Hong Kong and Macau (2-2)

Monday morning I began my three-week holiday. I had17 days of annual leave to use, since I won’t have any more free time to use them. Conveniently for me, the five-day Spring Festival holiday—free days because it’s an official holiday—is in the middle of my vacation. So I ended out with three weeks of travel time. Good for me!

I had learned that there is a bus from the Wenjiang bus station to the airport. When I noticed the schedule of buses I had, I decided to ask a security guard to read it for me. The one on duty was the man who has never been friendly and doesn’t respond to my greetings. But he assisted me and seemed happy to do so. He found “Shuang Liu,” the name of the airport, on the schedule and explained that buses leave every 20 minutes. So, off I went Monday morning. I had read that it takes half an hour to drive from Wenjiang to the airport. To my surprise, the bus stopped—not at the airport—after an hour (It wasn’t a direct route.) and everyone got off. A woman took my bag out and started walking, motioning for me to follow. I didn’t have much choice, since she had my bag. She turned out to be a taxi driver who wanted to take me to the airport. The bus stops at the nearby town. I realized later that there may be a shuttle from there to the airport. Since I was a bit dazed at not knowing where I was and needing to get to the airport and having no idea how far it was, I agreed to her price, which was probably too high. Ten minutes later I was dropped off at the airport. That wasn’t quite how I thought the trip would work, but I got there on time.

April was waiting for me when I arrive in Shenzhen, in China but near Hong Kong. We had flown there because it was considerably less money than flying to Hong Kong and because it would be easy to go from that airport to her sister’s house. Since I had it in my mind that I was flying to Hong Kong, I had to readjust to still being in China and not having to go through customs. We took a bus, crossed into Hong Kong, went through customs, and then took a metro. Sylvia, April’s sister, was waiting for us when we arrived at the agreed location, which was really nice. First we ate, as April and I hadn’t eaten much all day because we were traveling. When I saw eel and rice on the menu, I knew I had to have it. I enjoyed it so much in Japan and haven’t had much eel since then.

After eating, we took two more buses to get to Sylvia’s home. She lives in the New Territories, an area of Hong Kong on the mainland. I remember taking a day tour to the New Territories when Lois and I were in Hong Kong 33 years ago. What I remember most is how green and undeveloped it was. Not any more. The area is developed and most of it looks fairly new. April commented a few times that “all this wasn’t here twenty years ago” and that it was all farms and green then.

We dropped our bags off our at Sylvia’s house and headed to a nearby town—thirty minutes by bus—for dinner and to see the Chinese New Year’s market. Half of the market had a lot of stalls selling little things. The other half had flowers, as these are a necessary decoration for the holiday in Hong Kong. Orchids were abundant and beautiful. Another “must” is groomed orange trees that are seen almost everywhere. 

We ate at a street restaurant Sylvia recommended and had a delicious eggplant dish among other things. Then we did a little window shopping in the area.

Sylvia has a small flat in a complex of homes of her husband’s family. There are five buildings with three floors each. I never did sort out who all lives here, but they are all part of the extended family. Several other families came for holiday meals.

Tuesday was our day in Hong Kong itself. First we walked to the orchid farm that is close to Sylvia’s house. The orchids were beautiful, as always. April said that what we saw was less than half of what they had, as most had been sold. 

Then we headed to the city by bus and metro, which took an hour and a half to our first destination—the Mong Kok shopping area, which is in Kowloon. One section has rows and rows of stalls selling everything. 

After eating and walking around a bit, we headed to Victoria Peak, our main destination of the day. They decided to take a bus rather than the tram because we could ride all the way without changing. The trip on the winding road up the peak took about an hour. In some places there are good views of the city and the harbor. 

At the top there are two buildings from which you can see a good view of Victoria Harbor. The plan was to walk around to see the views in the afternoon and then again after sunset when the lights were on. After our first viewing, we had dinner. I had shrimp and spinach dumplings, one of my favorite Hong Kong meals. 

The sun went down while we ate. I knew it wasn’t going to be a magnificent sunset; so it was OK to be eating. When I went to the toilet, the sun was an orange ball. 

After dinner, the city lights were on. The most amazing was a building that had moving displays. The most magnificent of these was a display of running horses for the Year of the Horse.

