Travellers Blog – Hong Kong / Macau Day 1

Travellers Blog – Hong Kong / Macau

Day 1

Hello my name is Steve Levitt you might remember me from such blogs as my first
trip to America and the Conference. Day 1 of travel is, if your lucky, uneventful and
today was pretty much that. If I didn’t travel I think I’d have no idea there was such a
thing as 5am in the morning but that’s about the time I got up this morning to ensure
we were at the airport by 8am. Today’s flight was not going to be as daunting as the
previous 14 hours to Los Angeles but at 9 hours it’s still about 4 hours more than I’m
comfortable with. Also an advantage was leaving at 11am and arriving around 6pm
local time as the difference is only 2 hours unlike travelling to the US with their time
difference meaning you arrive before the time you left on the same day. The
advantage here is that I can’t sleep on planes and I won’t have to so the chances of jet
lag are greatly reduced.

We left Brisbane around 11am and arrived in Hong Kong a little ahead of schedule at
5:45pm. This time we are travelling with the “kids” so it will be a little different to
normal but hopefully they can keep up with us, although keeping Chris from being
distracted by all of the lights and interesting gadgets & trinkets will be difficult. The
flight was pretty uneventful, there were a few bumps but nothing to worry about and
the only thing to complain about was the lady who couldn’t stop laughing. I’m not
sure exactly what she was watching but at one stage it woke me from my nap as it
sounded like a dog was barking or perhaps I was just dreaming about Jessie.

After disembarking we made our way toward the cactus and TV set, well that’s what
the exit symbols looked like anyway and headed off to immigration. We had been
told that most of the people we will encounter speak English but the lady near the
desk simply waved at us and pointed for us to join the line. Next we encountered the
cool guy with the gel and ski slope hair do who simply took our passports, looked at
us once, typed on the computer a couple of times, stamped our passports and then
handed them back, all without saying a word. Then we collected our bags and headed
to customs, you’ve all seen the show Border Security, well this was Border No
Security. We weren’t sure if we needed to declare anything so headed to the goods to
declare line, there was one lady there so we told her we had medication and food. No
no she said HK is not interested in any of that go to the nothing to declare line where
there was also just one man standing watching as passengers streamed through. He
must have an Eagle eye though as he did pull someone aside to check his bags.

From here we were greeted by a lovely HK lady who gave us maps and some advice
about how to get to our hotel and a souvenir magnet too (which Vicky kept!). So we
went off to the train and caught it to Kowloon and then hopped on a free bus to the
hotel, well not to our hotel but one that was a short walk away. It was pretty cool
riding around and we got a pretty good look at things as our stop was the last on the
journey. Once at the hotel we checked in and decided to go for a short walk to get
dinner and then settle down for the night.

Walking down the road to find dinner was going to give us our first impression of
HK. It’s certainly a very humid place, even at 8pm at night it was very balmy

especially walking out form the air-conditioned hotel. There are neon lights
everywhere to distract or attract the tourists; in fact it’s almost a sensory overload as
you walk down the street with everything flashing away. It also rains constantly as
you walk along, not actual rain but water dripping from the hundreds of air
conditioning units high above you on the buildings which I imagine run constantly
given the heat. It will be interesting to see just how hot it will be tomorrow during the
day.

It reminded me a little of New York, not only the smell which was similar to the
subway but the number of people just walking along the streets. It can certainly be
hazardous as you walk along dodging the dripping water, the people and trying to stop
Jen & Chris from being mesmerized by the lights. Another hazard was the hordes of
Indian and or Pakistani men constantly hassling you to make a suit for you or business
shirts, at one point one even offered to make us shorts as we said we didn’t wear suits
and another offered us copy watches, all at good prices of course. Although in our
travel book it warns never to buy from them and most certainly do not go back to their
“shops” or “warehouses”. America has a Starbucks on every corner, HK has a Seven
11 on every corner and a guy trying to sell you a suit or make you into one. I’m not
sure why they only seemed to bother us, perhaps we stood out, I mean you could
actually see them staring at you and salivating across the street while you were
waiting for the walk signal. I’ll have to try and make sure I dress a little less
conspicuous tomorrow and see if that helps.

It’s certainly going to be an interesting experience as there seems to be a lot of shops
and things to see although it can be a little disconcerting at times when you see
something in a window for $3000 dollars ($600 AUD) or a can of coke for $7 ($1.50
AUD, even dinner at McDonalds was 52 dollars ($10 AUD). And the same as we did
in the US the first time, we walked for blocks and blocks to find the Maccas only to
notice one directly across from the hotel on the way back. Oh well off to bed now but
looking forward to exploring HK tomorrow.

Day 2

Well obviously our body clocks were a little off today as we went to bed between
10:30pm & 11:30pm local time and woke up around 5:30am or 7:30am Australian
time. We decided since we could not get back to sleep we would wake the kids a
little earlier than agreed and head up to the restaurant for breakfast. It was a pretty
good mix of Western & Eastern with bacon, eggs, hash-browns, pastries, noodles,
fried fish, dim sum and some other interesting things.

We headed out from the hotel around 9am for a day of sightseeing and suit maker,
copy watch/handbag seller dodging. It was already a hot day with a predicted top
temp of 33 and humidity around 80%, so this all made for a pleasant walk along
Nathan Road down to the harbour. I think it’s hot like this at home and it can be
humid at times but I’m not sure it’s quite like this.

First stop was Kowloon Park, it reminded me a little of Central Park but only in the
fact it was a little patch of green in the middle of a city full of large buildings and a
fair amount of noise. It is the site of a former British military barracks and includes an
awesome pool complex, a hedge maze, which was out of order and an aviary. There

was one particularly amazing bird in the aviary, the rather appropriately named
rhinoceros bird. It was a beautiful black bird with a yellow and red beak but then it
also seemed to have a third beak coming out of its second beak. The park itself was
quite nice although there were quite a number of people who seemed to be breaking
into spontaneous bouts of ti chi right in front of you. All of a sudden as you walked
along someone would just stop in front of you and start doing a pose or striking their
leg out. And then there was the strange backwards lady who would walk forward for
about 10m and then would walk backwards the same 10m over and over and over
again. I’m not sure what she was doing but it was certainly freaky.

After a short break to refresh we headed down to the ferry terminal. It’s quite
spectacular to see all of the buildings across the river and I’m certainly looking
forward to going back at night and seeing it all lit up and the lights show. From here
we decided to head inside for a while and get out of the heat. We did go to the Space
Museum but after seeing a sign saying it was free on Wednesdays we thought we
might leave it until then.

We ventured off into Sogo, a four story shopping centre, but it was a little different to
home as there seemed to be one central store in the middle of the complex and then a
lot of smaller shops around the outside. We’re still getting used to the prices but since
we are getting around 5 to 6 HK for every one of ours something that costs $100 HK
is not really that expensive. From here we went to Ocean Plaza, a huge shopping
complex which makes Chermside look small, this thing just had hallway after hallway
after level of shops. Interestingly each level appeared to contain shops selling the
same types of goods; one level was all clothing, one level sporting goods, one
electronics and the other brand names that hardly anyone can afford. The bottom
level was kids and this is where we found a very large Toys R Us store. The people in
Hong Kong love electronics as some stores you could not even get in to but they also
loves toys, especially Transformers.

We had planned to head back to see a few things around the harbour but after
shopping for a few hours everyone was tired and sore and we decided to head back to
the hotel and come back another day. We opted for the train and it seems very
efficient and popular. I’m not sure exactly how big the trains are that run through the
subways but at a guess I would say the platforms are somewhere between 1km & 2km
long and people are lined up all the way along not to mention each carriage is packed.

Our final adventure for the day was a trip to the 7 Eleven. There are some familiar
things there like Cadbury chocolate, Pepsi, Coke and Oreos. There are also some
things that look familiar but the packaging is all in Chinese, like potato chips and ice
creams and then there were the things we haven’t seen before. Chris being rather
adventurous decided to buy a couple of things based purely on the cutesy little cartoon
character that adorned the packaging. So we had our first taste of Yan Yan the
breadstick / pretzel like “biscuit” that came with dipping chocolate sauce and the
peach flavoured Jolly Shandy that was placed in the soft drinks section but contained
alcohol. Finally was the piece de resistance, a can of orange Fanta that turned to jelly
when you shook the can. I just know by the end of the week he is going to drink a
bottle of the milky white liquid we saw in the food court today called candy sweat or
something like that.

Well that’s it for today; tomorrow I think we are off to see some of the many markets
that HK has to offer.

Day 3

Today we decided to take the MTR instead of walking, this had the advantage of
being a little easier on the feet and also meant we would be in the air conditioned train
rather than walking along the hot streets. As I’ve already mentioned the trains are
very long and very busy but they are certainly an efficient and affordable way to
travel. If you happen to be changing lines, which you have to do fairly often you can
literally walk off one train and onto the connecting one just a minute later if you have
to wait at all.

First stop on the list today was Wong Tai Sin Temple. Wong Tai Sin Temple is a
Taoist temple established in 1921 and is one of the most famous temples in Hong
Kong and apparently the only temple that offers wedding ceremonies in HK. It was a
very nice temple with big red pillars and a beautiful golden roof. There were quite a
number of people there worshipping which seems to involve burning a lot of incense
and then going inside to pray. An added bonus of being there was the peak in the
back ground that viewed from the right angle looked like a giant lions head (Lion’s
Head Rock).

From here we hopped back on the train and headed to Festival Walk, which is another
huge shopping centre and not some sort of walking trail. As a side note Hong Kong is
very conscious about keeping things clean both because of swine flu and also I think
out of pride. There are numerous signs telling you not to litter and about helping
clean up the city and signs everywhere telling you how many times a day everything
is sanitized. In Festival walk they had these little old ladies who walked around with
picnic baskets and every time they found a dirty spot on the floor they would get
down, take out a pair of tongs and a cloth from the basket and scrub until it was gone.

