macau and the last evening in hong kong

Not surprisingly, hana and I got out the door later than intended the last day we were in hong kong…it took us a while to figure out what we wanted to do, then took us longer to get going for the day…oh well…we decided to go to macau…like hong kong, macau is a SAR – special administrative region of china…like hong kong, macau hasn’t always been ruled by the Chinese…for over a century, macau was ruled by the Portuguese…it wasn’t until 1999 (two years after hong kong) that macau was given back to the Chinese…and like hong kong, macau has the same provision in the handover agreement: the government of the area is to stay the same for 50 years…I wonder what changes china will make in each region after the 50 years are over…

To get to macau from hong kong you have two options…fly, or ferry…we took the ferry, as it’s only an hour, and not very expensive…finding where to buy tickets was probably the most complicated part of the day…though hong kong is really good about signage just about everywhere else, once you’re in the subway station you know is the correct station, there isn’t much signage telling you where to go…we got turned around several times before finding where to get our tickets…oddly enough, when you buy tickets for the ferry, you aren’t assigned seats…you only get seat assignments a few minutes before you board…I don’t know why…going through emigration was easy…the worst part of the day for both of us was sitting on the boat and waiting for it to get going…it was rocking all over the place; I don’t know about hana, but I was quite concerned as to whether it would be like that for the rest of the journey as well…that would’ve been miserable…absolutely miserable…fortunately, the actual ferry trip wasn’t so bad…not great, but not bad…

Once we docked, we went through immigration again, another quick process…then out the door of the ferry terminal…we didn’t have the whole day to spend wandering, but we had a few hours, and decided to take local public transport to the center of town…bus fare was 3.20MOP…macau patacas…they’re tied to the hong kong dollar at the rate of 103MOP to 100HKD…the atm dispenses 100s…I was able to break it into 10s…but the bus doesn’t give change…argh…hana had to go buy another sprite and ask for small change…we were worried about figuring out where to get off the bus, but that ended up being okay…the official languages of macau are portugese and Chinese, though not many people speak Portuguese there anymore…English is more common…but even English isn’t that greatly used…the Chinese influence seems so much stronger on macau that on hong kong…(though they’re both very Chinese in nature)…fortunately, I had slight memories of my visit to macau in 2007, so it was easy enough to know when to get off the bus…

We alighted at largo senada…it’s a large public plaza…easily identifiable by the pink and yellow building, as well as the zebra striped sidewalk…there is a small market on one side street, and while we were there, a display of macau history in another area…while waiting for the ferry we’d looked at the map mom gave us, and figured out a couple places that sounded interesting…there is tourist signage for various sights, so it was easy enough to figure out which way to go…

Our first stop was the ruins of st pauls…probably one of the most famous sights of macau…though if you’ve never been to macau, it isn’t really known outside of the colony…originally built as a church, that’s what it was used for in different denominations for years…then, at one point it was turned into army barracks…how or why that happened I don’t know…then a fire burned it all down…what you see now is all that was left after the fire…in other words, all but the front façade was burned…still, the front façade, with the steps leading up to it is a pretty photo…we posed for pictures of our own and pictures for a random Chinese man in front of the church…(both of us have been in tons of photos for strangers over the years, we don’t much care anymore)…lol…under the ruins, at the back of the church is what used to be the crypt…we were the only ones in there at the time, which was a bit of a surprise, simply because the air con was going strong, and with the swampy feeling of the weather outside, I’m surprised people hadn’t found the aircon for a brief respite…there were displays of various bones up the walls on either side, I didn’t know whether to be creeped out or not…

After the ruins, we walked back down the steps, and I convinced hana to get one of the Portuguese egg tarts…everywhere the Portuguese colonized then left, they left behind these tasty egg tarts…a sweet egg custard tart…with buttery, flaky crust…yum…I could eat tons and tons of them…especially when they cost less than $1USD!...clearly, some people buy a lot of them, as all the places that sell them have boxes of different sizes to make it easy to carry a lot of them…the other food we noticed for sale all over the place is pork jerky…there are tons of different flavours, some more spicy, some more salty, some more sweet…I like it, but didn’t want to buy any…

