Advertisement
Published: December 8th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Macau I
pedestrian street in Macau So the past two weeks my parents came out to visit in China which has been an interesting time. It’s been wild being somewhat responsible for their well being. Total role reversal.
I flew down to Shenzhen and went to Macau for a day before meeting up with them in Hong Kong. I have the week off because my students are taking mandatory midterms that I’m not required to proctor. My job rules!
Macau, or Au men (in mandarin and Cantonese), was named as a gateway which tributed the God Matsu, a God of the sea and fishermen. Matsu is a Chinese god who started getting worshiped around the time of the Ming dynasty 1450’s. This name was given before the 16th Century when the Portuguese picked it up as a port of their own.
Macau currently is a Special Autonomous Region (like Hong Kong) of China, where they have their own currency/economy, political leaders, police force, and immigration policies, but China supplies defense and foreign affairs. China says that Macau and Hong Kong can be treated as if they’re part of “One Country ” but operate on “two systems”. So, regardless of whether it’s part of
China, Chinese people still need to get entrance visas.
Macau is set up on a peninsula and two islands across the bay from Hong Kong. People speak Cantonese mostly, some Portuguese and Mandarin, and a small amount of English. It’s now home to the largest profiting casinos in the world (Vegas=2nd).
I traveled down to Macau with another foreign English teacher from Ma’anshan, Mike. We got into Macau and went to the hotel we had “reservations” at, only to find out they were all booked up. So they sent us down the block to a rather sketchy hotel. There were scantily clad girls hanging out in the hallway asking if we wanted “massages” and cockroaches that managed to hide until we got back later.
We went to a Portuguese/Macanese restaurant that served me some African Chicken. Curry-ish sauce with a bit of a kick, slightly charcoal crispy skin with some very tender meat and Portuguese red wine. Glorious. Wandered around street to street passing through European narrow pedestrian style town roads and giant casino meccas with kitschy lights.
Came back to find a cockroach eating my toothpaste… Failed to kill it and watched it dart under
my bed. Didn’t sleep so well that night.
Next morning, I wandered around some of the Ruins of the St. Paul Church and some more narrow European style roads. I Parted ways with Mike to meet my parents in the Kowloon of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s an old British port that was signed over to China in 1997. It’s a REALLY great place if you’re interested in international business. Most people are wearing suits, walk really fast, and EVERYONE speaks English.
Wandered around the Greater Kowloon area all afternoon and tried to check into my hotel. They said my parents wouldn’t be in for another night and that there was some kind of a mix up. I later found out that my mom had forgotten her passport and they had to change flights to the next day. Needless to say at that moment I kind of panicked. Douglas Adams would not be proud.
The next day went into Hong Kong Island and wandered around the northern-downtown part of the island: Lan Kwai Fong, SoHo, the antique street, Statue Square and the world’s longest escalator. I then hopped on a bus to head to the south part
of the island – Stanley (never thought there would be a place called Stanley, Hong Kong). Stanley has some nice beaches, a pretty large street market, and is a little less intense than downtown Hong Kong. The street market weaves through some back streets and alleyways covered with overhanging tarps.
The street markets here are a hell of a lot more expensive, Hong Kong just is in general. Mostly just kitsch items, clothes, post cards…
That night I headed back into Kowloon to explore the night market of Temple street. Pretty righteous. Restuarants with their tables extending out on the street, everything’s lit up as a river of people flows in between two long lines of street vendors. I missed the cheap aspect of most Chinese markets and the fact that the vendors don’t speak English. Found some pretty cool Mao bags and leather bound journals with the Mao face of approval stamped on it.
Came back to the hotel and met up with my parents at about 1 am who had quite the long adventure getting here.
I returned to downtown to show my parents around and visited all the same hot spots. We stopped for
lunch at a dim sum place overlooking the harbor. Amazing food. There was an absolute onslaught of food. Carts came by with tele-screens scrolling through pictures of their contents with waitresses that asked us if we wanted anything before we even sat down. The carts just kept coming by with plates full of different kinds of dumplings and snacks. I was sitting in the hot seat right next to the passageway carts were going through. So in about 10 minutes our table was FULL of food and we were probably in the restaurant for half an hour.
That afternoon we headed out to Lamma Island and did some hiking around. There are two fisherman villages at opposite sides of the island that ferries run to and in between there are trails, small mountains, and the jungle. It was a pretty nice day but its hard to get away from the inevitable smog of China.
Came back into Kowloon for dinner and walked along this stretch of road that was in a back alley hidden from the city. Sat down at a Spanish restaurant and ate tappas - eggplant/assorted vegetables with tons of garlic; apple and chorizo; onion, lime,
tomato, and shrimp; and drank some magnificent sangria. Halfway through the meal, these two Chinese guys started playing Latin guitar duet pieces and is was freagin’ amazing. I forgot I was in China.
Next morning we headed into Hong Kong Island to go up Victoria Peak. It may be the world’s steepest tram ride. I’m pretty sure at some parts it was at a 50 degree angle. The peak overlooks all of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula. Gorgeous view of Hong Kong.
Headed to the Penninsula hotel for High Tea. We ate fingerling sandwiches, crumpets, pastries, miniature deserts, and had black tea with milk of course. It was a supremely enjoyable taste of Britain indeed.
Relaxed at our hotel for a bit and headed to dinner at Hutong. Hutong was supposed to be designed like the back alleyway of Beijing. It was an amazing view of the Hong Kong skyline and the waiters came out of the dark to your table like ninjas. My kind of restaurant. We had Wuhan style cod, so tender it melted in your mouth and was covered in lightly roasted finely chopped peanuts, spring rolls, which were kinda generic, and
lamb, with garlic and crispy skin. Good food, Good view, Ninja service.
Headed out to Shanghai the next few days. Then bringing my parents to good ol’ Maanshan.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.048s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
mom
non-member comment
like this
Hi Greg, It's 4 am and I can't get to sleep so I just sat down to do some computer work and found your latest blog entry-love it! You did an amazing job of taking care of your parents! I am very proud of you and miss you a lot. I cried all the way to Shanghai :(