We spent a few hours here looking through a number of shops and then just for a
novelty we decided to venture into a Chinese supermarket just to see what they had.
As we walked in there was a huge display of watermelons that had grown or had been
forced to grow into different shapes. There was a face, a square, a heart and a topiary
tree among others. Then we walked through the bakery which had a large range of
different breads and cakes. We then walked through the section that had all of the
cooked meats, including whole ducks and chickens and ready made meals which all
smelled amazing. After this was the fresh produce section where you could literally
pick a live crab, fish or eel. As we went through the frozen food section I dared Chris
to buy an ice cream that looked like it might be pea or bean flavour but he decided
against it.

Next we got back on the train and headed to the Wishing Tree or as we liked to call it
the fleecing tree, where tourists empty their wallets so they may take part in an
ancient Chinese tradition. It was probably the most hilarious and bizarre adventure
ever. It started off with us accidentally taking the train to Tai Wo Hau instead of to
Tai Wo. From here we were supposed catch a taxi 5 minutes down the road to the

tree. But we wondered why when we flagged down a taxi he refused to take us and
then the second told us it was $150 HK to get there. Not being from around here we
just thought wow taxis are expensive but then later realised after we had been
travelling for about 20mins that we had caught the train to the wrong place.
When we arrived the driver pulled over to let us out and was chased by a little old
lady yelling at him which I think startled him so he drove another 50m down the road.
This didn’t deter the little old lady and she started waving some papers at us and
speaking to us in Chinese even before we were out of the taxi. We really had no idea
what was going on and just accepted the paper, which turned out to be what you wrote
the wish on. Then she motioned to give her money, so we asked how much and she
showed us two $20 bills and then said one and one and one and one pointing to each
of us. Jen handed her $40 for us and she appeared to be happy with this even though
she seemed to be indicating it was $40 each and then motioned for us to go over to the
tree. We were met there by yet another lady who told us what to write on the paper
and gave us some joss sticks to burn, motioning her friend to help out. When I say
she gave us some sticks to burn I mean she sold them to us for $120 HK. They lit the
sticks for us and told us to go over to the tree and wave it around, state your wish and
then say thanks three times before they took it off of us and put them in a pot. The
tradition used to be to throw your wish into the tree and if it stayed in it would come
true but now you simply hang it on some hooks that have been erected around the site
as the trees have become so damaged and frail. We did this and then went to leave
but were beckoned over to say thanks again and then harassed to pay the third lady as
she helped out, we weren’t really sure what was going on so the first lady came over
again and did her one and one speech so we knew we needed to give the other lady
$40 HK. We all walked off down the road toward the train station absolutely
bewildered and a little unsure of what we did. Hopefully our wishes will come true
but I know what those woman wish for every night, stupid tourists like us who will
pay them lots of money for a piece of paper to write on and a few sticks to burn.

For dinner we decided to venture off to the Modern Toilet Restaurant, it was mainly
for the novelty but it had some good reviews on Trip Advisor. To be honest we found
the novelty to be the only thing good about the experience. We made a reservation as
we had heard it was popular and they told us the table could only be reserved for
10mins if we were late. This seemed a little weird as when we arrived there was
barely a person inside but as we left there was a huge line of suckers waiting to get in.
The whole novelty was based on the fact that the tables were basins with glass over
them, the chairs were toilets and the walls and decor of the restaurant looked like a
bathroom. It appeared as though everything we wanted to order was not available and
this was in addition to the numerous meals that had sold out stickers in the menu and
the page that was sticky taped shut. We finally managed to order something from the
menu and the girls received their meals first, in little bath tubs, the fact that they had
preserved eggs on top should have been a warning to us and then the boys received
ours in little toilets, perhaps though we should have received it in an actual toilet. The
problem with the bowls was there was no plug to pull out or chain to flush so that the
meals would end up where they belonged, down the drain. I ordered beef Szechwan
hot pot or alternatively I think you could call it, Szechwan WTF pot. What I received
for dinner was a toilet bowl full of pippies, 2 different types of tofu, bean curd, some
mystery objects and what looked like shredded beef entrails. I ate what I could and
hopefully won’t have to spend the rest of the night in the hotel’s modern toilet.
Chris’s meal was not much better and as he was digging through his toilet he found

what looked like a little poo, thinking it was part of the novelty he put the whole thing
in his mouth but from the look on his face I’d say it was possibly a real poo or
possibly part of the décor that accidentally fell in and was not supposed to be eaten. I
think he exact words were that it tasted like fish guts or camels balls or something like
that.

After dinner we decided to venture off to the ladies market but surprisingly it’s not all
ladies items as they have quite a bit of men’s and children’s clothes as well as
souvenirs. It should hopefully be good practice for Shenzhen as it’s basically a huge
row of market stalls with people trying their best to get you to buy. And after visiting
these markets the middle eastern guys aren’t the only ones offering copy watches and
handbags. They have all of their goods on display but occasionally you would walk
past a stall that had very little in it and the person would whisper hello, copy watch or
copy handbag. We pretty much walked through the market just looking and ignoring
the calls of hello and missy missy as they tried to get our attention. You can’t really
just browse either as if you pick something up they will run over telling you the price
and trying to get you to try it out, they will haggle with you, but you must really look
disinterested to make sure you get the best price. Then if you buy they try and get
you to keep buying, buy a handbag and they try to get you to buy the matching purse
and so on. We did fairly well getting a handbag from $300HK down to $160HK and
a tea set from $360HK to $260HK. If you wait long enough and keep umming and
erring they start dropping the price and walking away can be the best thing you do,
although one lady faked a big crying scene because we did not look in her stall but we
were not interested so we just kept on walking.

Tomorrow we are planning some sight seeing and then maybe some more of the night
markets.

Day 4

Today we travelled from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, there is a ridiculous number
of ways you can get around in this place, train, bus, ferry, even little double decker
trams. We started off on the train and then transferred to tram to travel down to
Causeway Bay. The trams are an interesting mode of transport, a little hot as they are
open air but from the top you get a great view of everything around you and they are
only $2HK or something like 30 cents Australian.

It was another typical stinking hot day here in Bombay, whoops HK and we had to
do a bit of walking around in the sun today, I’m surprised I don’t have crotch rot from
being so sweaty and wet all day. We thought about stopping somewhere with air-
conditioning for a break between about 12 noon and 2pm, possibly the hottest part of
the day with the exception of 8pm and 11pm. No that’s not a typo I kid you not I
believe it actually starts to get hotter here again after 8pm. It’s not so much the
temperature but the humidity, which you can actually see. However we were in the
business district and apparently in HK business people don’t eat or they eat in very
expensive restaurants as we could not find anywhere to sit and have a cold drink and
maybe some cheap eats with the exception of a sole McDonalds which had no seats
available. So after a heat induced tanty from Jen we grabbed a bottle of water from a
street vendor and headed of in search of the observation tower in the bank building.

We initially thought it was the main HSBC building but the nice security guard
patrolling the entrance said it was actually at the Bank of China building next door.
We went next door to the Bank of China and asked the lady just inside the door if the
observation deck was in the building, she answered in the affirmative and we
proceeded up the stairs. I actually don’t think she spoke any English and probably
would have said yes to anything. If I had asked “Can I take a dump on the floor?” she
probably would have said “Hello, yes, yes”. I think the guard upstairs and all of the
tellers were shocked to see 4 vanillas in their bank, especially as I think at the time we
were the only people. When we asked the guard upstairs he just looked at us blankly
and we proceeded back out of the building, obviously we were in the wrong place.
We eventually worked out it was a branch and that we needed to go to the Bank of
China Tower a few buildings over. Once there we went up to the 43rd floor and had a
great view of the harbour and some of the surrounding peaks.

An interesting side note, all of the notes say that the note itself is simply a promissory
note and that the bearer will be paid the amount specified on the note if they present it
at the main HSBC building. Does this mean there is actually another set of notes in
HK? I’m thinking perhaps before we go I will present a note at the main building and
see what I get.

Next was Duddle Street, where they have left 4 of the original gas lamps that once lit
the streets of HK and apparently these ones still run on gas today. We then moved on
to the mid level escalators. Basically from what I could tell the part of the city we
were in was ridiculously hilly and who the hell wants to walk up and down a shitload
of hills everyday, so what they have done is built a series of escalators so that lazy
people like us don’t have to. As an added bonus for being lazy and using the
escalators there was a machine where you could swipe your octopus card and get a
discount the next time you ride the train that day, go figure?

We then walked down a little way to Man Mo Temple, we decided not to go in this
time, both in an effort to avoid the smoke that normally surrounds any place of
worship in China and secondly to ensure our money stayed firmly in our wallets.

Walking from the temple back to the MTR to catch the train was a great experience
and really felt like you were in China. Unlike Nathan Road where there are lots of
neon signs and wacky pakis chasing you, here there were just narrow streets and alley
ways, shops selling all sorts of weird stuff that we wouldn’t even consider food and
little restaurants that probably make the most authentic Chinese food you’ll ever have.
Signs are dominated by Chinese characters rather than English and there were hardly
any westerners, it was probably one of my favourite moments so far.

Last stop before home was the Western Markets, again this was a case where I
wondered if they truly get the meaning of the English words they use. I expected
perhaps some western goods but no it’s just a couple of floors of souvenir type stuff
and a whole floor of fabric. A little like the shop I saw at Causeway Bay which was
called something like Central Stationers but sold sporting goods. The fabric was
beautiful with many different silks and brocades and if you knew how to sew you
could have spent a lot of money, of course you could have also done that if you let the
sellers convince you to buy everything they showed you. The one guy we did buy

something off keep saying what about this one and you buy a metre of this or that and
we had to keep saying no just what we picked thanks.

