Hong Kong and Macau

On the ferry headed to Macau!

2/4/10

For our last excursion in China before coming home, Hallie and I chose to go down south. The constant coldness of Shanghai has definitely taken a toll on us Texas girls. We left after our last class on Sunday to experience our final week in China.

Hong Kong is a Mecca. It’s warm, the people are friendly, the air is clean(er), the Metro is huge, the food is amazing and you get to ride on ferries at your leisure. Getting through Chinese customs (and then HK customs) was slightly annoying, but was well worth the wait.

The hostel situation was…bizarre. Most of the budget places are located in these ‘mansions,’ which serve as many things. Money exchange booths, Indian food kiosks, souvenir shops, you name it. Despite all the weirdness on the ground level, the hostel was great. It was great, but it was also the tiniest room I’ve ever seen in my life. Hallie and I shared an almost double bed and the bathroom was about 4 ft tall, 3 ft wide: best part, you showered on top of the toilet.

First up was Victoria’s Peak. The view was amazing and we were able to see the harbor and all the big buildings. This outing was our first realization of how obsessed HK is with escalators. Next we went to the Bank of China tower to catch another view. In between we saw a church, ate some sandwiches, and wandered through a garden. My Dad had told me about this high-end hotel called, ‘The Peninsula,’ and said that we had to go there and get afternoon tea. ‘High-end’ and ‘ afternoon tea’ are not two things that come to mind when I think of Joe Golias, but sure enough, the hotel was incredible. We waited in a line to be seated for our afternoon tea. We paid around $130 HK Dollars (nearly $19 USD) for a cup of tea and a piece of cake. It was ridiculously expensive, but so fun! After, Hallie and I went down to the Avenue of the Stars to check out all the famous Chinese movie stars. (Much like the Hollywood Walk of Fame). We recognized Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Chow Yun Fat. The day ended with the Light Show. We stood on the Kowloon side and watched as all the buildings on Hong Kong Island lit up and danced to classical music. We ate dinner at a cute French place and called it a night.

The morning of day two in Hong Kong was spent wandering. We figured out which ferry to take to Macau (a nearby island also referred to as ‘The Las Vegas of China.’), and purchased our bus tickets to take us to the airport the following day. After getting organized and stopping at one of the billions of Starbucks on the island, we were on the ferry on our way to Macau. Macau was…a tad underwhelming. And the spotty weather didn’t help. We got off the ferry and headed into town. (Macau has a large population of Portuguese people. The inner city was quaint, but the tacky Chinese New Year decorations lessened its cute appeal.) The Ruins of St. Paul Cathedral was pretty spectacular. The views from the Macau Monte Fort were also worth seeing. After sightseeing got redundant and the rain began to trickle, Hallie and I decided to stop for lunch. We ate at a Tapas place that was really good.

So about Macau being the Chinese Las Vegas…um NO. I’m sorry 4 casinos in one section of town is no Las Vegas China. I played $10 HK Dollars in a slot machine at the Wynn and lost in a matter of seconds. Not sure if it’s because I’m not good at gambling or that the machine was in half Chinese. Anyhow, we gambled, we ate egg tarts, we finally saw the ‘Obamao’ shirts and we were ready to get back to the island. For dinner that night we at the most amazing vegetarian restaurant called Life. (Back to the love of escalators. We took the world’s longest escalator to get to the restaurant. It was one of the silliest things I’ve done in a while.) It was the best food I’ve eaten in a long time. And we drank good wine. And we forgot we were in China. It happens from time to time. When the bill came, we were of course shocked by the service charge. (In ‘Regular China,’ there are no taxes or additional charges) We scrounged for money and came up with enough HK Dollars with one to spare. And that one-dollar was not going to buy 2 tickets on the Metro. After lots of walking and false attempts to change our RMB, we finally stumbled upon a Money Changing kiosk and were on our way home.

Our last day in Hong Kong was a lot of waiting. We wanted to eat dim sum, but our timing was off with the restaurant. Hallie and I decided to camp out at the bottom of a huge Citibank where we found ourselves in Western heaven. We drank Starbucks, ate Pret a Manger and bought US magazines for $60 HK Dollars ($8 USD). After a long bus ride to Shenzhen, going through Hong Kong and China customs, we made it to the airport. We found ourselves on an airplane back to Shanghai and finally got home around 10PM. Hong Kong was so much fun, but I’m ready to be back in America!!

Escalator: Futi