Exploring Macau

After a relatively late night, we got to sleep in a little bit Monday morning. Not a lot, though - the hotel package included a complimentary breakfast buffet, and it was only available until 10:30am. It was a pretty decent spread, eggs, fruit, cereal, congee, dim sum. Unfortunately, something we'd eaten yesterday didn't agree with us, so we couldn't enjoy it as much as we would have liked.

We checked out of our room, stored our luggage, and set out to explore. Our first objective was to visit the ruins of Sao Paulo, which is probably Macau's most famous historical site. We headed up the steep, windy streets, stopping in some shops along the way, not really paying attention to where we should be going. We managed to overshoot our destination by quite a bit, ending up at a fort that overlooked the city as well as the top of the ruins. Daniel was still not feeling well, so we sat here for a bit, enjoying the city views as well as the people-watching.

We started back down the hill, this time keeping a better eye on our destination, and managed to reach the ruins. Daniel was still feeling a bit off, so he sat for a while as I wandered and took photos.

We spent the next few hours wandering the shops and snacking. We next headed over to the nearby casinos, not to gamble, but just to see what they looked like. These were quite the ritzy places! The security was a bit strange, though. There were guards and metal detectors at each entrance, and even signs warning not to take firearms into the casinos. I had my bulging camera bag with me and set off the metal detectors each time I went through, yet no one ever stopped me or asked to see what I was carrying.

We stopped by a shrine and giant statue to the Asian goddess Kun Iam (Goddess of Mercy) just as the sun was starting to set. It was getting late, and we still had some shopping to do before our 9pm ferry. We headed back to the shopping district to pick up some edible souvenirs for everyone who had been so helpful to us here in Hong Kong.

It had been a busy couple of days, and the 9pm ferry was suddenly feeling too far away, so we headed over to the terminal to see if we could catch an earlier ferry. Thankfully there was room on the 8pm, and we were back in Hong Kong by 9. We still had to check back into our room in Mongkok and retrieve some items from Daniel's father. The room we had been staying in was not available for the first night, so they put us in one that was smaller, more narrow, and reeked of smoke. It made us appreciate the non-smoking rooms in the US hotels!

Macau and Zaia

Daniel's aunts helped us arrange an overnight trip to Macau, and today's the day (Sunday) that we head over there. We packed up our belongings and checked out of our room in Mongkok. Since we had some time before we departed, we met Ray for breakfast at a Hong Kong-style cafe. (Eggs, toast, Ramen noodles, Spam, a great way to start the day!) We took the subway over to Central and found our way to the Macau ferry terminal.

The trip to Macau was quick, about an hour on a high-speed hydrofoil craft. It was a very smooth ride, unlike the bouncing around the boat did while docked at the pier - I was beginning to wonder whether I'd have to use that seasickness bag tucked in the seat pocket in front of me.

We arrived in Macau to a bit of a mess. Macau's Gran Prix was being run on Sunday, and part of the track was the roadway past the ferry terminal. The departure point for the hotel shuttle buses had been moved a block away. With all the traffic snarls the race was causing, it took about 20 minutes for a bus to come pick us up, and some additional time to find our way back out onto the main roadway and away from the congestion.

Check-in at the hotel went smoothly, and we dropped off our overnight bag in the room and headed back out to start exploring. Our hotel, Sofitel Ponte 16, was rated 5 stars and is located near the city center, very posh yet convenient to some restaurants and historic sites (and had no free Internet, of course). Daniel's sister-in-law had recommended a number of good places to grab snacks, and we wandered the streets eating and taking photos.

We had 5:30pm dinner reservations at Platao Macau, a restaurant that was highly recommended in the guidebook. We took advantage of the warm weather to eat outside. The food did not disappoint: soups, a mushroom appetizer, leg of lamb, duck fried rice, followed by cake and Mango pudding.

We took a shuttle bus over to the next island to see the casinos. Macau has recently seen an explosion in the construction of Vegas-style resorts. We didn't go there to gamble, though. Daniel's aunt had suggested tickets to Zaia, a Cirque du Soleil show playing at The Venetian (a much grander version of the same resort in Vegas). The theater was only about one quarter full - as in Vegas, another show had recently opened that was drawing the crowds away from the older shows. We greatly enjoyed the acrobatics and music, although I have to admit I did nap through a small part of it.

Afterwards, we wandered around The Venetian and nearby casinos (Hard Rock, City of Dreams) before catching the shuttle bus back to our hotel and crashing for the night, the end of yet another satisfying day.

Shatin and the Heritage Museum

I woke up Friday morning not sure of how I was going to spend my day. My original thought was to head to Victoria Peak, which provides great views of the Hong Kong skyline from above. However, with all of the haze that I saw yesterday, the Peak would likely be a disappointment.