We then hopped on the train with about a million Chinese people and headed for
home, even after being here for a few days and pretty much using the train everyday it
still amazes me how big the train is and how many people get on and off. I think I
need to look into buying shares if I can. If you are on at the first stop there can be
next to no one on the train and then when you leave the next stop it’s wall to wall
people. Tonight was one of those nights and as we were first on the train Jen and
Vicky decided to take a seat while Chris and I stood. Unfortunately Chris and I got
off at our stop but when we looked back the girls were only just getting up and
couldn’t get past the thousands of people blocking the door so had to ride to the next
station and catch the next train back. It certainly wasn’t a good thing but no where
near as panicky as the time I lost Jen in Vegas, after Chris settled down and we wiped
away all of his tears I reassured him the girls would be back soon and we should just
wait in the same spot we got off the train. A couple of minutes later and they were
back and we headed for the hotel.

After a short rest and a freshen up at the hotel we ventured over to the night markets,
these markets seem to attract a lot of westerners and are a mix of people selling knock
off stuff, both good and bad, trinkets and other eastern items that tourists might be
interested in. The vendors here were a lot less aggressive than the ones at the ladies
market so we could have a good look at the goods without being pressured to buy,
although there were still a few vendors trying to sell copy goods. We bought a nice
traditional Chinese tea set, a couple of Chinese music CD’s, as I find the music
relaxing and then the girls decided to buy a couple of copy watches. We tried to make
sure everything on them worked before we bought them and talked the vendor down
to $60HK for both, about $11 AUD or $5.50 per watch. We decided to call it a night
though when we wandered too far and ended up in the sex market and noticed the two
hookers hanging out near a dark alley.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to look at the watches and put the correct
time and date on both. Luckily though they were not that expensive as when we tried
to change the time on Jens the mode button would not work and then every button
flew off the watch after I pressed them a few times. Not being one to be wasteful I
decided to try and fix it, it took me a while but using a bobby pin and my pocket knife
I got it all working and put the buttons back on. It may only last one wear before it
self destructs or all the buttons fall off again or something else goes wrong with it, but
at least Jen will get to wear it once rather than have to throw it away as we initially
considered doing, but I don’t think we will be buying anymore copy watches from the
markets.

Funnily enough the first time we were at the markets a little Buddhist monk
approached us with a bowl in both hands saying thank you, thank you obviously
asking for donations, Chris dropped a coin in his bowl and off he went. Tonight when
we were at the night markets another monk approached us and Chris offered a much
smaller denomination coin, possibly a 5c and he shook his head and would not take it.
I’m not an expert on monks or charity but I thought you would take everything you
are offered.

Tomorrow sees us heading up to the Peak to see what it has to offer so until then good
night.

Day 5

Today we decided we would visit the zoo and then travel up to the Peak so we could
ride the train and see the views of the city from up high. We got a later start today
mainly due to the fact we needed to remove some of Chris’s gigantic eyebrow and ear
hairs, we get stared at enough as it is and we didn’t want to attract any more attention.

Vicky is generally not the sort of person who is known for making decisions but today
she decided to take charge. Having seen Duddle Street yesterday and the large steps
you have to ascend she decided that it would be better to go up Zetland Street as it
looked a shorter and more direct route, thus ending her making any more decision for
the group. Zetland Street was in fact a small narrow alley that was probably on about
a 40 degree angle with only a few steps and no rail to help pull you up if you needed
it. After this we connected to Glenealy Road another ridiculously steep street which
in fact needed steps cut into it so that you could even walk up it, followed by Albany
Road, a winding uphill road that made the others look flat. After loosing 6 litres of
sweat on another hot and humid day and stopping a couple of times to stretch some
cramp out, we made it to the top and the zoo. On the way home from the peak we
went the way we were going to go which was a number of escalators and undercover
walkways, thus why Vicky will be making no more decisions on the routes we will be
taking.

The zoo was only small and didn’t have a lot of animals, there was a huge python, the
sort that swallows cows whole, some turtles, a crocodile and a few types of lemurs
and a couple of different types of monkeys and orangatang. I think it was either too
hot for them to be too active as most just sat and mind there own business while
others seemed to know when you were going to take pictures or video as they were
swinging from side to side but would stop when you lifted your camera.

Next stop was the peak. We took the tram up to the top, it’s quite an experience as
the track in spots looks like it is at a 45 degree angle or perhaps even steeper, although
you get a good view of the city on the way up. Once at the top we looked around the
shops for a while and then went out on the observation deck. I’m not sure if it was
smog or heat haze but while the view was fairly good to the naked eye the camera had
trouble picking up the buildings on the other side of the harbour. I tell you what
though the economy of HK must rely heavily on the tourists spending money and they
know exactly how to get you to spend it with markets and shops everywhere,
including at the Peak. Given the exchange rate it’s hard not to buy, especially in most
of the markets you can barter the price down. Although some people are strange, I
heard one man at the markets who wanted to buy a doll which was $40HK dollars or
about $6.50 AUD and then man offered to sell to him for $20HK and then $15HK
when he walked away, a mere $2.50 AUD and he said no. Another wanted to catch a
taxi and was quoted $50HK for where he wanted to go and he said no he would not
pay that much and this guy was American so it’s the equivalent of $6.50 if that.

After looking around the shops for a while we decided to go to an International super
market and see what we could find for a snack before dinner. We found a packet of

Burger King onion ring chips and then decided to buy something a little more Chinese
and found some grilled corn barbeque chips. Both were actually quite tasty with the
latter being a little like Twisties or Fonzies. I’m not sure if they didn’t agree with
Chris or they just helped with his “problem” but a little while after we ate he needed
to use the bathroom, he hadn’t been in a few days and was quite proud that he
managed to do number 2, although he had mixed feelings, good because he was a few
kilos lighter but also a little ill, perhaps it was the smell he was telling us about.
Lucky for him though we were at the Galleria as the peak lookout has Eastern squat
toilets and if the urge hit then he might have passed out and floated off with his…well
you get the idea.

We had a nice dinner at Bubba Gump and then went over to the Galleria again as they
had a free lookout, although with a slightly less spectacular view and we looked out
over the city and the buildings that were all lit up. At 8pm they have what they call
the symphony of lights, where all of the buildings lights flash on and off and change
colour and huge spotlights light up the sky and surrounding buildings. It was
enjoyable to see but I think it will be better when we are at the harbour later in the
week and can see it from a little closer.

We are off to Shenzhen tomorrow which will be an experience in itself, we are only
really going to shop but I believe the stall holders at the market speak less English and
are more aggressive in trying to sell you their wares, so hopefully the little bit of
practise we had the other night will come in handy.

Day 6

Arrragh!! Stupid high winds, but more about that later.

Today we decided to head off to Shenzhen to do a bit of shopping and as per usual,
we setoff on the train. It was a bit of rigmarole to get in and out of the country,
considering you’re not really leaving the country at all. I mean HK is an island as far
as I know but it is still part of China but we had to fill out a health declaration form,
followed by a departing HK form followed by an arrival card for China. On the way
back through we had to fill out another health form and an arrival to HK card despite
the fact we had only been in “China” for a few hours. It was certainly a lot more hard
core than HK arrivals though with guards everywhere and outside the window I could
see what looked like a small creek but was probably a man made moat given the
amount of razor wire on the fence stopping people from crossing into the country.

We walked out of the train station and went up an escalator that led to a shopping
mall but this is no normal shopping mall it’s the Copy shopping mall. This particular
mall contain shop after shop, 1500 in all, making your dream come true, want a
Rolex, an Omega, or Tag watch you can have it, want a Guess, Louis Vuitton or Prada
bag these too can be yours. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if you asked for a Rolls
Royce and they said sure what colour and model do you like. The minute you walk in
there are Chinese woman touching and grabbing you saying Missy, Missy or Mister
you want bag, watch, shoe, DVD, MP3, mobile phone, Ipod, the list is just endless.
In fact as we were passing one shop Chris was grabbed by one girl on the left arm and
another on the right and before he knew it he had a watch on each arm. I’m pretty

sure in the Chinese culture if two ladies strap a watch to each arm you have two marry
their ugly sister so I’d hate to think what might have happened if Vicky hadn’t saved
him.

The place was a little overwhelming as everyone was trying to get you into their store
and all were either telling you what they had to offer you or asking what you wanted.
And while I’m used to woman fawning all over me and touching me and trying to
grab me, Chris on the other hand is not. And in this place there was at least five
floors and 1500 or so stores and it was getting hard to ignore them given some would
follow you down the alley. From the minute we got there though we were approached
by a Chinese man who seemed to speak pretty good English, he gave Chris his
business card and from that point no matter what we did we were never going to lose
him so after two floors we gave up trying and headed to his shop.

He seemed really nice and asked us what we were interested in; the boys were most
interested in watches and the girls’ handbags. The shop its self was full of handbags
and had a few watches purely for display as they were basically props. What they
really wanted you to do was look at their catalogues. They had a couple of Omega
watches they showed us and a few bags to show the girls but if you looked at the
catalogues and told William what you wanted he or one of the girls that worked for
him would get on the phone and a short time later a little satchel or bag would turn up
with exactly what you just pointed out. At one point though we were sitting looking
through the catalogues and they were ripped out of our hands and some were put in a
suit case while others were thrown in a little carts and hordes of Chinese people ran
through the halls in a panic. We were later told that it was the police coming and that
if they found either the goods or the catalogues they would have it all confiscated and
their shop would be closed down for 6 months and the staff jailed for 2 years. It’s sort
of funny really though because the whole place is full of police and probably 95% of
the shops sell these goods so obviously the police are not really that interested. The
whole time we were there William kept asking what else we wanted, DVD’s, games,
shoes, jewellery, we just had to keep saying no.

