up there and enjoyed the view, next to the view it offers some history of the town. With it's 552 meters of height, it is the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island.

I stayed at Amanda's place with her and her room-mate. I know Amanda from New York, when I used to work with her sister and she came to visit. Thank You for being a super lovely host! Altho I did not see her too much. We got to hang on saturday and the rest of the time she had to be in Macau as she works in the casino industry. 

Thanks to her tho I decided to spend one day in Macau as well. Another special administrative region of China, a former colony of Portugal. So both Cantonese and Portuguese is spoken. It was the last European colony in Asia. There live around 615 000 people on 31,3 km2. Macau has the second highest life expectancy in the world. First being Monaco. Ironically the other casino-city starting with a M. It is the Las Vegas of Asia. A very cool place and potentially beautiful. I say potentially because half the city is under construction at the moment.

Thanks to her company she got half-priced tickets to a show in “City of Dreams” casino and invited me along. An amazing show. “House of the Dancing Water”. What a talented bunch of performers and one of the best execution and effects I've witnessed. World's biggest water extravaganza. Half the show takes place in and on top of a giant pool that holds 3.7 gallons of water. (5 Olympic-sized pools.) The pool is developed into a stage and back into a pool within seconds. The story itself is a cheesy love-story, kind of a snow-white/cinderella type of story with some twists and turns, but the costumes, effects and execution is what takes your breath away!

That's a sauna. A huge and royal-looking sauna. In that climate I could not imagine needing or wanting a sauna.

The interior in most of the casinos is amazing. MGM had a whole underwater world built into the lobby. 

Going to Hong Kong in the first place was an adventure. 9 hours from Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur. 2 hours layover and then around 4 more to Hong Kong. At least that was what I signed up for. Hong Kong was suffering from heavy rain and a thunderstorm. After an hour of circling on top of a massive thunder-cloud and observing wicked lightning, they closed the airport down and as we were running out of gas we had to land to Macau. (So technically I've been to Macau twice.) 

Flying through that storm-cloud was not fun. Children were screaming bloody murder, women were shrieking, the plane was shaking heavily. Being on the ground on Macau felt heavenly and waiting for the storm to pass and going up air again didn't sound inviting. That was exactly what we did, sat around 2 hours in a plane, an hour more to get the permission to take off again. At least the view of both Macau and HK skylines was beautiful. When landed we had to wait another 2 hours to get the plane to the gate as all the planes now were landing at the same time. And all the thousands of people had to go through the same immigration-desk. So guess what, another 2 hours waiting in line to passport-check and luggage. Finally made it to Amanda's at 4 am after 3 hours sleep and 25 hours of traveling.

Amanda lives in Tsim Tsa Tsui (TST) area. Great, as it is close to central and almost everything. But, it's a bit dodgy area. I never felt unsafe but it is not the nicest feeling when every time you're going home, next to trying to sell you Prada, Gucci, Versace watches and handbags, they ask if you'd like marijuana, coke or anything stronger. OR, maybe you need accommodation. “Come with me, I have a nice room!” “No thanks I've got a place.” “My place is better, come come!” It's rarely asians you meet there, but African, Indian or Pakistani. It's quite a world bazaar!

Met KaMan, Juen and Maggie! My dear friends from WVU! Reunion-time! Had a great dinner and awesome dessert. So great to hear what everyone's doing and how people have changed. And KaMan is a flight-attendant – endless travels which is paid for and which you get paid for – seems like a good life, wish I'd like flying more. Sadly, I could never do this job.

On my last full day met some locals and internationals via Couchsurfing and while waiting for the rain to stop, Stone introduced us to some traditional HK breakfast.

Visited the wet-market. Amazing fruits, but couldn't really look at the bloody fish and chickens kept in cages. It's terrible how they're treated, the saddest part is that Asia brings it to the streets, but in reality in Western world they're not treated any better, it's just not shown to public.

Afterwards headed towards Sai Kung. Took metro to Diamond hill. A green minibus 92 to Sai Kung town. Scenic views already started and the feeling was more like in Thailand. Natural and peaceful. From there took a taxi to the national park to do some hiking. A hike up and down the mountains to the beach at the east side takes around 45 minutes one way. Beautiful views and worth it even with the heat. The beach is amazing, water warm yet refreshing, the little eatery on the beach serves great food, and it is quite deserted.

The green minibus we had to take from the train station to Sai Kung left before all of us could step into the bus. Just closed the doors in front of our noses altho it had plenty of seats left. The next one came within a minute but both of our two locals were inside the first bus and we were not sure where do we have to go nor did the driver speak any english. 

Went out at Wan Chai region at night to celebrate my last night in HK. Wednesday was also a ladies night. Like “Sin City” in Gold Coast, Australia, some bars in HK celebrate ladies night with completely free drinks for ladies. Good music, good friends, fun times.

My flight was early in the morning. The plan was not to go to sleep at all. Ended up thinking, that there is an hour, what harm does a little nap do. It did. Ended up sleeping in and missing my flight. At the same time thankfully the flight was cancelled/changed. So after a lot of hassle and phone calls got it changed to afternoon and made it to Seoul in the evening.