Last night Ray had suggested that I visit the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, located in Shatin. I had visited Shatin 10 years ago, but at that time it required a train ride outside of the well-marked MTR subway system. I wasn't sure I was up for that sort of adventure today. When I checked the museum's web site to see what other transportation options I might have, I was excited to find that the MTR had been extended up to Shatin and beyond. I would be visiting the Heritage Museum today.

I used an MTR iPhone app to plot my subway trip. It is very well-designed; NYC's MTA should take lessons from the MTR app designers. The trip required me to change trains 3 times during my journey, yet it took me less than a half hour. (i don't know how they do it, but I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a train on the MTR. On the MTA, if you've timed things badly, you could wait as long as 15-20 minutes.)

I got to the station closest to the Heritage Museum easily, and an online map had given me a good idea of where I'd have to walk to get there. My stomach was reminding me that I hadn't had anything to eat yet. A stop at the station's 7-11 for a chicken salad sandwich shut it up real quickly.

I spent about 3 hours wandering among the museum's exhibits, and found it interesting. It helped that there was a variety of subjects to explore: calligraphy, painting, Cantonese opera history, city planning, ancient artwork... The multimedia presentations alternated between Chinese and English, and I took advantage of these to rest a bit.

As I finished up the museum tour, my stomach started complaining again. I had two choices: I could head back to a more familiar area to find some food, or I could see what I could find in Shatin. Since the day had gone so well so far, I decided to be adventurous and find something local. I followed signs to the Town Centre (note the British spelling) and came upon a decent-sized mall attached to a couple of upscale hotels. The mall had a number of restaurants, the trick was finding one that allowed me to easily select and order food. I hit pay dirt on my fourth try: I found a Thai restaurant with a menu that had both photos and English descriptions. Chicken with green curry sauce and rice, along with a lime soda, and my stomach was happy again.

My evening was uneventful as well. I retraced my subway trip and easily returned to Mongkok. I went back to the room to rest and wait for Daniel to return from China. Resting turned into passing out, which was just as well because Daniel arrived much later than originally planned. We grabbed some late-night noodles at Daniel's brother's store, followed by dessert at my favorite Hong Kong dessert place (I love a fruit bowl with coconut milk and mango ice cream!), and called it a night.

Religious Experiences

I got a better start on Thursday morning - I managed to get out of the room by 11am. My plan was to visit the Big Buddha on Lantau Island. I saw this giant statue 10 years ago, but at that time it required a long, seemingly treacherous bus ride. A cable car system was recently built that allowed visitors to skip the winding roads while offering panoramic views of the island. I was looking forward to this ride, hoping to get some nice photos of the island's mountains, shoreline, and maybe even the Hong Kong International Airport.

The cable car could be reached by subway, so off I went on another ride on the MTR. As the train emerged from underground, I noticed for the first time how hazy the skies were. The skies had been like that off and on during my stay. I'm not sure if it is from pollution or high humidity, but either way I hated the idea of going up in the cable car and not being able to see much.

I thought that if I waited a few hours, maybe this haze would burn off. What could I do in the mean time? It hadn't gone unnoticed that the subway stop for the cable car was just one stop away from the Disneyland Resort Line, the train that takes visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland. Hmm, what a great place to hang out for a few hours while waiting for the haze to clear! It wasn't a tough decision, and soon I found myself on a train with Mickey Mouse-shaped windows and lots of families with young children bouncing in their seats in anticipation of what awaited.

I visited HKDL back in 2005, just two months after it first opened. We got to see the entire park, but didn't spend a lot of time exploring anything else. Since Daniel and I are planning to see the park next week, I didn't want to try to go there. Instead, I thought it would be fun to "resort hop," visiting the two hotels that are part of the resort.

I first spent some time exploring the main entrance of the park. There were a fair number of people hanging out there and taking photos, but it didn't seem to be too crowded. From there, I walked the promenade to the Ferry terminal. This was built to allow the resort to have boat access, but as far as I could tell, had largely gone unused; it was just me and a couple of local fishermen hanging out there. Next I wandered over to the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. Styled similar to Orlando's Grand Floridian, this was a very elegant place - huge chandeliers dangling from stained glass domes, marble floors, and a grand piano sitting in the lobby. From there, I took the resort bus over to Disney's Hollywood Hotel. This is an Art Deco resort with a movie theme. Given a choice, this is definitely where I'd want to stay. I found a counter service restaurant here and decided it was time for lunch. I was excited to find that they had smoked turkey legs! This is one of my favorite WDW snacks. Plus, turkey is hard to find in HK, and I had resigned myself to not having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year. I think this was a good compromise: a turkey leg (served with a spiced honey dip), Japanese noodles, and some fresh fruit. Afterwards, I wandered around the resort and took some more photos.