After we finished here we went up to the top level and looked though the fabrics.
They have some really nice stuff and it’s much the same up here though as after you
buy fabric they try and sell you all the other stuff too or as most of them are also
tailors when you buy the fabric they want to make it into something for you. We only
spent a few hours here as we didn’t want to be strolling around getting felt up all day,
a few hours is enough. On the way out though we went to a sports store and bought a
couple of jerseys. It’s funny really because you barter with the person and they act
like you are reaming them and you feel good because you think you did ream them
and got a good price but in reality they are probably getting the better deal. I read
somewhere that at the markets the price of the goods are usually about a half to a third
of the price you are quoted so if they say $400HK and you say $300HK and they
agree they are probably still well ahead of what it cost them. And if you walk away
and they call you back then you know it’s still a good deal for them even though they
tell you it’s too low. Of course if they don’t call you back then your offer was too low
but there are plenty of markets and plenty selling the same stuff.

When we were in the USA, Jen and I were sick of things being cancelled due to high
winds or bad weather from memory it caused us to miss a few things. Well tonight

high winds struck again as we went down to the harbour to view the symphony of
lights but it was abandoned due to high winds. Unbeknown to us there was this weird
little symbol on all of the TV channels we were watching. After we found out the
lights were cancelled we saw the little symbol outside a hotel with an English
explanation, that it was a grade 3 tropical wind warning a couple away from being a
typhoon.

We decided that since we were there we would look along Hollywood Walk, it’s a bit
like the stars in Hollywood LA but with all the famous Chinese people.
Unfortunately I didn’t recognise Whu Yu Pee, Li Tit or the majority of names there,
with the exception of course of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, John Woo and Chow Yun
Fat. Despite the fact that it was actually cool as opposed to the oppressive heat you
usually get through out the day, after being pummelled by the winds for a few hours
we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a night.

Day 7

After so many hot and sunny days we were greeted with some rainy overcast weather
today, it was actually quite nice for a change. We had planned to head off to Ocean
Park which to me conjures up vision of some huge water park, but as we know in HK
what it sounds like in English may not be what it is and I think it’s more of a theme
park but it’s near the ocean. We made it to the train station and then I suggested that a
theme park would not be enjoyable if it is raining and we decided to spend a day
shopping at the mystical Citygate. It’s not mystical for any other reason than the girls
have been talking about it all week because it’s a discount shopping centre like DFO.

Chris had been eyeing off either a certain pair of Nikes or Adidas but found out that
he has a great eye for picking shoes that are not in his size and are the last pair. We
visited a sports store the other night and both pairs were the last and not in his size
and then today the two or three pair he picked were also not in his size. The funny
thing is they always try and offer you an alternative but it’s never anything like what
you picked first. I mean if you said you wanted the white cotton t-shirt and it was not
in your size they’d offer you the green, silk one as the alternative and then seem really
offended when you say no thank I really wanted what I picked first.

I don’t usually mention food too much because who really wants to read that you ate
this and you ate that but I’m making a few exceptions this time as the food is so
different. We decided to have pizza for lunch as we wanted something a little more
simple, we did look at the food court but weren’t really interested in the many ways
you could serve oyster pig intestines. We figured you would just get pizza but they
had a huge list of mocktails, salads and other starters, pasta, pizza (you could even
make your own), ribs and the list goes on. Although seafood and corn are some of
there favourite things we found some really nice ones and they were like nothing we
had ever had.

On a side note don’t think about robbing an armoured car in China, we saw one being
unloaded while we were having lunch and they have like six guards. They had a
driver, a spotter, he was the guy that gets out first, I know it’s China but I think he
may have been a ninja because he was all in black and was looking everywhere. Then
there are the 2 swat guys, they had full body armour on and a shotgun each and then

the two guards who carry the money, they also had flat jackets and side arms so it’s
probably not a good idea unless you want to be mowed down in a hail of bullets.

We finished our shopping and then remembered that we saw a sign that said if you
spent a certain amount of money you could show your receipts to the customer service
desk and receive a free shopping bag that zips up into a little heart, the centres mascot.
Chris walked up to the desk with the two receipts to get the bag, but the lady said he
needed the original receipt not the one from the credit card, so he came back and got it
and off he walked again, this time he was told the offer was only if he donated $20HK
to a special fund. Unfortunately he didn’t have his wallet and had to come back yet
again to get the money and the girls made him schlep all the way back again just to
get a little shopping bag. Most of the people are nice but we always imagine them
saying mean stuff about us that we can’t understand and I can only imagine what she
thought of this crazy guy who kept coming up and trying to get the little bag only to
be turned away each time.

It was still raining when we got home and so we decided to have a night in.
The hotel is not great for food and we didn’t really feel like McDonalds so we decided
to go out and find some local fare, well the girls sent Miss Daisy and I out anyway.
It’s not really as easy as home because every place doesn’t just have dine in or take-
away written on the outside of it. We started off heading down the road in the hope
we might finds somewhere that was obviously a take away place. We found one that
looked like it was definitely take-away but it didn’t look like anything westerners
would eat, Chris is not included in this group as he will pretty much eat anything, with
the exception of the little squid they barbeque on a stick. We kept walking for a while
and passed a few places that looked like they would only be eat in and a number that
only had the menu in Chinese. We also passed some lady in a little alleyway doing
terrible Chinese karaoke to a live band complete with gong, a marjong club and a pool
hall. We found the scary markets, basically just markets where it didn’t look like we
belonged.

After having no luck we turned around and headed in the other direction, we found
ourselves in the night markets and knowing they had dinner there we thought we’d
find somewhere for sure. Unfortunately again it looked like they only catered for
people to come and sit down there and didn’t really give any indication if they catered
for take-away or not. It may not sound very funny but by now I think we had been
wandering the streets for about 45mins to an hour, we were no closer to finding
anything and were considering either fruit from a stall we had seen near the markets,
packets of chips from the 7 eleven or going back to McDonalds. I did think at one
stage I was on to something as I saw a sign which I misread as Blue Grill Bar but I
think it was actually Blue Girl Bar as it turns out it was a gentlemen’s club, not a
steak house as I first thought. We decided we would walk one more street and then
head for McDonalds if we couldn’t find anything else. Luckily for us just before we
had reached the last corner a guy thrust a menu at us and asked if we were looking for
dinner, we asked if he did take-away and he said yes we could take back home if we
wanted and the rest is history.

We went back to the hotel heroes as we had managed to find some dinner, in a strange
place were we don’t speak the language. We told the girls it was a bit of an effort,

which they probably knew as it took us about an hour and a half to find something but
Chris and I are the only ones who will really know what an adventure it was.

Day 8

Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to be racist but I do know that sometimes people
will say all Asian people look the same and they may well say the same thing about us
but walking towards the MTR in the morning is just getting beyond the joke. I mean
WTF, we have been here for 7 days and every morning we have walked from the
hotel up Nathan Road to the MTR station at Jordon, every morning it’s been all four
of us, Chris and I wear the same hats every day and every morning we say no thanks
we are not interested in suits or business shirts or copy anything. Yet every f*ing
morning these stupid Paki mofos chase us up the street wanting to know if we are
interested, some of them even look at you like it’s the first time they have seen you. I
mean surely they recognise us and realise we are not going to stop because we are not
interested and haven’t been since we got here so I don’t know why they keep trying.

Most days we have been relying on the on the MTR to travel around since we have
been here but today we were heading down to the beach and the fishing districts so we
caught the bus. The bus to Stanley took us via a huge peak and gave us a spectacular
view of the city or some city, I don’t know really, this place is so huge I really have
no idea which island I’m on or which city or part of the city I’m looking at or in. The
bus also doubles as a theme park ride us the journey is quite bumpy and if you are
sitting up the top you do get thrown around a quite a bit.

After arriving in Stanley which is named after Lord Stanley who was the Secretary of
State for the Colonies in 1841 when Britain took rule of Hong Kong, although the
village itself has existed since the 1570’s, we looked through yet another market. I’m
starting to think HK is just one big market as there are so many shops and markets all
over the place and to be honest despite the fact it doesn’t cost that much to buy stuff
here I’m getting a little tired of looking through them. We looked around for a while
and then decide to catch the bus to Repulse Bay, I believe this is the beach. Whilst I
have not travelled extensively I’m sure Australia has the best beaches, we walked
down the big set of steps and on to the beach. You can’t walk anywhere in this place
without encountering a huge set of steps or a massive slope. The beach itself looked
like a mixture of sand and gravel and the swimming area was all roped off, they even
had a lifeguard floating on a little thing that looked like an island in the middle of the
swimming area. I always think of the beach as a fun place to play cricket or kick a
footy and then go for a swim but in HK or at least at this beach fun is not allowed,
there was a huge list of all the things you were not allowed to do on the beach
including ball games and frisbee. No wonder there did not seem to be that many
people there despite the fact that it was a pretty hot day.

We jumped back on the bus but decide to take the longer and more scenic route.
Originally we had planned to stop in Aberdeen but had heard it was not as spectacular
as it once was. Apparently it used to be a big fishing village dominated by fishing
boats, which I think they call san pans and also junks. But the seas are being depleted
by over fishing and it’s now dominated by a big restaurant in the middle of the
harbour which everyone says sucks, well it didn’t get very good reviews anyway. It

doesn’t sound like much of a day but it was actually a pretty full day of sightseeing
and shopping and was really nice to be up so high during the bus ride looking down at
the views of both city and mountains.