Wednesday April and I headed to Macau for two days. It took three hours to get to the hotel by two buses, turbojet ferry, and another bus. We stayed at the Venetian as a special treat. April had mentioned that she always wanted to stay there but knew it wasn’t a possibility. So I looked online and learned that their website special promotion—book and pay a month in advance—cost wasn’t much more than that of other hotels in the area. So we booked. 

When we arrived, it wasn’t yet check-in time; so we walked around the outside where there are nineteen beautiful horse sculptures. Later we learned that there are 38 around the city; so half of them are at the Venetian. We ate lunch and returned to check in. After waiting for half an hour, I was at the front of the line and was told to follow a young woman. So we did and were taken to the VIP check in. Two people were working in that room, and as they became available, people at the front of the other line got to be VIPs. The man reminded me that our special deal included free wifi in the room and late check out—2:00 instead of 11:00.

Our room was really nice. We had a suite with a king-sized bed (big enough to share for one night), a sitting area with a sofa and chair, and a large bathroom. It was luxurious—more than we are accustomed to. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

After relaxing in our lovely room, we took off for Macau’s old area, which is on another of the islands. I hadn’t realized that Macau is a group of small islands. The hotel has a shuttle bus that goes there. We walked around the area, which is very touristic—full of shops selling local food specialties—pork and beef jerky—wet, not dry like jerky usually is—and a few kinds of cookies that are specialties of Macau. We sampled our way up the street. The town has a European flavor since it was settled by the Portuguese. Lantern sculptures were in the square and lanterns were hanging above the main street in preparation for the lantern festival at the end of the Spring Festival—the full moon on February 14. We decided to hang around to see them lighted up.

At the top of the hill are the ruins of St. Paul’s church. Only the front side is still standing, which I think is rather amazing. We also walked around the fortress. 

After we ate dinner, it was dark, and the lanterns were lit. This was exciting. We went back to the church ruins, and it, too was lit up for the night. 

After revisiting the lantern sculptures, we noticed that there was something beautiful inside a building across the street and went in to see it. It turned out to be a hotel entrance. 

On one side of the entrance there was another area that had a special exhibit of Tang dynasty ceramic figures. We were fortunate to happen across that just before it closed for the night.

Back at the hotel, we went outside to see the night lights and caught part of the light show projected onto the building. It was fun. 

Then we walked around the Venetian to see the canals. The area is like the canal area in the Las Vegas Venetian, which April has heard about and seen photos of from friends. She was excited to see it in person. I, too, found the environment exciting since it reminded me of being in the Venetian in Vegas and of being in Venice. And it was fun to share April’s excitement. The reproduction is magical.

Thursday morning we relaxed in our wonderful suite and then walked around some more. We decided to check out the Venetian’s golf course, which turned out to be a highlight of the hotel experience. It’s on an interior rooftop that has artificial turf and real trees. Being there is like being in a completely different environment. Then we went across the street to The Sands. (I think that’s what it was. They do all blend together.) When I asked if there is any special place to see, the man said we could go to Paradise Garden and have a photo taken with the characters. The garden area is beautiful. The character of the moment was Kung Fu Panda. We tried to avoid the photo op, but I was motioned to go in; so we did it. After our walk, we relaxed in our room for another hour before check out time. We did enjoy the Venetian experience.

Although it wasn’t what I was anticipating, we had an enjoyable time in Macau. I guess I thought it would be more like Malacca in Malaysia, which was larger and more rebuilt. Macau may be more authentic in that it wasn’t as developed and the historic sites are in the midst of a local area where people live. Still, I had expected something more—although I’m not sure what—because a friend had told me how much he liked it. Since the old part of Macau is such a small area, it seems more crowded with all the tourists. Of course, there were many more tourists because of the holiday. So it was a different experience than it might have been another time. Having the casino hotels so far away from the local/historic area was also disappointing. There wasn’t anything to do in that area except walk around the hotels, which would be the intention and which one could do for hours, as they are interconnected and seem to go on forever. In spite of all this, it was a good trip and I’m glad we did it. It won’t need to be repeated.

The trip back to Sylvia’s home took five hours. At one point, we waited for an hour for a bus. Then April talked to another woman who suggested a different bus. That one worked out just fine. With all the travel time, I have been glad to have my Kindle so I always have something to read.