Macao and Hong Kong

---

From Vietnam we managed to get on a plane and were only 8kg over weight (we wore all our clothes on the plane - looked like losers). But arriving in Macao was a bit of a shock to both of us, massive sky scrapers with neon lights everywhere. It was Chinese new years so after finding our hotel (actually it was more like a shoe box filled with as many bunks as possible) we headed to the water front to watch the fire works. Pretty impressive, they went from 9pm until 2 in the morning for 4 days. The next day was Valentines day so Katherine and i had a really romantic day, visiting the science museum which was really very cool although maybe aimed slightly younger than us but we still played on all the exhibits even having a rowing race (which i won). From here we went to the F3 car museum where we got to race cars (Katherine well and truly made up for the lack of rowing ability) and then the Portuguese wine tasting museum before hitting the casinos for some massive gambling on my part (i made HK3.50 which is less than NZ$1) and Katherine tried to drink as much free water as possible.

The next day we took the free casino buses around the place visiting Taipa over the bridge, here we saw the hugest casinos they were like inside villages, even had roofs that looked like the sky, nuts. But did some touristy things, visiting churches, temples, old building and historic sights before heading back to the casino for the bubble show. This was like a planetarium (ie dome) but with water coming down from the roof and tigers and dragons, very amazing and the best thing was it was free. We then spent our time trying to get free stuff from the casino but all i manged to win was a pen and a key ring and Katherine kept getting discounts at the restaurant's which meant you actually had to spend money.

The next day we did the historic part of town, visiting more temples, forts and churches before going to this museum fill of envelopes and stamps from around the world, even found a couple from NZ. Then we caught the ferry to Hong Kong which involved a little bit of riding in both Macao and Hong Kong, a little scary although they both drive on the left which is unsual as China is the right but we made it to our hotel. Our hotel had managed to double book about 6 rooms but we finally got given one to the disappointment of a few other people who were left at 9pm with no place to stay and the whole of Hong Kong fully booked (Chinese new year).

We spent the next few days staying in our shoe box in the Chungking manison checking out the sights and sounds of Hong Kong, mainly just going back and forward on the Star ferrys. But on Wednesday the museums are free so we checked out the Space Museum and again play on all the childrens interactive toys, both of us getting Cs for the space quiz which was slightly embarrassing on my part. But did this space walk thing where more or less you are put into a harness, not given enough slack and then get to walk around, pretty funny. Also rode elevators in the tall buildings and looked at the views and last but not least spent some quality time at the chinese immigration building. After the new years holiday finished we managed to get some accomodiation on Hong Kong Island, where it was cheaper and better so we moved across the harbour which was a nightmare - hong kong is really not made for bikes, but we are now very good at taking our units up and down escalalotrs as well as in and out of shopping malls.

For Katherines birthday we went to Lamma Island and had a lovely time walking around in the bush with no cars before going back into town to watch the rugby (the hurriances won to the disgust of all the Aussies in the pub). Consequently we meet a couple of Aussie dudes who live in Hong Kong and felt sorry for us so bought us NZ wine. After this we did some more sightseeing - out to Stanley for some nice beach action, the first day they sun has been out since arriving. The best news was the we got our Chinese visas, so strange, so off to china tomorrow!!!

---

Photos

shopping mall with our bikes
we weren't allowed to ride them down the escalators

Lamma Island
Katherines bday - bliss, there were no other people