We stopped in at the hotel to freshen up a little and then we were heading back to the
night markets. Chris had phoned to confirm our Dolphin tour earlier today and was
told that some information would be sent to the hotel for him. He went to the
reception desk and asked if there were any messages, but the girl behind the desk
seemed a little confused. He then said he had booked a dolphin tour and was waiting
for something to be dropped to the hotel, probably only understanding one or both of
dolphin and tour she sent him to the tour desk. So Chris went to the tour desk and
asked the same question and was told no. Now, much like a lot of the Chinese that
speak English here they sometimes sound very fluent in the language but have trouble
with complex comprehension so I don’t think she really understood either. I told
Chris to try reception one more time and just say are there any messages for Mr
Thorncroft to collect. Again he got a bit of a blank look and was told no, so decided it
was best to call the tour company we he got back to his room. When Jennie and I got
back to our room there was an envelope saying Mr Thorncroft room 1202 on it and
inside a message saying please see reception to collect a message from the tour
company and thus my point that sometimes they don’t comprehend what you are
really saying even though you think it’s simple.

I’m starting to think Vicky is a bit of a shopaholic as she seems to really like the
markets and Chris seems to get a little thrill out of bartering with the vendors.
Although strangely he goes in negotiating quite aggressively and then feels guilty
because I think he feels he is ripping them off, it’s quite a sight to see, although I will
admit given the exchange sometimes you wonder why you bother when you reduce
the price by $20HK which is only like $4 AUD. I think tonight while at the market I
heard the best oxymoron ever, we were asked if we were interested in buying a copy
handbag and when we said no, he said but they are all originals, hmm original copies,
now that’s funny.

I must say though the funniest moment of the night probably belong to us trying to
find dinner again. Chris and I both have no sense of direction and generally pay little
attention to landmarks, we considered having dinner at a place near the markets but
decided since the place we found last night was so nice we would go back there again.
It was probably just like the Keystone Cops, Chris and I said we think it was this way
and found what we thought was the mini 7 eleven we went past last night but the road
looked too busy so we headed in another direction. Eventually we walked in a
complete circle and were back where we started, I do remember seeing a few things
we passed last night but we walked for so long we went past a lot of things. I asked
Chris if he remembered seeing any of the places we walked past and he said yes but a
little while later admitted no, he didn’t. In the end I think we pretty much spent 30
mins just walking in increasingly larger circles and so we just admitted defeat, Chris
and I had absolutely no idea where we got dinner from last night and we just headed
back to the markets. Although thinking about it now it was probably closer to the
hotel than where we were looking. Luckily dinner at the markets turned out to be just
as nice as the night before. After spending quite a bit of time and money at the
markets, we headed back to the hotel for another early night, which is fine by me
because it means I get to watch the footy.

We have to get going early in the morning as we are heading off for a pink dolphin
tour and then probably more markets or shopping.

Day 9

It was a little cooler today at least to start off with and since we were going to be on a
boat for our Dolphin tour I was hoping it would not be as hot and humid as it has
been. We were picked up from a hotel and went by bus to the boat on Lantau Island,
the tour guide was telling us all about the dolphins and it seems a shame that the
government here does not really seem interested in ensuring their survival. There is
plans for an expansion of the airport and more shipping terminals all within the
habitat of the dolphins and considering the over fishing and pollutants that already
flow in there they seem almost destined to die out. They are not sure what exactly
makes the dolphins turn pink as they are born grey but theorised it’s; their habitat,
their diet or perhaps they just blush a lot.

It was actually a beautiful day on the water with a really cool breeze blowing. We
were told by the tour guide that it’s normal to be sailing for an hour or so before
sighting any dolphins and the length of the tour would be determined by this. Lucky
for us we had been out only about 30mins when we spotted the first pod of three
dolphins and they were all pink in colour. A few minutes later we spotted another
couple and as they seemed to be more comfortable with us they got closer to the boat,
at one stage one surfaced so close to the boat it gave us all a fright. They were very
beautiful and played together in the water jumping out quite far at times and I think
we got some really good pictures, well we better have because I think Chris took
about 600. It must have been our lucky day because the tour guide was overjoyed as
we probably saw about 20 or so dolphins which is the most they had seen in over a
year and it was also the quickest that they had spotted any recently.

Once we got back to the mainland we headed back to the hotel and then on to the Jade
markets. We had been planning to go to these for a while but always seemed to run
out of time, for some reason they are the only markets that close early running only
from 10am – 5pm. These like all markets required you to barter with the vendor for
the best price and they seemed almost desperate to sell their goods. The first stall I
stopped at the lady showed me a set of jade dragons but I thought they were ugly and
was not interested, she told me the price, $180HK I think and I said no. They don’t
seem to understand when you say no not what I am looking for and I think just
assume you do not like the price, so she dropped to $140, no I said, ok $100 she
replied, I couldn’t get her to understand and in the end walked away with her saying
$80, $70 ok, ok $60 then. In the end I finally found what I was after and negotiated a
good price for some Foo Dogs, well I think that’s what they are called.

Chris was in his usual form negotiating bargain prices for everything, the way they
keep going to you ok you tell me a price and hand you the calculator you almost feel
like you can’t walk away though. I find it both hilarious and painful to watch Chris
negotiate, $180HK they will say and Chris will go no too much and want to walk
away, then they say offer a price and he’ll go, no I always go too low and don’t want

to rip you off and then he’ll type $60HK. In the end he usually gets a good price but I
think then he feels really bad about it. I also wanted a Dragon and I found one I liked
made of wood but the price he gave was $280HK and I only really wanted to pay like
$100HK. I said no too much and he said ok $250 and as that was still way too much I
said no and he offered a smaller one for $100HK but I didn’t like it. I was trying so
hard to walk away and just try and find another one but he was having none of it and
kept dropping the price, in the end I got the big one for $150HK but I felt really bad
about it because that was like $130 less than what he wanted for it.

I must say I was a little confused tonight, the first time we went to see the Symphony
of Lights they were abandoned because of very high winds. I mean this is a light
show where all of the lights on the buildings flash on and off and big spot lights beam
everywhere, how the hell is that affected by wind? Anyway tonight there was a huge
thunder storm and the rain was just pouring down but since it had almost subsided just
before 8pm we thought we would go and see if the show was on anyway and it was.
So it’s cancelled when it’s windy and proceeds when it’s storming? Despite the little
bit of rain that was falling it was a quite enjoyable show, there are spot lights and
lasers that flash across the sky and the lights on the outside of the buildings go on and
off all in time to the music that was playing. It possibly doesn’t sound that exciting
when you read about it but seeing it was really something.

As a side note we had another train mishap this evening, we were heading down to
see the lights and the train was already waiting at the platform, we wanted to try and
get on so we started to run for the train. Unfortunately Vicky was not fast enough and
being more cautious than the rest of us let go of Chris’s hand and the door closed. I
don’t think the door would actually close on you but Vicky wasn’t taking any chances
and was left behind on the platform. I think Chris was a little more concerned this
time as she was by herself and decided to jump back on the train in the other direction
just in case Vicky didn’t just jump on the next train. He didn’t need to bother as
Vicky turned up as Chris’s train left the station. When he came back Jen and I told
Vicky to stand behind a pole and we would say we hadn’t seen her, when he got back
he was really worried until Vicky spoiled our fun by jumping out from behind the
pole. I think perhaps she could hear the panicked tone of his voice and put him out of
his misery, I don’t think he saw the funny side of it at all though.

Tomorrow morning we have to pack up all of our stuff as we are heading off to
Macau, it’s certainly not a job I’m looking forward to, although I’m sure it will be Jen
doing most of the packing anyway.

Day 10

Today we needed to pack up everything we have bought so far which is quite a bit
and try and fit it all in our suit cases as we are travelling to Macau. I think we got a
little carried away at the markets and when we were at the shops seeing all the little
things you can’t get at home because I’m not sure we are going to fit everything in.
At least when we get to the ferry they will weigh it so we’ll have some idea how
much over we will be, notice I didn’t mention under because there is no way we will
be under.

We went down to the lobby and asked them to hail us a taxi to go to the ferry
terminal, the guy in the taxi put all of our four suitcases in the boot and strapped the
lid to the bumper with an ockie strap. I had visions of our luggage being all over the
streets of HK or his bumper being fired way into the air as it was so tight but we
managed to make it no problems. The night before we had tried to work out how
much it would cost for the luggage but it could not be found on the website any
where, not surprising as it cost us an extra $320HK to take our luggage on the ferry.
We are currently nearly 10 kilos over our limit for the flight home so we are going to
have to do some creative packing to ensure we don’t pay for excess baggage or at
least keep it to a minimum..

Again being another travel day there was not much on the agenda today. As we are
only in Macau for 5 days and it was so much more expensive we only booked one
room, they are big rooms and have two queen beds so we didn’t think space would be
a problem. In fact when booking, it said rooms can accommodate 4 people but it
costs you an extra couple of hundred dollars a night. But just to make sure we didn’t
get caught out Chris and I decided to book in while the girls just wandered through
the hotel, once we were all checked in we would meet up. All went pretty well except
for the fact that we were trying to drag 2 suitcases each through the heavy lobby doors
and of course my suitcase fell over and then I couldn’t get the door open and there
was no one to help which was surprising considering we are staying at the largest
hotel casino in Macau.

