Hong Kong

It's been a great few days in Hong Kong, though I'm a tad hungover today after a late night out in Macau yesterday. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me give you a quick rundown of our stay here before I go pack my suitcase and allow Neil and Yuko to enjoy the privacy of their home once again.

We showed up on Sunday afternoon after the full day train ride and, like I've mentioned, immediately enjoyed the sunny weather.

We spent Monday on Kowloon shopping for cheap electronics and being tempted by all the other cheap goodies in the various street markets we bumped into.

Neil's place is across the water in Discovery Bay, which is basically like a giant seaside resort, so we've got quite used to taking th 30 minute, high speed ferry over to Hong Kong island each day to explore. From HK island there are a lot of other ferry options to kowloon and macau, so we're now very familiar with Hong Kong Bay and it's surprisingly pretty turquoise water.

On Tuesday, we went up to the top of Victoria Peak and enjoyed the views looking down on the city and the bay. it was a really clear day with only a little bit of smog in the distance. good thing we went when we did since Wednesday was really smoggy and you could barely see anything. So, instead we hopped on the 1 hour ferry ride from hong kong island to Macau to explore the world's #1 gambling destination. it actually grosses more money than Las vegas annually now and has for the last year or two. there are massive casinos being constructed everywhere and several in full operation. it is not like Vegas really. it felt a lot cleaner, safer, and more upscale in general. the people in the casinos looked like they meant business and were taking their gambling seriously, where as in Vegas it seems that the majority of people at the tables are middle Americans wearing flip-flops and dropping a few bucks on the table on their way to the buffet....i love Vegas. Macau is really cool though and if you like gambling (Shaun, really, you got to go) it's a pretty sweet place. we didn't win anything but didn't lose too much either and had a great time

today we're packing up our stuff and will head out soon. the largest outdoor seated Buddha statue is pretty close to Neil's place, so we're going to check that out this afternoon and then head to the airport for the first flight of our trip. we wanted to do as much as possible over land or on boat and we're happy that we're over three weeks and who-knows-how-many miles into the trip before boarding our first plane . we'll fly to Bangkok tonight and arrive after midnight. tomorrow afternoon we'll board another, really short, flight over to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to begin the southeast asia leg of the trip. we figure we'll just sleep in the airport tonight. if all those protesters were able to sleep there for so long a couple months ago, there must be a few comfortable benches we can crash out on for a few hours.

once again, big thanks to Neil and Yuko for the hospitality!

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