Sadly, it was time for me to leave HKDL. I took the resort bus over to the MTR station and caught the next train. I was at Tung Chung in no time, and found my way over to the cable car terminal. This terminal was set up to handle huge crowds - it had long queues and a dozen or so ticket counters. I must be visiting on the off-season, because there was hardly anyone on line, and once I figured out what to buy, I had my ticket and boarded a cable car within 10 minutes.

The 20 minute ride up to the Buddha was quite an experience itself. The cable cars travel high, over water and steep mountains, and on a clear day, must offer quite a view. Unfortunately, the haze did not burn off as I'd hoped, moderately obscuring the scenes. Still, the haze did add some depth to the mountain ridges, and I think I was able to get a handful of interesting shots.

When I visited the Po-Lin Monastery 10 years ago, it was a fairly solemn place. There were a few souvenir and food shops, but all seemed very respectful of the true nature of the site. Now, not so much. The cable car dumps you right into a gift shop, complete with hawkers trying to sell photos that were taken as you boarded the car. There are now lots of shops selling not only souvenirs, but also brand name merchandise. There is also a couple of walking tours, a movie about Buddha's path to Enlightenment, an animated fable about a monkey, and NYC street-like acrobats. This seemed much more like a theme park than a religious experience (although I can't complain about the Starbucks mocha frappuccino I enjoyed there). I walked the many steps up to the Buddha and took some photos of the statue and surrounding area, wandered through some of the shops, and then caught another cable car ride back to reality.

While waiting to board the car, Daniel's friend Ray called. (It amazes me that there is cellphone service at such a remote location. Even more amazing is that it had cellphone service when I visited 10 years ago.) Ray knew I was on my own and invited me for dinner. We set up a place to meet, and he took me to a local Hong Kong restaurant. Great food and great company - Ray even got my cellphone charged, at a 7-11, no less. (Stupid me for not verifying that the adapter was rated at 240V before plugging it in.) I was back in my room by 11pm, feeling pretty good about the day I'd just spent.

Solo in Hong Kong, Day 1

I managed to survive my first day alone in Hong Kong, but it didn't exactly go well. Daniel left for China at 6:30am on Wednesday. Normally that would mean I'd be awake from that point on. However, remember me mentioning my friend Benadryl? I had popped awake at 4am with a headache and took an Advil and a Benadryl, thinking that would let me sleep until maybe 9 or 10am. Much to my dismay, I was out cold until after 12:30pm. By the time I showered, got organized, wasted time online, and headed out the door, it was 2pm, and I still hadn't had anything to eat. I was angry with myself for having wasted so much of the day, but determined to at least attempt to do something.

Then I remembered that Wednesday is free museum day in Hong Kong. Why not hit a museum and hang out there for as long as it stays open? Since I'm not paying an entrance fee, there'd be no need to feel like I hadn't gotten my money's worth. A couple of Daniel's friends had recommended the Hong Kong Museum of History. Since it sounded interesting and was relatively close, it seemed like a good choice.

My first order of business, however, was food. I thought that if I could walk to the museum, there had to be some restaurant along the way that had an English menu. That would have worked well if I'd managed to start walking in the right direction. I knew if I walked South on Nathan Road (which I keep calling Nathan Lane in my head), I'd wind up in the area that I wanted to be in. However, I still hadn't gotten my bearings in this neighborhood and wasn't sure which direction was South. When I am in NYC, I try to use the sun to help me navigate. The sun was not much help here - the time of day plus the number of tall buildings made it very difficult to tell where the sun was. With no obvious landmarks, I picked a direction that felt right and started walking. But as the Grail knight in that Indiana Jones movie would say, I chose poorly. I walked for about 15 minutes until I came upon an area that let a little sun in, and realized I'd been heading North when I should have been heading South. Crap.

As luck would have it, I spotted a mall. Mall = Food Court, how much easier could that get, right? Only there was no food court, this mall had restaurants on each floor, fancy ones at that. I wandered around on 3 floors before I found one that wasn't too expensive and didn't think sea horses were edible. It was a Japanese establishment with a lunch menu, with photos of the dishes, and in English, even. Bingo, food problem solved.

With a full belly, I headed back down Nathan Road, in the right direction this time. But it was even later, and I realized I didn't have the time to take a stroll to the museum. I remembered I'd passed a subway stop during my wrong turn, retraced my steps, and took a train to the neighborhood I wanted to get to.

The Hong Kong subway exits are very well marked. Each exit is given a letter, and there are signs that tell you both the direction to head to get to the exit, as well as the popular destinations that can be reached by using that exit. I was easily able to spot the exit recommended for the museum.

Once on the street, though, it wasn't so simple. There were signs, but they weren't always placed in locations that were obviously visible. At least twice I found myself backtracking because I'd missed a sign, realizing this because I'd spot another sign pointing me in the opposite direction. What fun.