We are staying at the Venetian and to say this thing is huge is an understatement, we
arrived at the West lobby, are staying in the South Suites, there is also a Main lobby
and North suites, not to mention the casino floor and canal shops. We actually
walked around the Casino and I think to do a full lap it took us around 2 hours and
then I don’t think we saw everything. It is very similar to the Casinos in Vegas and a
lot of the shops seem to be American as well, although I think it is a lot more
expensive than Vegas and even a little more expensive than HK. One thing that is
certainly the same is how you can just lose time inside a casino, in fact it is so calm
inside the casino while we were having dinner in blissful peace a fully fledged
typhoon was raging outside and we had no idea. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything
like it before, the wind was howling and swirling and the rain was actually doing the
same. While we were watching it from the comfort of our hotel room on the 32nd floor
the rain was firstly blowing from the left, then seconds later from the right, it even
looked as though it was raining straight up at one stage. Tomorrow we had planned to
walk around Macau tower and Chris was going to bungy jump but those plans may be
put on hold if the weather is still like this.

Day 11

Well as we thought it might be today was a rainy, windy day. The typhoon was down
graded today from an 8+ which apparently means we are just on the outer of the
typhoon a 10 being the centre to a 3 which means rain and strong winds. Most of the
services were back to normal by mid morning and I think it was really HK that
copped it, so maybe it was lucky we had moved to Macau yesterday. Also as we
expected Macau tower was shut down and Chris’s bungy jump will have to wait until
tomorrow.

We decided that we didn’t want to be outside today and that looking through the
casinos would be the best thing to do. Every casino wants you to come and gamble so
they all have free shuttle buses from the ferry terminal and some even have them
running between other casinos in the group. Given this we decided we would simply
travel from our hotel to the Sands which is close to the ferry terminal and then simply
go from here to the terminal and catch which every free shuttle we needed to, to see
each casino. On the way there though we got to see a bit of the damage the typhoon
had left behind, there was some flooding but a lot of trees had lost branches and quite
a few had even been ripped out of the ground completely. There were buildings that
had lost awnings and signs had been ripped down and the pools at the hotels were all
closed as they were full of palm fronds and other debris.

The casinos here seem a little more about the gambling than the whole entertainment
experience you get in Vegas. In Vegas they all have something else to attract you, the
Bellagio has the fountains, the MGM the lions and so forth here they don’t really have
that although walking through the casinos they are all very opulent. The Sands had a
huge chandelier that went from ceiling to floor over about 5 storeys, the Wynn had a
little show where the chandelier disappeared behind a false ceiling and a dragon or a
tree of wisdom comes out of the floor. Over at the MGM there was a huge atrium
which was full of flowers, trees and little pandas everywhere. All have the Asian
influence though of dragons, coy and anything else that is associated with either
wealth or good luck. It was all very interesting to see but as I said there was no real
gimmick to keep you there and despite the exchange rate even the shops are far too
expensive to look at.

We finally managed to get some tourist information while we were at the ferry
terminal, it’s very hard to get hold of and even the visitors office where we got it from
was hidden away in the corner. I did have some guy approach me with a map but I
think he was trying to sell me a tour of some sort, I’m not really sure as his English
was so bad I actually thought he was just grunting at me or he was constipated and
wanted to know what Chris ate to help him go. I’m certainly not going on a tour with
a guy who can’t speak English, who knows where we might end up and I also wasn’t
taking up the offer of a pedi-cab ride either. That guy must be a few sandwiches short
of a picnic I mean hello there is still a number 3 warning in effect meaning it’s raining
and winds can be over 100km and hour. Actually talking about the rain, I mentioned
last night that it seemed to be going in all directions and when we were out in it today
it was really weird. It was almost like it was raining in one spot and not in others,
then it would be really light but all of a sudden you get a heap of rain dropped on you,
it was almost like someone was up in the sky with a bucket and all of a sudden would
try and throw it all on you. At one stage Chris and I were out in it trying to get some
good pictures and the rain was light but pelting us in the head so hard it was actually
hurting and the wind was so strong it was like trying to walk in a wind tunnel, no
wonder there was so much damage last night.

I decided that since we were in Macau I should at least do a little gambling, normally
I’d gamble $20 or $50 bucks but here you put a couple of hundred in at a time.
Although that is still only really $20 to $50. I’ve been trying to pick pokie macines
that have an Asian influence with either coy fish or dragons on them but I’m guessing
perhaps those things are only lucky for Asian people as I haven’t won anything yet.
I’m not sure if I’m going to keep trying as I’m starting to think the machines are racist

or something, or perhaps just designed to take all your money, hmm maybe casinos
could be renamed Wishing Trees.

Day 12

We only really had half a day to explore today as we are going to Macau tower this
afternoon so that Chris can do a bungy jump and we can all walk around the outside
of the tower. We headed off to McDonalds to get a quick breakfast before heading
out, it’s pretty much the same as our McDonalds with a few variations including the
sausage in the Mc Muffin which was a bit spicier and possibly chicken rather than the
beef ones at home.

We walked across the road where they have the Hard Rock, Crown and City of
Dreams Casinos and hotels. The Hard Rock was very hip with all of the staff in the
lobby wearing casual clothes and with funky hair styles, as with most Hard Rock
there was also lots of memorabilia in the lobby and on the casino floor. The City of
Dreams seems to be built around the Chinese ledged of the Dragons and the Pearl of
Wisdom. We watched a little show based around it and as the legend goes the Jade
Emperor has the Pearl of Wisdom and anyone who touches it becomes wise and
powerful, the four Dragons who control the elements all want the pearl, the only
problem is that no one knows where it is because the Jade Emperor protects it and he
can take on any form, thus no one knows where his or what he looks like. However
scientist finally found a hidden city under the water and discovered the Pearl of
Wisdom and then built the casino on top of it. It was a cool little show with lots of
lights, lasers and video being projected on the walls.

After all of this and a few trips on the free buses we were at Macau Tower. I believe
it is the 10th tallest building or structure in the world at 233 meters above the ground,
or at least that is the height you bungy and walk around at, it’s probably a little taller
as it has a big spire on top. It was a little unorganised as you needed to go to the 58th
floor for the indoor observation deck, and then the 61st floor for the outdoor
observation deck and the “Thrill Rides”. The only problem is that you must line up to
get to the 58th floor and then get out of the elevator and line up again to go to the 61st.
Anyway we eventually got up to the 61st floor for our walk around the tower, first you
must fill out an indemnity form and then they make you wear a bright orange t-shirt. I
think the t-shirt serves a couple of purposes, 1 it means everyone inside can see you
walking around, 2 everyone within 15km of the tower can see you walking around
and 3 if you fall off they can easily spot where to send the cleaners to mop you up.
Once we were changed and strapped into our harnesses we were ready to go, apart
from the thrill of walking around outside 233m above the ground there was the added
entertainment of watching Vicky who is terrified of heights cling to whatever she
could for dear life. One of the attendants could obviously see this and he snuck up on
here and frightened her and I think she jumped about an extra 10m off the ground.

To ensure the girls felt safe Chris went first and I was last so they were in between.
It’s pretty hard to explain the feeling but it was really cool to be so high and the view
was fantastic. There was one clip on your back and another on the front that worked
much like a seat belt so that you could pull it quickly to stop it and then you could
learn over the edge. The guide took photos of us as we went around doing different
daring things, like sit over the edge, lean back over the side without holding on and so
forth, although the girls declined the option to do most of these. The best one was
where we got to take a run up and then swing around the building. It’s definitely
something I would recommend.

After this Chris did his bungy jump, I guess for me there is not much to write about
here because I did not experience it but Chris did enjoy it very much. I think he said
it was over very quickly and it was an awesome feeling of weightlessness until he hit
the bottom and it felt like his face was trying drag the rest of his body back to the top
of the tower and then a little bit of wee comes out. One thing I do know though is that
when you bungy jump you scream like a little girl, or maybe that’s just Chris. Chris
has a video which he says disputes all of this but we think it must have been highly
edited to make it less embarrassing.

We headed back to Fisherman’s Wharf or the freakiest place on earth as it was raining
too hard to explore the first time we were there. It has a floating casino and then next
to this is a big volcano which has a show of some sort inside of it and then what looks
like some ancient ruins and an old Roman Colosseum. As you walk up the steps of
the ruins there are two big snakes guarding the entrance and then it’s just down hill
from here. When you walk into the ruins it’s like a scene from Alice in Wonderland
on ice the drug, not frozen water, and I think she was already taking mushrooms so
you can imagine what this place looked like. There were crappy little rides like a
merry go round, and a magic carpet ride and then a scene that belonged in Black
Hawk Down, yes you read that right a helicopter that had crash landed and two US
soldiers with M-16’s, and a shady looking guy in fatigues. It was all very weird so we
decided we had seen enough and went for ice cream and then got the hell out of there.

That was pretty much the day although we did do a bit of gambling tonight and won a
little bit of cash on the electronic sic-bo table. I think I have mentioned before how
they have lots of lucky symbols around the casino. I went to the check in desk today
to change my room key as it was not working correctly and the lady actually asked me
if it was ok that it had been changed from a yellow key to a red one and if I was not
happy she could give me a yellow one. I think it was because a new colour may have
changed my luck.

Day 13

This morning we headed out to some of the ruins from when the Jesuits settled in
Macau. First stop was Largo Do Senado or Senado Square, it is the old city’s main
square and is paved with mosaic cobble stones and surrounded by a lot of Portuguese
architecture some dating as far back as the 1600’s. The square itself was lined with
paper lanterns in the shape of different fruits, I’m not sure if it always looks like this
or was being decorated for some upcoming celebrations. We then went to the Holy
House of Mary, originally built in the late 1500’s as a mission, it has a wonderful
façade and is now used as a museum. Next was St Dominic’s Church also built
around the same time and it was actually here that the very first Portuguese
newspapers were printed on Chinese soil around 1822.

