macau

We spent one day in Macau. Took the ferry over in the morning, and I discovered that I don't like sitting at port in a closed room with no windows. I mean, it's not like they couldn't have added windows for people to see out the sides and the front, but no, for whatever reason, when you're on ferries in HK the only thing you're allowed to see is the back of the seat in front of you. Ugh.

My dad had just gotten back from China (in time for roast suckling pig and roast goose for dinner the night before!). Aaron had to work, so he took off to the Venetian. Unfortunately, he also had the camera in his backpack, so all the photos ended up being taken on my dad's camera. Oops.

Macau's colonial overlords were Portugese, rather than British, and so everything is still European but with a definitely different twist. The churches are Catholic, the architecture is more colonial, and the food includes egg tarts, bacalhau (salted cod), and african chicken. The plazas and older roads are tiled in pretty black and white patterns. They have awesome little side streets away from the crowds of tourists, where you feel transported into an older time and life moved more slowly.

In contrast, they also have lots of casinos. The gaming industry (and associated services) is over 50% of the GDP. Many of the big Vegas casinos have opened in Macau as well, and it was kinda disconcerting to walk into the Venetian and feel like you're in Vegas, except all the help staff are Chinese. And no one drinks as they gamble. At most, you'll see someone order a tea or a soybean milk, but no beer or liquor. I guess they take their gambling seriously.

They also play different sorts of table games. There was the normal poker and roulette, but there were also crowds of people around baccarat, pai gow, and fan tan. It's surprisingly hard to figure out what is going on, especially when everyone is speaking in a different language!

sorry for the delay

sorry, ran into technical difficulties and have been really busy recently. had prepped this last post several weeks ago but then had all sorts of issues with getting the photos up for macau.

markets

Part of the joy of visiting a foreign country is discovering different ways of life. And particularly for me, I love seeing the differences in the way people shop and the products offered in the markets.

There are 2 types of outdoor markets in Hong Kong - wet and dry. The wet market sells produce and seafood and meat -- foodstuffs. The dry, well, dry goods. If you've never been to an Asian country, this can be a little intimidating. People are crowding all around, there's meat just sitting out there, and the smells are stronger than what Westerners are used to. At one wet market, we passed half a goat hanging at a corner stand with no barrier between it and passersby. That wasn't all that appealing, however as we were walking by the fish stalls, they all looked so fresh (yes, still twitching) and delicious that I was quite tempted to buy one and cook it for dinner. We unfortunately always had dinner plans (my sister was too good a planner!).

At the dry market, you can find clothing, bath supplies, watches, detergent, and other such random things. Certain ones of these markets cater more to the tourists, so you'll find more "I heart HK" shirts and fake bags and Rolexes. Vendors are also a lot more aggressive, especially if you're carrying a camera and accompanied by a gwailo. Bargaining is standard, and as a rule of thumb, start your counteroffer at 50%, feel free to comparison shop, and don't be afraid to walk away, but I must admit that I left the haggling to my sister and Matt.

The grocery stores looked like most other grocery stores, but you could find the differences in the details. Of course they had the staples, like fruits and drinks and meats. But the flavors are all different. The snack aisle is illuminating - for example there were lots of seaweed flavored potato chips. I wandered off for 10 minutes in the grocery store and left the rest of them wondering what had happened to me... but it's all fascinating, so similar and yet so different.

Oh. And they have a street where all they sell is fish in bags. Not for eating, but for pleasure - ornamental fish, like goldfish and siamese fighting fish.

I love traveling.

outdoors!

My preconceptions of Hong Kong were that it'd be crowded, full of Chinese people, bustling, metropolitan, and did I say crowded?

I was quite delighted to discover that Hong Kong actually has a vibrant parks scene, with well developed trails and beautiful vistas. The Dragon Back trail that we did on the island gives grand views of the surrounding seas, though it's also ridiculously windy up there. And while there were a decent number of other groups doing the hike, I could still enjoy being out of the city for a morning.

We also did a "hike" on Lamma Island, though that was more a paved path from one end of the island to the other. What's nice, though, is that there are no cars on the island - everyone has a bicycle, and the only motorized vehicles we did see were little tractors dragging 40' lengths of rebar behind them making a huge racket.

There're also beaches galore, though truth be told we didn't really do much there. Matt and I figured we'd be getting enough beach time in Malaysia, and it was also almost chilly. Pretty much all we did with the beaches was sleep.

I didn't get to search out any ultimate on the island, mostly because the listed pickup was the day after we got in and we were still very jetlagged. However, I hear that they get to play in a nice sporting club with plush amenities (like showers!), which beats the pants off any place I've played.

hong kong day 1

We spent our first full day going around Central, with my sister acting as tour guide (as she did most of our time in HK). The Peak Tram is ridiculous - you're going up at this very steep angle and by the end of the ride, I was having trouble holding my head up. There are also little ridges in the floor of the aisle that don't make any sense until you're suddenly tilted back 45 degrees.

The view from the top was pretty good, though hazy.

