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Published: June 10th 2008
Lisboa (Original)
The gharish neon of Macau's entertainment district.In Hong Kong we for once had accommodation booked already - to satisfy tighter visa requirements brought on by the proximity of the Beijing Olympics. Cleverly I had written down directions but not the actual address, which was most definitely not sufficient! Having eventually found internet terminals (in the library) to attain the address, we resumed our search but had little more luck. It was, in all, a stressful couple of hours before we finally located our tiny Inn high in a dilapidated building, overlooking the Causeway Bay shopping district. Even then, the Inn turned out to be full and they moved us to an alternative nearby.
It was a pity, because the early evening ride from the airport had genuinely filled me with wonder - I've never seen a city like this before. The bizarre clusters of uniform high-rises, spookily lit bridges and endless over-the-road pedestrian walkways reminded me of the furturistic cities often depicted in sci-fi films. We only spent three days here, but I enjoyed them greatly.
The day after arrival, we realised we'd had a stroke of luck. Whilst it was a week until the famous Dragon Boat Festival, some preliminary races were being held
St Paul's
Interestingly the site contains the remains of the Japanese Christian matryrs, whose memorial I chanced across back in Nagasaki four months ago. on the eastern side of Hong Kong Island. We went to take a look, in the process visiting an area of the city which must see very few foreigners. The festivities were colourful and good fun - way cooler than rowing! For the rest of that day, and the next, we spent time exploring some of Kowloon's splendid museums, making use of a tourist pass costing only two quid. My favorites (perhaps unsurprisingly) were the Science Museum and Space Museum. The former was like a giant version of London Science Museum's
Launch Pad, and also housed a four storey marble run. The latter contained a range of space-related 'rides' such as virtual reality gliding, a space suit simulator and even a 'space walk'. Lots of fun!
From Hong Kong we ferried to nearby Macau. We spent a packed half day exploring the city - both worthwhile and sufficient. In the afternoon we took a look at the crumbling facade of St Paul's Church, before exploring the excellent museum of Macau's history nearby. After all that culture, the evening was spent entertaining ourselves in Macau's 'other side' - the city is often quite reasonably referred to as 'the Vegas of
Kung Fu
Kowloon Park has a Sunday afternoon Kung Fu display. This angry little man was the biz. the East'. The stakes were too high to indulge ourselves in a spot of
Texas Hold'em, which we eventually found amongst the multitude of
Baccharat tables (a game which the Chinese seem to prefer). Instead we pooled HK$100 (seven quid) and attempted to win enough on
Blackjack to pay for the poker - a pursuit which lasted all of five minutes. Oh well.
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