We then came upon the ruins of St Paul’s, I’m sure it was a beautiful big church when
it was first built in the early 1600’s but it was almost all destroyed by fire in 1825. I
also heard that around the time of the fire the priest was ordered back to Rome and
perhaps this is why it was never rebuilt. It has a huge staircase leading up to it and
looked like it would have been about 3 storeys high, to the left of it was one of the
original walls that was built around the city much like the Berlin Wall. A short walk
to the right was Mount Fortress; this structure was built in the early 1600’s and was

the principal military defence point. The girls decided that the old stone staircase was
too much to walk up so Chris and I went to the top instead, it pretty much looked like
your typical fort with lots of cannons and the position on top of the hill certainly
would have been a good vantage point to see any enemies coming.

After heading down from the fort we stopped for a local delicacy, a Portuguese egg
tart, I guess it’s a little like a quiche but much sweeter as it has what appeared to be
toffee on top. Then we headed off to A-Ma Temple apparently this temple already
existed before Macau was established and obviously so was the rock formation that it
was built on. I’m not sure when it was built but they either decided that the rocky
mountain it is built into was going to be solid foundation or they just couldn’t be
bothered building it somewhere else but it certainly makes it look spectacular being
built into the mountain.

We had seen just about all of the sites we wanted to see except for the Church of our
Lady of Penna. We went back to where the taxi dropped us off near the temple but
there did not seem to be any taxi’s coming or any in the distance so we decided to
walk. It was probably one of our of my worst decisions as we did not see any more
taxis at all and I didn’t realise that the church was at the top of a mountain which there
was no way we could walk up. In the end we just kept walking and walking and
walking, the sun was beating down and it was ridiculously hot but with no other way
of getting back to a taxi or shuttle bus we just had to keep on going. It was a little
weird but I guess all of the taxis are either at the casinos where they are guaranteed a
pick up or near the ruins where there are heaps of tourists. I guess one good thing
about walking was that we were walking around this huge lake and got to see a lot of
beautiful carp and coy fish.

We were all hot, sweaty and nearly delirious by the time we finally saw the casinos in
the distance, knowing just about all of them offer free shuttle buses we just headed for
the first one we could see. The first one happened to be the Grand Emperor Casino,
which I believe is owned by Jackie Chan. I really like him but was very disappointed
by his casino, he has 88 gold bars in the lobby all under little glass cases and is
estimated to be worth around 20-30 million dollars. Quite frankly though he should
have spent it on his casino instead as it was very unimpressive on the gaming floors
and there was little English spoken by the staff or anywhere inside, it actually looked
more like the local RSL than a grand casino. He doesn’t even provide free buses from
his casino back to the ferry as you had to show your ferry ticket to get on the bus.

We finally got to the point where we were just so tired and sweaty that we gave up
trying to get to a free bus and ended up grabbing a cab back to the Venetian. It was
such a relief to get a cold drink and have a shower and sit in the air-conditioning for a
while.

Tonight we went and saw Zaia, the Circ de Solei show at the casino. I think it was a
love story about a girl that wanted to be an astronaut and see all the wonderful things
in the Universe but that is not allowed in communist China so she fell in love and
became a housewife instead or perhaps dropped some acid and the show was her
dream. Actually I have no idea what any of it was about but it was quite entertaining
with a comedian and lots of amazing acrobatics and trapeze artists, some juggling and
lots of singing and dancing. They even had a guy that was skipping rope and during

one scene it was actually on fire. At the end of the show heart shaped balloons fell
from the sky and I jumped on the shoulders of the guy in front of me and took a
spectacular catch to grab a heart from his clutches, actually it just floated right down
to me and I caught it for Jen.

After this we headed back to the casino but were not as lucky tonight, tomorrow is
another moving day as we are checking out of the hotel and heading to the most
wonderful place on earth, well maybe the second most as Disneyland in the US in
much bigger than the one in HK.

Day 14

Today we checked out of the Venetian and headed back to HK or more accurately HK
Disneyland. After some confusion I managed to explain to the girl at the concierge
desk that I wanted someone to pick my luggage up and take it down to the lobby, not
bring it up to the room. Unlike when we checked in and there was nobody to be seen
to help you in with your luggage, this time a really nice porter named Pan or Peter as I
liked to call him, helped get the luggage all the way out to the bus we needed to catch
to the ferry. He politely asked me how to pronounce my name so that he could
address me properly and then asked where I needed to go even checking the tickets to
ensure he directed us to the right bus. We gave him a $20 as he was so good and he
kindly thanked me and then waved to us as the bus left like he was saying goodbye to
old friends.

Also unlike First “F’ing Rip-off” Ferry we decided to catch the Coati Ferry which is
owned by the casino, this time there was no extra charges for luggage, although we
did have to drag it there ourselves. It was a much smoother ride this time and when
we got to the terminal we had the option of getting a taxi or trying to take the MTR.
We figured that dragging big suitcases on to the MTR would be too much of a hassle
and tried to take a taxi but the first driver put an end to that, we asked if he would take
us to Disneyland but he took a look at all of the luggage and said no. We figured that
since it was such a long way none of them would be interested in taking us and so the
train it was.

It’s the first time on this trip I have felt like we were in the US again, we had the
backpack and the carry on and our two big suitcases and had to drag them half way
around China. At the first station there was no lift so we had to take the big suitcases
down the escalators, then onto the train. Given the fact that everyone likes to jostle
for position on the train we thought it might be a hassle getting them off at the next
station but I just stood close to the door and decided I was ploughing through anyone
that got in the way. Then we changed trains but in the process had to walk about 5km
or something stupid and onto another train, finally getting to Disney where we
changed trains again. It was just such a long way to drag heavy suitcases and with all
the train changes it was quite the adventure but we eventually got to Disneyland.

I kept looking for Goofy to come and help me carry the luggage but he didn’t present
himself. When we finally arrived at the hotel we jumped off the shuttle bus from the
train station and I jokingly yelled Goofy at the top of my lungs hoping that he would
finally show up to take my luggage. I looked up and a porter was running towards me
as fast as he could and came and took care of the luggage, I have seen some

interesting names for some of the people here, we have been served by Album,
Lovely, Apple, Wing, Ha Ha, Him and Pan but I thought Goofy was going a bit too
far. I was later informed his name was Vicki but it was nice of him to take it all for us
and deliver it to the room safely.

After checking in we went down to the “store” as they do not have room service and
some stupid amount of money later we had two drinks a packet of chips and a
sandwich. This prompted us to get back on the train and head to the nearest
supermarket for supplies, even factoring in the $20 it cost us to get there and back we
are still way ahead, it’s $15 for a can of coke but at the store we got 8 for less than
$30 and then chips which were also $15 at Disney were 3 packets for that price. I
think we have enough supplies to last our whole stay and if not we will open our own
stall in the car park and under cut the little store.

Despite the fact we are staying at Disney we probably won’t go until out last couple
of days as there are still a few things we want to see. We did catch the fireworks
tonight though as we can see them from our room, they looked really cool and I’m
looking forward to seeing them up close when we visit the park.

Day 15

Today was the last of our sightseeing days, I think we have seen most of the tourist
sites or at least all of the ones we wanted to see. We have culled a few things but the
last we wanted to see was the giant Budda at Ngong Ping, I believe it is the worlds
largest bronze outdoor Budda although it was only built about 20 years ago despite
the fact the Po Lin Monks have been there since 1905. We wanted to catch the cable
car through the mountains but it was closed for maintenance so we had to take the
bus. Signs such as steep incline, reduce speed and sharp corner are greeted as
challenges by Chinese bus drivers rather than warnings thus making your journey up
and down steep mountain roads with a massive drop off the side a thrill ride or
rollercoaster type adventure.

You could see the huge statue on top of the mountain from quite a distance away and
when we actually arrived it was just as spectacular. There are 320 steps up to the
statue and a museum inside with some interesting facts and artefacts relating to Budda
inside, like scripture and even paintings that were drawn in blood. I’m not sure if it
was the artists blood or some other poor sap but they were certainly detailed and
considering when they dated from still in very good shape.

In keeping with the teachings of Budda there is no alcohol and all of the restaurants
around the statue are vegetarian, doesn’t Budda know you can’t win friends with
salad, we bought the vegetarian meal as it allowed you access to the statue that you
would not have received otherwise. Vegetables are ok but they are best served with a
big juicy steaming hot piece of meat, otherwise they just taste like vegetables. There
was some sort of bean curd meal (vomit) and a couple of mushroom dishes which
were nice, some spring rolls with some roots or other crap inside and well who cares
what else really it all tasted the same and none of it was meat. As you can tell I’m not
a vegetarian and don’t plan on becoming one anytime soon either. It was yet again a
hot stinky day and we decided after looking through some of the gift shops that we
would head for the comfort of our air-conditioned hotel.

When we got back we though the pool might be a nice option to cool down, the girls
didn’t bring swimmers and neither did I but I did have a pair of shorts and thought
they would do nicely. While the girls sat on a banana lounge Chris and I headed into
the pool, it had obviously been heated by the unforgiving sun all day and felt like it
was about 50 degrees, certainly not refreshing. One good thing though was that there
were at least a few other Westerners in the pool and also some fat Asian dudes so we
weren’t being stared at like usual.

I’m not exactly sure what we are up to tomorrow but the three days after that are
going to be spent at theme parks, I can’t really think of a better way to spend our last
three days really.

Day 16

This will most likely be the shortest entry ever in the blog, probably to the relief of
most people who read it because I tend to take a long time to say not much at all.

It was a bit of a rest day today, having seen pretty much all of the things we wanted to
see we just decided to go and pick up a few more things from some of the shops on
HK island that we thought we might find elsewhere but couldn’t. Don’t ask me why
we are buying anything more as we are already well over the allowed weight on our
suit cases. Yes we can fit it in but the more weight we add the more likely we will
have to pay for excess baggage and then all of our bargains will not be such bargains
anymore.

