Hong Kong

In case any one has been counting, you can go ahead and add Hong Kong (and Macao) to the list of places that I love (there aren't any places on the list of places I don't love...yet, just kidding there probably won't be any places added onto the second list). We went to HK from last Thursday (18th) until Sunday (21st), it was one of the more expensive trips, but we flew on a budget airline (tiger) so it cost nothing compared to how much you would spend flying across America.

Thursday was a little bit stressful as we barely made it to the airport on time, this wound up happening again on Sunday evening (really need to not do that next time I fly, although at this age I'd probably prefer running through the airport to having to wait an excessive amount of time for the airplane). Kerry and I flew together and met three of our friends in Hong Kong, but as it turned out there were several exchange students on our flight who we didn't know were traveling that weekend -- we must have gotten a special Tiger Airways deal.

First a little run down on Hong Kong -- its like Singapore in that its a very international Asian city, and there are a lot of people who speak English (more than in in Bangkok, but less than in Singapore where virtually everyone speaks English, except for the cab driver who couldn't take mom to Singapore's most famous museum) -- and its a hub of international business and kind of an outpost for China. But its different from Singapore in that it felt a lot bigger, the financial district is definitely a lot bigger (and more prominent on the global stage) than Singapore's (it reminded us more of NYC a little bit in that it was always busy and there was so much to see and do), and of course its a lot further north than Singapore so the weather felt like late spring in CT -- I was able to wear shorts, sneakers, and a sweatshirt (greatest combination ever) for most of the day and be totally comfortable.

We stayed in a hostel at the Chungking Mansions (I think over 17 floors there are over 100 hostels in this building) which is kind of notorious in HK -- its right down Nathan Road from the Peninsula Hotel (in a James Bond movie) but is a little shady...here's an article I found which is about an American anthropologist who spent some time in the Chungking Mansions. Kerry and I got our own room with a TV and bathroom (no window) and it wasn't too bad, aside from a cockroach we found crawling in Kerry's hair on Saturday morning -- I would like to point out that this did in no way discourage us from staying there again on Saturday night (I'm getting to be quite a traveler I suppose). Oh and this....

That looks like a bullet hole in the window by the stairs to me...

We arrived around 10 pm on Thursday, so we only went on a short walk around the area where we were staying and were pleased at the busyness of the neighborhood.

Friday was a busy one, we met up with Charles , Alex, and David (all were also staying in Chungking Mansions) and headed to Lantau to see the large Buddha on the hill. Hong Kong is made up of a bunch of connected islands -- we stayed on Kowloon...the financial district is on Hong Kong Island (so is Victoria Peak), which was right across the water from our hostel. Lantau was cool because it has a lot of hills/mountains which aren't developed at all (almost no residences in sight) so it felt like we had left HK all together.

Cable Car for the ride up

This continued well up and over this hill

The Buddha from afar. We didn't realize it at the time, but this Buddha may have been built as recently as 20 years ago...not as cool, but still a fun trip out to see it

Kerry and I try to apply sunscreen on our noses by looking into each other's fake rayban lenses

Me in front of the big Buddha

a pretty cool religious ceremony was going on inside of this temple involving both men and women, something I hadn't seen before -- we watched it for a while but were not allowed to take pictures

Big Buddha up close

Charles and I in front of a mountain, up at the big Buddha

After going to see the Buddha, we took a bus down the mountain and stopped at Tai O which is a fishing village with many stilted houses on the water (for this reason it is sometimes referred to as the Venice of Hong Kong). We met a local man there who showed us around a little bit and then took us to lunch. He was really nice and his name is Pi Ki (which he told us means miracle), he also told us that there are only around 4000 people living in the village now but there had been 10X that amount before a fire wiped out a large number of houses in 2000.

Boats at Tai O

Houses on stilts. Most of the people that live in Tai O are fishermen.

More houses

Kerry talking to Pi Ki

The restaurant he took us to

After Tai O, we headed back to Kowloon and checked out a market.

Look at all of that meat. At several places like this, we kept seeing meat that looked like a sponge, found out later it was tripe (which is stomach), I hate to not be adventurous, but I'm pretty glad that I didn't eat it.

She basically performed an infomercial for Kerry and I. She was so good I almost bought one of these.

After the market, we walked back to Nathan Ave near our hostel and walked through the famous Peninsula Hotel.

Hong Kong has one of the most famous skylines in the world and we first saw it lit up at night.

Kerry, Charles, and I

They have a walk of stars by the water similar to the one in Hollywood, the two most notable stars are Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. I made the mistake of putting my hands in Jackie Chan's hand prints...

...without looking at the grease from people who had done the same thing.

Hong Kong also boasts the longest running light show in the world (which happens at night) where all these buildings light up and flash from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, during the show we took a star ferry (cheap way to get across the water) to Hong Kong Island and were able to see the light show on both sides of the water.

View of one side lit up from the star ferry

Eating dinner in the red light district

Saturday Morning, we woke up and headed to a temple where we heard that if you walk over a bridge you can gain 3 extra days of life.

