Hong Kong - Day 4

I really need to pick up the pace. At this rate, I'll be back home before finishing blogging about this damn trip.

Macau Island. This is an island that takes an hour to get to by ferry from Hong Kong. The Portuguese had control of it for quite awhile, so there was a lot of European flavor to the island. It is also a big tourist spot for gamblers so there are many casinos there. (Casino + Asian = big money) In fact, they just opened The Venetian the day we arrived. There is also The Wynn casino. This island took the entire day to visit as it had many world heritage sites. Pictures below of what we saw:

Hong Kong - Day 3

It was off to Hong Kong island. We went to some parts of town that didn't have many tourists. In fact, we saw 0. There were many old stores and small markets. At the markets, there were many animal parts we normally don't think of eating....even if you're starving and haven't eaten for 5 days.

After that, we went to "The Peak" which is a big tourist spot on top of a mountain where you can see all of Hong Kong and Kowloon (it is the first picture on day 1). Then we took a bus to the central point of Hong Kong where the longest walkway/escalator in the world is. It's about 1/2 mile long. The worse thing about it is that it is only one way. We rode that for awhile and got off and on at different points, wandering around and seeing old shops and booths set up for people. Around one part of the escalator were many foreign restaurants (Indian, Nepalese, etc) We decide to eat at a Thai restaurant. It was excellent food! And that was it.

Hong Kong - Day 2

Day 2 was a Kowloon island adventure day. We started the day at the flower market. The flower market is a couple of long streets with wall to wall flower shops. They have tons of different flowers, from orchids to roses to everything. All for really cheap. After that, we went to the goldfish market which is a street with tons of fish stores on both sides. However, it doesn't get busy until 5 p.m. Next was lunch. China + Lunch = dim sum. Unless you can't speak Chinese and can't find any. So it ended up being a 2 person set lunch for about $10.

Next was the ladies market. This is a few streets full of booths with people selling "the Chinese version" of clothes, handbags, ipod cases, etc. You definitely don't pay what they ask. Maybe you'll pay around 1/2 or less of their asking price after 'negotionations'. That means awesome $3 t-shirts. After the market, we went to a temple on the street around the area. The interesting thing about their temples is that they burn many long spiral incense that are supposed to last for 10 days. The temple smelt like a teenager's bedroom.

After that it was to the jade market. This was a covered street block with a bunch of vendors all selling the same thing. You couldn't walk by a booth without having a vendor say something to get your attentions and point to some jade that looked exactly the same as what the last vendor pointed to.

Soon, you catch on to every Hong Kong vendor. The conversation goes something like this:



Vendor: (Points to something randomly) "Oh, you like?"
Me: "Not really."
Vendor: "$70"
Me: "No thanks."
Vendor: "OK. $65"
Me: "No, I'm not interested"
Vendor: "OK, for you. $60"
Me: "Really, I'm ok"
Vendor: "Ok, what's your price"
Me: (Just to see what they say) "$20"
Vendor: (pretend surprised look) "Ai ya!" (shake head no and turns away)
Me: "Ok, bye"
Vendor: "$45"
Me: "No thank you. Bye"
(Depending on the vendor, might mubble some rude Chinese)

Shortly after the jade market, we headed to the port area of the island. They have their own Hong Kong Hollywood there with stars of famous people from Hong Kong. We saw the stars for Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and many other people I had never heard of. Then around 8:00 every night is a "can't miss" music and light show from the big buildings. Every Saturday night, they also do a firework show after the light show to celebrate the 10th anniversary that they went from English black tea to Chinese oolong tea. So we got good seats, set up the tripod, and waiting for the show. At about 8:10 I was looking around wondering when it was supposed to start. I had just missed the "can't miss" show. It was basically some random beams of light off of buildings shining into the sky. Then some fireworks from a boat started to shoot about 30 feet high into the air.

Oh, the most important part of the day. We went to an internet cafe and booked a room in a real hotel.

Hong Kong - Day 1

We left our town at 5:30 a.m. to catch the 6:30 bus North of the big city (Tokushima City). We caught an 11:00 a.m. flight and by 2:00 p.m. we were in Hong Kong. By the way, if you ever have the choice between American and Asian airlines, take the Asian one. Here's the meal we got for the 4 hour flight (plus all the free booze you can drink). It sure beats Delta's meal (your choice of sun chips, cheese & crackers, or a granola bar).


We arrived in Hong Kong and headed to Mr. Big Buddha, located on Lantau Island, the same island as the airport. By adding enough conditions, they were able to claim some fame to this Statue. It is the "biggest outdoor, copper, sitting" Buddha in the world. We took a rugged 50 minute bus ride through the mountains to get there. I heard last year they opened a cable car to get to the Buddha from the bottom of the mountain, but shortly after it opened, a car fell off while in operation (Made in China).

After Mr. Buddha, we took a 1/2 mile walk on the wisdom path to a place with big long stones setup in the shape of an infinity symbol.

Then we took a 1/2 hour subway ride to our hostel in Kowloon. The hostel owner was a JACKASS. He was damn hustler. Those Chinese... To put a long story short, we ended up getting a crap room with the promise of an upgrade the next day. (We only paid $16/person/night)

We went to dinner after that and ate at a shack, but it was really busy so we thought it had to be decent. I ordered shark fin soup with pressed fish in it for about US $1.50. For that price, the shark fin was either fake or its owner died of old age. Either way, it was tasty. Then it was off to 7-11 for bottled water to brush our teeth with and off to bed.