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Published: April 7th 2012
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Hong Kong and
Macau:
I had a good mini-vacation in Boracay for about 6 days and felt rested up to start some serious traveling. I headed to the airport in Boracay early to make sure there were no complications. The only issue I ran into was needed to exchange money for the fees I did not anticipate (terminal fees, additional baggage fee, ect.) I exchanged just enough to have lunch when I got to Manila. I was looking forward to seeing Hong Kong, especially the skyline. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed an hour.
Hong Kong - I arrived in Hong Kong a bit later than I expected. I was planning to meet my friend Jennie from LA and her friends for dinner. They were doing a week long study abroad program for their MBA at UCLA. I had to miss dinner but was able to meet them at the Ritz Carlton hotel for drinks on the top floor,
the tallest building in Hong Kong. It was nice to see a familiar face. None of them could believe that I was traveling in Asia for three months and preparing to do a full world loop. I felt good about my decisions, as everyone pretty much told me
I was smart for not doing an MBA, and spending the money traveling instead.
Since everyone was in class during the day, I took the time to explore Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the
9th most expensive city in the world. Real estate is precious. Huge buildings shoot up the mountains. Hong Kong is pretty easy to get around. I was able to take the subway or ferries everywhere. There doesn't seem to be any major monument to see in Hong Kong. The most popular sight is The Peak at
Victoria Peak, which overlooks the whole city. The rest of the time most people spend going out or shopping around.
Macau - Since the MBAers had the weekend I joined them to head to Macau. Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia, except it's
5 times as big (in terms of gambling revenue). Macau was a former Portugese territory and is now a Special Administrative Region of China (SAR), along with Hong Kong. We all stayed at the
Venetian, which was modeled after the
Venetian in Las Vegas. It's one of the biggest hotels in the world with over 3000 rooms. The night we spent there was great. We walked
MBAers and Me
At the Venetian around the hotel, had dinner in St. Mark's Square, and went to a club. One of the MBAers, Alex, treated everyone with his winnings from the blackjack table and paid for a table at the club. The club had a DJ from Europe that won some major award. He was pretty good. We all noticed that we were the tallest people in the room. There were a lot of short asian girls on the dance floor. Macau is where everyone in China goes to have fun. It's going to be even bigger in the next few years.
Most of the MBAers left to go back to Hong Kong or the US. Luckily, Jennie was gracious enough to take some things back for me, which freed up a lot of room in my two small bags. The next day I checked into another hotel and walked around the old Portugese sections of town. There were some great views of the city. I tried to gamble a bit, but was soon separated from my money. I should have known better not to sit down at a table with a dealer that doesn't look happy. I just wonder how satistically possible it
is to lose so many hands in a row?
I headed back to Hong Kong and spent a day there catching up and planning my trip to Taiwan. I had
dim sum that was amazing!
Next stop - Taiwan!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Great to hear that you are extending this from two weeks to two months to an RTW...
and look forward to reading your blogs.