Kerry and I look at turtles swimming in a small pond from what we believe to be the life-extending bridge


Occasionally we (usually Katie, Kerry, and I) will get people who ask to take their picture with us, it's always kind of bizzare (definitely flattering though, one woman asked Katie to take her picture with her because and told her it was because she thought she was so beautiful) and we always mean to ask them to take their picture with us, but we always forget...this time we remembered! This group of women kept coming over to us to have individual pictures with Kerry and I (Kerry is in higher demand than I am because of her blonde hair, or at least thats what I tell myself).

Then we visited the Hong Kong Art Museum (in typical TJ Donohue fashion) -- there was some pretty cool stuff to be seen there, including an intricately carved ivory fan, a ton of impressive ceramics, and my favorite was a wooden carved statue of Buddha which did not look like wood.

Only picture from the art museum

After the art museum, we made our way into the city where we ate dim sum. I've had dim sum before, but this place had exceptionally good dim sum, the pork one was in a light and fluffy bun and we had another one which was blueberry and pork and one which was sweet potato and pumpkin. The highlight was trying chicken claw, which was fine (even though you have to constantly pick little bone pieces out of your mouth while eating it), but I probably won't be craving it anytime soon.

Saturday night we took a ferry (its only an hour long) over to Macao -- known as the Las Vegas of Asia and the gambling age is only 18, so I gambled my savings. Just kidding but I did lose like 10 HKD -- a little over one American.

We arrived around 5 pm -- just enough time to see some sights, it was a former Portuguese Colony so there was some really cool architecture to be seen. Oh and we had Portuguese egg tarts which were good.

The center, we loved the architecture and the pretty colors on the buildings

The front of the church of St. Paul -- story is kind of confusing, built by the Portuguese in the 1600s, the Jesuits were eventually banished (lonely planet left out why that happened) and I think the church wasn't really used after that and later everything but the front was destroyed by a fire in 1835. One of the biggest Christian monuments in Asia. Pretty cool motifs, including one with the virgin mary and a seven-headed hydra (didn't realize that was in the bible...)

Candid picture of me standing awkwardly

Kerry and I facing St. Pauls, note the casinos in the background

Quizzing people on Macao facts which they haven't learned about with the lonely planet guide book

We ate at a Portuguese restaurant as well before hitting the casinos, it is one of the oldest in Macao and was pretty good.

Then we hit the casinos -- this trip I determined that I like being in casinos (maybe once every ten years at most) but strongly dislike gambling. I don't know if any of you watch Entourage, but when we got to the Wynn casino, we went straight to the roulette table and put 5$ on red (something they do in the show whenever they go to a casino to determine if they're going to have a good night or not) -- I was extremely nervous for what would happen if it landed on black or green (this bothered me earlier in the day), but luckily it landed on red.

I don't really understand why people go to casinos, especially when the casinos are not bashful (AT ALL) about the fact that they take in far more money than they give out...

The Wynn casino even had a thing at 10 pm where a chandelier came down from the ceiling and then a money tree came up from the floor and people through coins at it... I was caught off guard in the heat of the moment I also threw a coin. Kerry was dissapointed in me. This was bizzare.

The Venetian

That night we spent in Italy

Exhausted by the canal/shopping center

We headed back to HK at around 1 am and everyone was passed out on the ferry when we got there.

Sunday we woke up and went to Hong Kong Island to go up to Victoria Peak (by way of tram which is on such a steep incline that you feel like you are getting an ab workout on the way). There were some great views up there:

Ride on the way up

We found some interesting signs in the gift shop:
And this one...

The HK skyline from above

Rich people have apartments up here

Kerry and I

Kind of overcast because of smog...


Tram home, can you spot me?

Charles with some interesting propaganda about American secret agents... I think he approves!

I was excited to eat a sandwich

View from the star ferry

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in various street markets. It seems like the shopping culture may be to Hong Kong as the obsession with food is to Singapore.

As mentioned before, we had another close call with the airplane home---but no one on our way through the airport (we were told a half an hour walk from where we checked in, actually took about a half an hour to run/borderline sprint though) told us it was delayed so we made it to the gate with PLENTY of time to spare.

About to get off the shuttle and run to the terminal...arriving within five minutes of when the plane was scheduled to take off.

Victory!

As far as homework goes this week, I only had a group presentation on Monday and a couple of homework assignments due tomorrow and next week, so I've been focusing on non school related things and relaxing a little bit. I finally moved my flight home back, so currently I'm going to travel home on the 14th of May (instead of the 9th) -- this hopefully will allow me to travel through Cambodia -- put to the top of my list, especially after the recommendation from Aunt Kate and a couple of her friends who have been there.

No trips planned until Vietnam now (middle/end of April), but I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Hope everyone is enjoying some spring weather and no one is too upset that UConn men's basketball has been such a disappointment this season, at least the women are unbelievable.

Emily