Then we found what was just called the cathedral…I don’t remember the history behind this one…since the Portuguese colonized macau, and the Portuguese were catholic, macau was catholic too…that’s one legacy that is still there, all the churches…I liked this church, but wasn’t able to stay in there long, as there were no fans going, so the hot muggy air just sat on your shoulders…when hana first walked in she was just wearing her sundress, which has no shoulders…the nun motioned to me that hana needed to cover her shoulders…thankfully, she’d brought a sweater along that day for just that reason…after coming out of the church, she couldn’t get that sweater off fast enough…

From there we wandered down a lane on which was a typical mansion back in the day…I think it was two stories, though you’re only allowed to go in the first story…there were stained glass windows in the house, I thought they were gorgeous…not much about the rest of the house made me think it was very fantastic…anywho…we enjoyed the sidewalk in the lane outside…mosaic tiles made up designs in the sidewalk…lovely…

The next church to see was st dominics…this one is on a lot of postcards as well…a bright yellow on the outside…the church is nice, but the best part is the museum of “costumes” they have displayed on three floors…I don’t know the correct words for a lot of the stuff…chalices and communion serving sets, the robes the priests wear at various times of the year, especially those worn by higher ranking priests…a couple paintings…I liked walking around that area, though hana probably appreciated it more, knowing what all the stuff was…

By this point I was starting to get nervous about catching the bus back to the ferry terminal…we got some food to go at a popular eatery, and in a quick walk through the start of the market I mentioned earlier, hana got some fruit she’d enjoyed while living in the Philippines…lanzonas, I think she said? I have no idea if I’m spelling that right…then we got back on the bus (having prepared correct change ahead of time) and went back to the ferry terminal…I wanted to exchange the patacas I had left, but that proved to be more difficult than I thought was worth it…I guess cousin Kevin will be getting more patacas than I originally intended…

The boat ride back went just as smoothly as did immigration on both sides…and again, we had trouble getting out of the building, and down into the hong kong subway system…go figure…we made it back to the hotel in time for a brief rest, then went to mom’s room to go for our last outing in hong kong…

One of the most famous sights in hong kong is the city skyline…and the best place to see that is from Victoria peak…I reckon most visitors to hong kong go to the peak while they’re in the city…there are three ways to the peak…one, hike…two, bus…and three, the peak tram…we’d intended to take the tram both ways…it’s quite steep, to say the least…howeva, when we found a bus we thought would take us to the base of the peak tram, it turned out to take us to the peak itself…along a really windy road…which meant hana felt like crap again…I wasn’t feeling so well myself…mom wasn’t feeling great knowing that both her daughters were suffering and there wasn’t anything she could do to fix it…it seemed like the bus ride went on and on and on…finally, it ended…when you get off the tram or the bus, you’re directed into a plaza area, with two large malls on either side…going into one of them, you have the opportunity to buy tickets to get out on the viewing platform…I think they call it the sky terrace? Those tickets are $30HKD each…from previous experience, I thought it was worth it…you don’t get that view from anywhere else…there ended up being a lot of fog the night we went, but we all still enjoyed the view…that skyline, both at day and night, is on a lot of hong kong postcards…we took the tram back down, then the subway back to the hotel…

