Asia: Hong Kong 2

Friday 11.1.

Tina and I had planned a trip over to Macau. She didn´t wake up in time despite of having an alarm clock so we left for the ferry station pretty late. After buying tickets I began to doubt whether I´d actually need my passport, which was true indeed. Tina had hers and she decided to go to Macau anyways, while I had to change my ticket till the following day and come up with other plans for the day. I took the train to the New Territories, to walk Ping Shan Heritage trail. It was historic buildings of the Tang Clan that established themselves there 1000 years ago. The trail was only one kilometer long and to be honest, nothing that special: small temples and halls surronded by people´s homes. The weather was hot and sunny.

A tower built by Tang Clan

My next destination was Hong Kong Wetland Park, which was meant both for recreational and educational use. I walked around for over an hour, and even though the park wasn´t anything spectacular I enjoyed being in the nature and not surronded by tons of people for a while. The park was mostly wetlands, small ponds and wooden trails going around. There were some birds living on mud, as well as butterflies and insects. Ching Chung Koon was just one train stop away, so I went there next. It was a peaceful oasis, opened in 1961, with pavilions, lotus ponds and a Taoist temple. It was a beautiful area and there weren´t too many people there. Some local people gave fruit, nuts and even juice to the gods of the temple.

Wetland Park

Wetland Park

Ching Chung Koon

Me by a lotus pond

Gods in the temple

Having missed going to the Temple Street Night Markets with Tina before I decided to take the train there. First I had dinner at a small Chinese restaurant. I had Japanese style steamed dumplings, which were healthy and tasty :P The markets were pretty much the same as all the other markets. Even though they were called also the Men´s Markets the most stuff was just clothes, bags and handcraft. Then I headed to Harbour City to buy a cell phone. I had looked around for cell phone prices during the past days and decided to get mine from a proper store. It was still over 50euros cheaper than in Finland. I also bought a sweater from Hillfiger and winter boots from NKDY on my way back to the hostel, where I played with my new cell phone.

Saturday 12.1.

It was my day to go to Macau. I was lucky I couldn´t go on Friday! There was a ferry accident on Friday night, two ferries crashing and injuring over 130 people. They cancelled all ferries after that and Tina couldn´t get back to Hong Kong but had to spend the night in Macau, causing her to miss her flight to New Zealand. So I was very lucky indeed! I took the 11 o´clock ferry that was delayed a bit, and arrived in Macau at 1pm. Macau is a city in mainland China and it used to be invaded by Portugese. That´s why it´s a mix of East and West, which makes it an interesting city to visit. First I took the bus to the main sightseeing area. I met this polite high school kid in the bus and he told me where to get off and showed where I was on the map. All the World Heritage things were along this one road and it was crowded with tourists! The weather was hot and sunny, perfect for spending the day outside.

Macau streets full of tourists

I wanted to eat some Portugese food for lunch, so I picked this restaurant having a Portugese menu with cheap prices. Apparently I should´ve picked a bit more expensive place, since all I got was greasy chicken and spaghetti. Anyways, after eating half of it I walked to the other end of the sightseeing road. I could easily see the western influence there: All signs were both in Chinese and Portugese (what a weird combination!), quite many European style buildings and narrow, deep streets. First I headed to Ruins of St.Paul. It used to be a church, built in 1580, but was burned down, leaving only its front fall standing. Right next to the Catholic church ruins stood Na Tcha Temple, showing how different religions are present side my side in Macau.

Ruins of St.Paul

A sign by the ruins (in Chinese and Portugese)

My next destination was Casa Garden, which was a beautiful place with flowers & plants, fountains and old walls made of stone. There were quite many local men playing poker there. I didn´t have much time to wander around in the garden, because I wanted to see most of the World Heritage things. There were signs for them all around the area, but I managed to get lost a couple of times anyways. The map was no help whatsoever. So I just ended up walking around half-randomly, and saw most of the things. It was many impressive buildings, Catholic churches and temples. (I can´t recall all of them or remember which picture is from which building.)

Casa Garden

Smelling fish that I found when I got lost

Inside a beautiful church

I had seen most of the sightseeing by 5.30pm and I figured I should head back to the ferry station. So I took the bus there and was lucky to catch the 6pm ferry. I hadn´t time to visit the many big casinos Macau is famous of, but I saw some of them from the bus. I was back in Hong Kong after 7pm and started to look for a dinner place. I found this place making healthy Chinese food and had a delicious meal of dark rice, duck and veggies.

Sunday 13.1.

I had planned to go to Kowloon Park to spend the morning, but it was raining so I decided to go shopping instead. I took the train to IFC mall. Most of the stores there were too expensive for me, but I bought a nice sweater from Kelvin & Clain and a sports top. At noon I went back to my hostel to check out, and then to look for a lunch place. On my way there I found this cheap place for a manicure, so I went there first to get my nails done. It was only 55HKD and the Chinese lady there did a much better job with my French manicure than the lady in Bangkok. I had lunch at a nearby Japanese place; delicious seafood noodle soup and California sushi rolls.

After lunch I went to Harbour City for some more shopping. After a while I felt like being outside so I walked to see the Avenue of Stars by the water. It was nothing special really; just a walkway where famous Asian actors and actresses (who I don´t really know) had signed by their handprints. Two fortune tellers tried to approach to me, but I didn´t feel like paying them. The weather was still cloudy and rainy, so I headed back to the mall. On my way there I ran to this street performance by the City Contemporary Dance Company and ended up sending over half and hour watching the dancing. It was a group of skilled and beautiful Chinese dancers performing several contemporary coreographies. When it began to rain more heavily I went back to the mall.

Jackie Chan´s handprints and autograph

Dancing street performance

When it was time for dinner I went back to the same healthy restaurant and had rice with veggie tomato sauce this time. Then I took a shower at the hostel and took a bus to the airport. I was really nervous about checking in my luggage since even without having a scale I knew it was way over weight. It was 28kg indeed (the limit is 23kg for BA), but the guy said nothing. I literally jumped up and down lol :) Then I wandered around the airport shopping area and found out they had samples of all chocolates :P So I was well entertained until my flight departed. Luckily it was on time.