HONG KONG:
We stayed on Hong Kong island at a fairly reasonable hotel (about $120 US per night). It was easy to get around and I was enamored with the "Tram" system (electric steet cars). You can see in the pic below that the streets are well maintained and that, at least on the main strips, order is followed (sometimes in short supply in Asia).
You can also take the very cool (and very cheap) Star Ferry between HK Island and Kowloon. It gives a real feeling of what things would have been like before all the metro tunnels.
People talk a lot about how great HK is for shopping. Honestly, before I went, I really didn't believe them. I thought that it was probably only good for people who love the high-end brand-name type of stuff. Boy was I wrong. HK is not a perfect city, but the two things it does have going for it are shopping and food. We ended up getting all our baby needs (crib, high chair, clothes, etc..) for around $200. It would have been more than double that in Korea!Ok, so now on to the food. I absolutely loved it there! Sure, a lot of restaurants don't have english on the menu, but when the food is this good and cheap, who needs english? I loved the smells and taste of the HK Chinese food. It's much different than the stuff in the North - not near as greasy.
One thing that kind of threw me was... what I found in a local supermarket. Whenever we go oveseas, Joo and I always love to check out the markets and bring home cool suaces and such. This time though, something jumped up at me.
Frogs! That's right, these little toady fellows were up for sale. So, what did I do?? ...
Yup, you guessed it, I ate 'em!
And what HK trip would be complete without going up to "the peak" and looking out over the city... actually, it got cloudy, so instead I hung with my main man Bruce.
Macao:
We took a day trip over to Macao. It's only an hour away by speed boat so I figured I'd go and see what all the fuss was about.
"North Korean money" - "The new Las Vegas" - "amazing architecture"
They were only right on the last one.
Joo and I eneded up taking a city bus to Santos Square and hiking up to some old church (or what was left of it). Quite a cool building and some nice Portuguese influences. As well, right beside the church was an old fort. I always love seeing old forts and wondering how they might have held off an invasion.
This fort though looks like it is taking aim at modernization.
THE SUMARY:
THE SUMARY:
The Good-
-shopping in HK and Macao for anything other than a car
-the food on both islands
-cheap McDonald's breakfasts
-transportation
The Bad
-Ocean Park (nothing close to Sea World)
-Comparing Macao to Las Vegas (not near as interesting)
-the weather might make things sticky
2 comments:
HK looks great.I'm glad you 3 had such a good time. Joo, you look soooooooo beautiful !!
I miss you all a lot. Frog, eh !
Love you, Mom xoxoxox
I have a pic from that same cannon when we were in Macau last October. I see they've made only minimal progress on that distant building, which I thought looked like an explosion in itself.
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