The next afternoon we flew back to seoul…

hong kong and china 1

after a ridiculously long day of traveling, i arrived in hong kong around 2200...the airport is quick and efficient, and it's easy to get into the city...everything is just as crowded as i remember it...getting out of the taxi in front of the building where i had booked us, at least three people tried to get me to look at their rooms...apparently, saying "i already have a room booked" doesn't work...anywho, i figured out where i needed to go, and the first thing the guy at reception demanded was money...he wanted me to pay the rest of the amount we "owed" which i refused to do...i hadn't seen the room, met up with layna, anything!!! he became rather angry and belligerent, and i don't react well to that sort of behaviour...i stood my ground, and refused to hand over money until i at least got to see layna and the room...more than anything i wanted to make sure she was there, and that we had a room...
anywho...the room we had was a box...we each had a single bed, there was a small dresser in between the beds, and we had the smallest bathroom ever...(it makes my bathroom in korea look like a palace!)...there was a tv, though it didn't have much of interest...(but it was still good background noise distraction for me...and i watched the entire bbc newscast)
the main reason we went to hong kong was to get our visas for china...we had heard it was the easiest and quickest place to get them, and that ended up being true...though, being americans, our fee was the highest of any nationality...(ugh)...all we had to do was fill out the form, give them a passport picture and our passport...that was monday morning...thursday morning we went back and picked up our passports, and voila, our visas were in there...after being worried for whateva reason, i'm glad it was so easy to get the visas!!
i'd been to hong kong once before with my irish friend ivan, thank goodness...because i spent the next day in bed, in our room, not doing much...trying to write blogs, get a little caught up on email, upload pictures, etc...i also felt like crap, and was hoping the day of not eating anything would help...but it didn't really...everything i ingested, even just water, made my stomach cramp painfully...two days after this (it had already been going on for 5 or 6 days) it FINALLY got better...i guess i can't complain, this is the only time i've actually been sick during this entire trip...i've definitely been lucky!!
the next day i went out with layna in the afternoon...but the weather was craptastic, thanks to an approaching typhoon...rain, wind, etc...we wandered, but not far...that night i met up for dinner with my friend tanya...she's canadian, we got to know each other through rugby in seoul...she and her partner had moved to hong kong less than a year earlier...(i think?)...it was fantastic to catch up with ty, she's awesome...after dinner we also hung out with david (known to most as jr) who had stayed away from dinner due to an ear infection...a great night, totally chill...
thursday night ended up being the only afternoon/evening with clear skies...we took the opportunity to take the tram up to the peak and look over hong kong at night...beautiful...hong kong has a great night skyline...several of the buildings take part in what's called the night symphony...they light up at night, supposedly working with each other...i never noticed that myself, but i loved all the lights, and watching them change...beautiful...trying to get a picture to work out properly just didn't happen though...darnit...good pictures, but we wanted one with the two of us, and we couldn't make it happen...oh well...
friday morning we crossed the border...really easy to do...take the subway to the border, walk through the appropriate lines, filling out a health form, get passports stamped in the appropriate places, etc and walk out on the other side into a city called shenzen...hong kong residents can cross into shenzen for day trips, it's a special economic zone...a whole lot of CHEAP chinese shopping...cheap foot massages too, i wish i had had time for one:)
we took a bullet train to guangzhou, the capital of that particular province of china...walking out of the train station we walked all over trying to find the ticketing office, it took a while...signs seemed to point one way, but when we went that way, the ticketing office definitely wasn't there...anywho, we finally found it, booked our tickets, and took the metro to where we thought we could find a cheap hotel...we did find a cheap hotel, with the help of a tout, though it wasn't the one we were originally looking for...apparently the posted rates in a hotel in china, mean absolutely nothing...we paid about a 1/3 of what was posted!! we had an air con room, each with our own big bed, a nice bathroom, tv, etc...our own water filter...after some of the places we've stayed, particularly in hong kong, this was a palace...we walked around and explored, and found great street food...(this would be the start of my love affair with real chinese food)...and it's so CHEAP!!! our adventure in china began, and i already loved it, even though it was the country i was least fussed about when our trip started:)