We also went by this crazy cake shop. These are all cakes!!!

And at the end of the day, we went to burn our lips off with Typhoon Shelter Under Bridge Crab. Word to the wise - avoid the 5 chili version if you still want to have taste buds.

eats

Food is a big part of Asian culture, and I felt like in Hong Kong, we were able to find just about anything. Of all the places we went, HK was the mixing pot - we had classic Cantonese fare one day, and Belgian frites the next. The only thing that was difficult to find was good coffee (according to Matt; I don't drink the stuff).

My favorite was the seafood. In particular, our meal at Rainbow restaurant on Lamma Island scores big points for the freshness of its fish (black garoupa, see etymology) and the tenderness of its razor/bamboo clams - they were about 2 inches long and oh so sweet. We also had excellent crab at the Typhoon Shelter Under Bridge Crab, but we made the "mistake" of ordering the hottest level they could make the crab, and it felt like my lips were going to burn off.

There was an amazing suckling pig at Manor Restaurant - the skin was ridiculously crisp and crackling. Matt and I have a lot to live up to come next Christmas eve. We also had roast goose there, but I gotta say that I'm more of a duck person - the goose was just too fatty and greasy for my tastes. And there's so much more meat per goose!

Dim sum was good, though Matt's friend actually took us to a place that did not have English on the menu. Unfortunately, despite having 3 Asians in the group, none of us could read the Chinese characters all that well, and we ended up guessing on some of them. It was all good, though, and was nice to be at a more "authentic" place.

Xiao long bao (soup dumplings) were actually one of the first meals we had. Ay took us all to Din Tai Fung and we ordered them with hairy crab roe. Wow were those excellent. The skins were perfect - thin and chewy and didn't break easily with handling.

One of the more memorable dinners was at a hush-hush Sichuanese private kitchen. It is run by a very cute and hip couple, where the husband is the host and the wife is the chef. It doesn't have a restaurant license, and so you need to call ahead and ask to be invited for dinner. The food was delicious and I got a new appreciation for Ma Po Tofu (that old standard) that made me realize it doesn't have to be drowning in oil. Dinner was followed by traditional Chinese opera as sung by the chef which was sweet but a little awkward.

What else? Oh yes, street food. Honestly I didn't feel like I needed to have much of that because we were eating so much. But Matt really enjoyed the fish/octopus balls and random offal stews that you could find all over. Meat on sticks! We got cheap sushi for a snack once and I had a great new fish - "snow fish" - which my dad thinks may be cod because that's how it's called in Mandarin.

And of course there was milk tea, which was quite yummy, as well as shaved ice. Now that was really neat - instead of plain ice that you then top with syrup and fruit and gummy things, they actually flavor the ice ahead of time and then shave the flavored ice and add toppings to that. We got a mango ice that was quite refreshing. Kinda like shaved sorbet, but better!

Overall, there was an abundance of good cheap food, as well as good, more expensive Western food. It was hard, though, to get a sense of what "Hong Kong" food is like, because the dominant population is Cantonese, so it mostly just seems Cantonese. But at least there's English on a lot of menus, and you can't go wrong by pointing at other tables and asking for what they're having.

hong kong

The biggest news first: Chewy remembered us!!! The smelly round-butt was so excited to see us he didn't know what to do. I sure do miss that wriggly squirmy peanut-butter-lovin little booger

Hong Kong is insane. It's crowded, and hectic, and full of people talking loudly and quickly in a language we didn't understand. I can speak a little Mandarin, but Hong Kong is all Cantonese. That said, it's actually quite navigable because there are lots of signs in English, and most people in commercial districts could speak some English (with a lovely British-tinted accent).

It was also a lot of fun. Food is cheap (Asian, at least), transportation is reliable, and there's plenty to do - and quite a bit of it is outside of the city.

HK has 7 million people living in its 426 sq miles, but it's also quite mountainous and therefore the populated area of the island is much smaller. 40% of the island is parkland, providing a much needed escape from the teeming masses.

Surprisingly though, despite being Chinese, there was actually not too much pushing and shoving going on, and people formed lines instead of mobs.

We got around mostly on the subway, buses, or taxis. The subway serves the major commercial hubs, as well as the airport, which makes it a pretty straightforward way to navigate long distances. The stations are enormous, spanning several blocks with a multitude of exits. The walls are lined with funny ads (to our Western eyes, at least) for a variety of services, as well as the normal cautionary pleas, but served up in cute animal cartoon figures. (I loved the MTR penguin!)

The bus system is interesting - there are big double decker buses, and along those same routes, are small 16 seater vans operating as "light buses." They come a bit more frequently and also serve areas where the big buses don't go. Apparently the aggressiveness of minibus drivers caused the HK government to mandate large speedometers in the front of the vans so that passengers can see how fast the driver is going, and it'll beep if he exceeds a certain speed.

Taxis were what we usually used if it was late, we were late, or had a lot to carry. They are ubiquitous and fares are quite reasonable, and the driving, well, god bless seatbelts and make sure to look both ways before crossing.