We still are yet to visit Ocean Park or Disneyland, two of the theme parks here but
will be hitting those tomorrow so I’m sure we will be buying more souvenirs and
making our bags even heavier, what happened to the 30KG we were allowed coming
home form the US?

I’m looking forward to going to the theme parks but having experienced Asians at
Disney CA and on the MTR I know from experience that lines seem to be something
they have a problem doing. Oh well, I’ll just warm up the elbows and see how it go.

Day 17

Today was the first of our three days visiting theme parks. First on the list was Ocean
Park, we had planned to visit it earlier but it had been raining so we left it until the
end of our trip. It may also be the first time I have been wet at the end of the day by
three different means, I was wet from sweat, I was wet from rides and I was wet from
rain all in the same day.

It’s a huge park and is basically split into two sections divided by a massive mountain,
it’s probably most like SeaWorld back home but I think it has more rides. We chose
to do it on a Monday as we heard it can be pretty busy on the weekends. First of all
we jumped on the cable car and headed to the back of the park, basically because we
thought there would be less people and also because it had more of the rides we
wanted to do. The cable car ride was awesome as we headed way up over the
mountain and the view was great although it sort of made me wish we could have

done this on the way up to the Budda the other day. I even think Vicky enjoyed it as
she is a little more confident with heights after the walk around Macau Tower.

We looked through the Sea Lion enclosure first but it wasn’t very exciting, as I think
it was too hot for them. As we were near the Theatre we decided to hang around and
wait for the dolphin show. It was a little weird as it was both in Chinese and English
but the trainers only spoke in Chinese. It probably wasn’t as good as the SeaWorld
show but I like to watch Dolphins as they are such majestic creatures and the way
they can dance through the water and jump really high is so cool. They asked for
some members of the audience to be part of the show and the guy that they choose
was petrified of the Dolphins, so much so that when it jumped out of the water he ran
and hid behind the water slide. When it was time for him to get a kiss from the Sea
Lion he actually fell in the pool, then we all knew it was just part of the show.

After the show we headed for some bigger thrills at the Dragon. The Dragon is a fast
paced roller coaster with three loops in it and the ride was pretty much all over in
about a minute. I think though that the Dragon may have been short for the way of
the Dragon because we were thrown around so much and your head hit the safety bar
so many times that when we got off we thought we had gone a few rounds with Bruce
Lee. It sort of ruined the fun a little and we all decided that we wouldn’t ride it again
as we got too beat up the first time.

We rode the Ferris Wheel and whilst the view was pretty good the ride itself was
craptacular. Chris went on the Abyss twice, it was a little like the giant drop but has
the added twist of bouncing up and down a few times when it reaches the bottom a bit
like a bungy. I think that is why Chris wanted to go on it because he’s a bit of an
adrenalin junkie now after experiencing his first bungy jump. We grabbed some over
fried chicken and dry chips for lunch, I think they just found my pieces stuck in the
bottom of the fryer and put them in my basket anyway then headed for the Atoll Reef.

The Reef was pretty cool as they had a little tidal pool where you could put your
hands in and let the fish swim up to you or you could touch a star fish or sea
cucumber. After that it was about 4 or 5 levels of a huge tank that contain just about
every fish you could think of, there were sharks, turtles, puffer fish, rays and too
many fish to name. We thought we might have a few problems with lines and so forth
but I have never seen behaviour like the people here, except maybe the French when
we were in the US. Most people will have a little look and move on but some people
just wanted to stand in front of the tanks for ever and then if someone did leave
people would just shove their way in, even if there seemed to be others waiting. At
one stage I though perhaps they had mistaken it for a restaurant where you pick what
you want for dinner and they were all pushing because they wanted the best fish. In
honour of all the people that shoved you or walked into you without apologising or
realising most of the time we decided to rename it the Shovearium.

There was a brief shower of rain while we were in there and we decided to head down
towards the rapids ride and the mine ride. You would have thought that the rain
would make it cooler but I think it warmed it up. Building a theme park on a
mountain is both ingenious and stupid, the views are great and it can also make the
rides a little more thrilling as you are looking over a cliff but walking up and down
huge hills can sometimes take the fun out of the day. As we were heading down the

huge escalators it absolutely poured and the mine ride was closed so we headed for
the rapids ride. It was pretty good but there was no real story to it you just went up
and then came down again and when you came down you came down with a splash, it
was so huge we were all saturated. We wanted to ride it again (especially Jen) but
being soaked to the bone and hot equals chaffing and thus we decided against it.

Next was the mine / train ride where you are supposed to be on a runaway train or
mine cart. It was really cool and certainly helped to dry us all off a little, although the
second time we rode it Jen pulled the safety bar down a little too hard and cut of my
circulation and ability to breath so lucky for me the attendant released the bar again to
check it and didn’t put it so far down the next time.

The afternoon was drawing to a close and we wanted to see the jelly fish and the
panda bears before we left as well as hit the gift shop. We finally found the jelly fish
exhibit and it was awesome, there were so many different kinds of Jelly fish all in
little tanks where the lights changed colours and so did the jelly fish. The highlight
though may have been a small bit of revenge, after having people shove us
everywhere in the aquarium and in here, Chris managed to elbow some ahole in the
chest when he tried to push past. However the funniest thing was as we were leaving,
the rooms were dark and mirrored to give the effect of millions of jelly fish swimming
around and a little Asian guy obviously wanted to get around us, he confidently strode
past us and straight into his own reflection. Instead of heading for the exit he headed
for it’s reflection thus ended up walking into a mirror. We all couldn’t help ourselves
and burst out laughing, although I’m not sure if it was as funny as the guy who tried
to push in at the Tower and was royally told off by the attendant.

We took the train back to the front of the park, a mere 3 minute journey as opposed to
the 10 or 15 minutes the cable car took and headed for the pandas. I think this
probably topped off the day perfectly as they were just so cute, although given the
chance would probably rip all of your limbs off and beat you to death with them.
They weren’t overly active but they did wander around their enclosures eating
bamboo and when we went to the second enclosure one of them was doing a bit of
climbing so it wasn’t like they were just sitting doing nothing. All in all we saw 3
black and white panda and 2 red ones, I was perhaps a little snap happy though as I
nearly used up all of the space on our XD card taking pictures of them. A quick trip
to the gift shop to buy what else but some panda bear toys and the day was over, we
had timed it perfectly and left the park about 5 mins before closing time.

The trip home on the MTR was pretty uneventful but we did see about a million HK
residents heading home from work as the lines were probably 6 wide by 35 people
deep along the whole track. I know I have mentioned before how many people catch
the train and on at least one occasion we had to push our way onto a car that was
already wall to wall people much like that scene in the Simpsons where most of the
town is in Ned Flanders bomb shelter. But I think this is the first time we have had to
catch it during peak hour and much like the running of the bulls if you stop or if you
fell I think you would be trampled to death.

Tomorrow we are off to Disneyland and hopefully being a week day it will be a little
quieter and hopefully people will be less pushy but somehow I doubt it. Jen is

starting to feel a little run down too but hopefully she can hold out at least until we
have had a day a Disney and then it’s only a day until we are off home.

Day 18

Today we went to Disneyland Hong Kong, I’d heard it was smaller than Disney in LA
and it certainly was. It has a few of the same rides and attractions but even those
appear to be a little shorter or different to LA. The entrance was very similar with the
train stop and the Mickey shaped garden out the front where you pose for pictures and
Main Street was almost exactly the same although again we think a little smaller. The
castle was at the end of Main Street and you guessed it, just a little smaller with the
different lands branching off from there.

We started off at Space Mountain, I hate to compare everything to the other
Disneyland but I guess when you have been to two it’s hard not to. Although in this
case I will say that I enjoyed this Space Mountain a lot more than the one in the US
but the people here don’t seem that fussed on it as the line up to get on was quite
small compared to the US where it was insane and the fast passes were gone within
minutes of the park opening. All up I think we ended up riding it about 4 or 5 times.

Next up was the Astro Blasters, this attraction was probably the same as in the US and
again we rode it a few times before setting off for the tea cups. Jen opted out of this
one given that spinning around would probably upset her balance but the rest of us
went on and Chris and I did our best to make it spin as fast as we possible could.

We decided we had to take Chris and Vicky on the It’s a Small World ride and
thankfully it was a lot shorter than the other one we went on. It’s still the same inane
song over and over again but being a little shorter it probably didn’t drive you as
insane and was easier to get out of your head.

A show was next on the list and we choose the Golden Mickey’s, I’m not sure why
they called it that as they didn’t actually give out any awards and it was pretty much a
song and dance show. It was a little weird because all of the speaking, including
Mickey and friends was in Chinese with English subtitles on a big electronic display
but the singing was all in English. He’s a talented fellow that Mickey, I didn’t realise
he could speak so many languages.

We went on the Jungle ride, again smaller and a little less funny as the US one as
although the girl spoke English, she had a strong accent and I’m not sure if she totally
got the jokes she was trying to deliver. From here we enjoyed the Lion King show,
this time it was all in English with a couple of Chinese translators updating the
audience on what was happening. It was actually a really good show with some great
singing and dancing, although a little strange as the Chinese seem to clap for
everything. The lights went out and they clapped, the lights came back up and they
clapped, someone did a great dance moved and they clapped, I guess though at least
the performers know they are enjoying it.

We watched the main parade and the glow in the dark parade. The pushing and
shoving for the rides was pretty good but the shoving and jostling for position for the
parades was pretty much on par with most of the other stuff we have experienced. If

Travellers Blog – Hong Kong / Macau Day 1

Travellers Blog – Hong Kong / Macau Day 1

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