HONG KONG, SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION, CHINA

Sunday, December 31, 2006
HONG KONG, SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION, CHINA
The Hong Kong part of my winter vacation was completely mellow…Ivan and I flew from Beijing to Hong Kong, which actually ended up being the longest flight of the vacation…3.5 hours…not too shabby…the Hong Kong airport is a lot nicer and more modern than the Beijing airport…MUCH more modern…the oddest part of the flight was checking in at the Beijing airport…you have to go through customs before you check in…very strange…getting off the airplane in Hong Kong was nice…it was a LOT warmer, so we didn't need 67 layers of clothes anymore…we hopped into a cab, and found the hostel where I had made reservations…it was in chungking mansions, which is basically one GIANT building…filled with many hostels, stands to buy just about anything, a few places to surf the internet, Indian restaurants, money exchangers, etc…and tons of touts…Beijing was nothing compared to the number of people who are trying to sell stuff or get us to go to their hostel/restaurant…I'm glad we had reservations ahead of time…we checked into our room, which was tiny…newer than the Beijing hostel, and with a TV…we found it had the wonders of bbc, one of the best news channels ever…
Since we had a few hours, we decided to go to the peak, to see Victoria harbor at night…I'm glad we did, even though it was pretty windy and chilly up at the top…after taking the subway/bus and walking a bit, we found the bottom tram station…the tram ride up is really steep…enough so that they build the steps in the middle of the tram at an angle for those who end up standing…the view at the top of the peak is great…at night, when all the buildings are lit up, it's amazing…many of the buildings are supposedly coordinated together in a light show, but we didn't really see that…there are definitely buildings with changing lights, but they didn't seem coordinated…Ivan is much more a photographer than I am, but I think the two of us took equal numbers of pictures…I played around with the settings on my camera for the first time ever, and found all sorts of good ways to take pictures…black and white, sepia toned, adjusting the shutter speed, etc…fun times…
The next day we didn't set an alarm…didn't even bother to think about what we wanted to see until after getting ready for the day…we walked for what seemed like ages to find breakfast, but we didn't see anything…annoying, so we ended up settling on a convenience store breakfast…ice cream, chocolate and chocolate milk for me, a sandwich for Ivan…we decided to check out Hong Kong park…it's built in the middle of Hong Kong, an 8 hectare park…it's not a huge park, but they have managed to cram a number of areas into it…a fountain plaza, conservatory, Olympic square, viewing tower, museum and aviary…it's a bit odd to see the contrast in photographs, with the park surrounded by skyscrapers…the aviary is nice to walk through, according to the signs, it is home to 600 birds of 90 different species…we did howeva, skip the museum of tea ware…we figured we didn't need to see a museum full of antique tea ware…bowls, teaspoons, brewing trays, sniffing cups and teapots…how exciting does that sound??? Not very…after wandering around, we had lunch at a small sandwich type of place…I guess it was later than lunch, but not really dinner yet…after that came the Hong Kong space museum…it's shaped like a ginormous golf ball…there is a lot about Chinese space history, some of the legends of space, and some hands on exhibits illustrating the laws of physics…you get to see a lump of moon rock, and the 1962 space capsule from Mercury…some of the exhibits were outdated…for instance, Pluto is still listed as a planet, and at least one globe showed Yugoslavia as a country…there is also an IMAX theater…Ivan and I each picked a 'movie' we wanted to see, and agreed to come back the next night…dinner was at Murphy's pub, an Irish pub…they had street signs from a few places in Ireland…one of them was from Ivan's hometown, and a town very close to his…what a small world…
The next morning was the morning Saddam Hussein was executed…since it was pretty much the only thing on the news, it prompted an interesting discussion between Ivan and I about the death penalty…it's always interesting to hear the reasons people have for the way they feel…or the lack of reasons…we ended up getting moving late again, and after breakfast at the Irish pub again, we got on the subway to see the chi lin nunnery…it's a Buddhist nunnery…it's not as large as other temple complexes…but it still has plenty of gates, as I've come to expect…it's like Hong Kong park, in that it's very peaceful…until you look up and see the skyscrapers close by…(also like Hong Kong park)…we didn't actually see any nuns while we were there, but we did see a number of buddhas…after coming back, we walked along the wharf, seeing all the buildings as they slowly lit up for the night…it was pretty hazy, though we weren't sure whether that was due to pollution or just not so clear weather…(the pollution is one of the worst things about Hong Kong)…either way, it wasn't as clear as we would've liked…we went to the Irish pub for one last dinner, before heading up to our room to pack up…over to the space theater again to watch our two movies…Ivan chose one about the exploration of the moon, I chose one about speed…(movement, not the drug)…both were good…howeva, I got really really motion sick during parts of the movie about speed…who would've thought I could feel that sick from just a movie?? Ugh…a quick walk back to the hostel, a taxi ride to the airport, and hop on our flight back to Seoul…arriving back in the land of cold and wind…but it's home, at least for now…