I did finally make it to the museum. By this time it was after 4pm. I looked for a sign indicating operating hours, and I swear it said that the museum would be open until 9pm. Perfect, I could spend the evening there. I took my time in the exhibits, strolling and reading and taking photos and resting. I got about halfway through when at 530pm an announcement was made that the museum would be closing at 6. Bummer. I had to rush through what I thought was the more interesting part of the museum, Hong Kong in the 20th Century. Oh well, at least it gives me a reason to return.

It was now dark, and since I'm down near the waterfront, I decided to see what was going on there. Along the way, I stopped in Sogo, a large Japanese department store made up of many smaller brand name stores. I wasn't so interested in shopping as I was eating. Food court. Photo menus. Full belly. Happy Tom.

I arrived at the harbour right before the light show was about to start. Called "A Symphony of Lights," the show uses colorful, animated lighting effects on the tall buildings in the famous Hong Kong skyline. Add a synchronized soundtrack, and you've got an entertaining show. Not exactly Epcot's Illuminations, but it works. By this time, it's 8:15pm and I'm tired, so I take the subway back to Mongkok, grab a mango and coconut milk drink, browse some shops, and then head back to my room.

Not exactly the best vacation day ever, but I'm alone in a foreign country where I don't speak the native language, yet I managed to eat, shop, see a few sights, and lived to tell about it. I'd call that Success.

Moving to Mongkok

Daniel is heading to China with his family on Wednesday for two nights, and I was not comfortable staying at his father's place by myself during that time. It's not that I felt unsafe, I just thought it was a bit remote and not easily accessible for someone who does not read or speak Chinese.

Daniel's aunt helped us find a reasonably-priced inn that was convenient to the subway and was right in the middle of the shopping district. After a quick breakfast of congee, we packed up some things and headed to Mongkok to check in. The woman at the front desk is very nice but speaks no English. If we need to communicate, she will need to call the owner's daughter. To reduce the need for conversation, Daniel prepaid for 4 nights. The room is very simple - two beds, a bathroom, a couple of stools and a small table. Oh, and it has two TVs.

After checking in, we grabbed a quick lunch and then hit the markets to do some serious shopping. The market streets are crowded and pickpocketing is always a concern, but you can get some great deals. We found a stall that sold pillow covers, and knowing that we'd need couch pillows for the new place, decided to pick up a couple. That quickly turned in 10, and the total cost was about $15. We came across other trinkets as well, and soon we had a sack full of things we really didn't need.

Thankfully, it was time for dinner. We met Daniel's friend Marie at a Japanese buffet in Causeway Bay. We timed dinner rather badly; we had to take the subway during rush hour. I've never seen it so crowded, there were lines to get into the tightly-packed cars. I was so happy when we reached our destination!

The food, though, was wonderful, and did mention it was a buffet? We ate and talked for 3 1/2 hours. We were stuffed to the gills when they kicked us out at 10pm. We did some more browsing in the area stores - the shopping areas stay open very late here - before saying goodbye to Marie and heading back to our room.

Tsim Sha Tsui

Daniel and his father had to go take care of some paperwork on Monday, so they put me on a bus so that I could explore Tsim Sha Tsui. I got off at the Ferry terminal and spent the morning wandering the Victoria Harbour waterfront. This is a very touristy area, with museums, a concert hall, a cruise ship port, great views of the Hong Kong Island skyline (when the smog isn't obscuring it), and the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong's version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This long promenade has plaques and handprints of famous Hong Kong stars imbedded in it, along with statues for the tourists to pose with. The Bruce Lee statue is the only celebrity I recognized. I did stop here for a bit to watch the fun as tourists did their best karate poses for photos with Bruce.

At the end of my walk, I was happy to spot a familiar face from America - the lady in the Starbucks logo. A mocha frappuccino was just the thing to cool me off on this warm muggy day. It was just in time, too, because it gave me the energy to dodge the pushy vendors every dozen or so yards who desperately wanted me to buy their fake Rolexes or a custom-made suit.

I met up with Daniel and his father for lunch in a mall food court. That may not sound very exciting, but the food was actually very good. Many different Asian cuisines were represented - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, it was tough deciding which to try. I finally settled on a few tasty dim sum items, Daniel had a grilled steak, and his father chose a huge noodle bowl.

We spent the afternoon shopping in the malls in Tsim Sha Tsui. My favorite stores were:
- G.O.D, sort of a Hong Kong version of Pier One. "Gee Oh Dee" phonetically sounds like the Cantonese words for "Live Better." I picked up a couple of pillow covers for my new place here.
- A supermarket/kitchen place that sold all sorts of neat gadgets, food-related and otherwise. I walked out of there with some stainless steel chopsticks that I inexplicably needed to own.

We came back to the apartment to have a light dinner with Daniel's family, and then I crashed while Daniel headed off to meet up with his brother.