Hong Kong and Macau

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Day 25

Today we hoped we would be in Hong Kong by the end of the day. Joe was feeling better after some water and a long nights sleep. We woke to catch the plane from Kunming to Shenzen (a town just outside Hong Kong that had cheaper flights as they were Domestic rather than international) and got a taxi after packing our stuff. It may have been the fact we had stayed in rural areas for so long but the twenty minute taxi ride took over an hour to get to the airport because of road works. Due to this we had to run to try and catch the flight, this was not taking into consideration that the check in was shutting in ten minutes and we were in a Chinese country with a strange airport, we didn't know what terminal it was and no one could speak English. If we missed the flight the trip would have cost us about £300 in total including the old tickets which was not really within our budget.

When we got to the airport, we flicked to the Shenzen page of our guidebook which had the name in Chinese and ran to the information desk and asked about the Shenzen flight, the woman looked blankly at us for a moment then walked away, she tapped another woman on the shoulder and whispered something in her ear and sat back down. The other woman was already talking to some other people and we had to wait for her to finish before she came over. She said in English “how can I help you?” and we quickly explained the situation and she pointed to a large section of check in desks behind us. We quickly ran and were able to just check in in time for the flight and we made it.

After arriving in Shenzen we had to get the bus across the border and into Hong Kong. As accommodation is really expensive here we decided to stay on the Kowloon peninsular, just a tube or ferry ride across from Hong Kong island, in a place called Chungking Mansions. This was basically a sky rise tower full of about 3 different shabby little guest houses on each floor. We stayed in the one recommended by our guide book, called pay-less guest house. We had a room which was basically just big enough to fit in a double bed with a small private bathroom, there was no window but thankfully we did have an air con unit and this was the most we have paid for a room since Beijing.

Once we left the hostel we stumbled across a bar that Tracy's Dad knew of called Ned Kellys, which is a Jazz bar and we decided to go in there after we found a cheap Chinese restaurant to eat in. At the time we were not sure what the exchange rate was so we only decided to have a pint and a half each. There was some really fun music in there and the atmosphere was great.

After we left Ned Kellys we went back to the Hostel to sleep the night.

Day 26

We woke and decided we would explore Hong Kong and and go to the main Island. The only two things we had planned was to get out Vietnam visa from the embassy and the boat across the harbor to see the skyline.

First we went to the Vietnam embassy which was in a shabby district in Hong Kong in a tall building. As we arrived we walked into the lobby of the building and there was a security guard there that couldn't speak any English but was able to point at a sight that said the embassy was shut at the weekend. Well as this was Saturday, this was kind of a problem. We'd have to find a way around this later.

Then we decided to walk around and see a bit of Hong Kong.

Initially we decided to walk along to harbor so we could see some of the skyline and take some pictures. There were people fishing and strolling around and it was a lovely walk although it was still very hot and humid even though we were so close to the water. This led us onto the main center of Hong Kong.

There are a lot of upmarket shops, malls and large financial buildings when we got to the main center of Hong Kong and it felt a lot like some of the areas in London. There is the longest collection of escalators in the world there so we decided to head off there. Hong Kong is a very hilly island and this escalator is designed to add value to the areas that are uphill from Soho because people would not normally choose to walk so high into the hill. As it was a very hot and humid day and we could see why people would not like to walk up, it was hard enough walking down! While we were looking around the area we grabbed a drink, found a zoo and strolled along some great markets which were full of interesting fish and other foods, not to mention smells. The fish are still alive in these street markets and we even saw one jumping out of it's bucket and onto the pavement in an effort to escape.

After walking around the center we headed back to the hostel and got showered and changed before heading back to Hong Kong island again. Instead of getting the subway to Hong Kong we decided to get the ferry and we sailed through Hong Kong harbor catching the skyline at night and we made it in time for the light show that they have at 20:00 every night. This was amazing although it only lasts a few minutes as it doesn't take long to get from Kowloon to Hong Kong.

We then found a restaurant and Tracy had some traditional sweet and sour chicken. After the food we headed off to be a little extravagant and have a bottle of wine (which is expensive in China) in Lan Kwai Fong which is a traditional ex-pat scene. After people watching for a while we decided to head home and grab some sleep so we could go to Macau the next day.

Day 27

We looked into how to get to Macau from Kowloon and there is a direct ferry from the Island. We walked there which only took a few minutes and booked our ticket that would take about an hour in total on the speed boat.

After getting to Macau we embarked on more touristic activities by looking at an old church and the old Portuguese influenced center that was very quaint. They sold a strange rectangular sheet of pork that was a local delicacy, Joe didn't like it that much although Tracy did.

Then we headed off to the casinos to lose some money. We walked through Macau which is a strange place filled with old scruffy tower blocks and then very elegant casinos. Because it is an old Portugese colony it separately administered from China and gambling is a legal here, so it has become the casino capital of the east and actually turns over more money than las vegas. We first went to the MGM grand and played some of the slot machines that are very complicated and we lost all our money. This casino wasn't very big so we grabbed the free shuttle bus and headed to the the Venetian which was a copy of the one in Las Vegas with a 3rd floor grand canal replete with gondolas and Italian opera singing. This was very VERY tacky but filled Joe's longing for finding a totally 'authentic' casino experience. This casino was large with loads and loads of tables in the gambling halls and not to mention all the expensive shops in the main 'canal' section.

Once we had our filling of the shops and tackiness, it was time to deal with the important task of gambling our traveling money away. Instead of putting it all on black (joe's suggestion) and finding that we didn't want to gamble enough to play roulette we went back to the 'one arm bandits'. There we stuck $20 HK Dollars (about £2) into the machines and off we went. After not really knowing what we were doing for a while Tracy hit the button and the buttons lit up. She hit one that said 'free spins' and then things went a little dizzy for a while before the grand total of $51 was won. As we were so rich (about £5) we decided to call it a day and headed back to Kowloon (via Hong Kong as we bought the wrong ticket).

When we went back we decided to go to a restaurant around the corner which was delicious and then headed off to bed.

Day 28

After waking up we had to go and get our Vietnam visas from the embassy as it was now Monday. We went there to find it open and were happy to hear that you could get an express visa in one day and we could pick it up by 5:30. This gave us some time to explore Hong Kong again.

By the time it was ready to pick up the visas we had run out of things to do in Hong Kong and we were glad to pick them up as the rain had just started. We headed back to the hostel and changed before heading out for some kebabs and a quick beer. We then went back to the hostel and had an early night because we knew we would have to go back to China the next day and off to Yangshuo to do some more outdoor activities which we'll more than welcome after another city experience, especially one that was so much like London (in a tropical jungle).

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