So much had happened, there's so much I want to tell you about, and here I am trying to make it coherent and at least interesting enough to keep the hit counter on the blog going steady. The way it's going to work this time is for the next few days I'm going to cover a bit at a time. This makes it manageable for all of your MTV destroyed brains to digest.
Today's bit will cover the beginning part of the trip, where we left the mainland for the promised land of civilization known as Hong Kong.
Hong Kong, though turned over to China in 1997 still isn't completely assimilated into the People's Republic. We had to cross a border, cancel our single entry visas, and say goodbye to the good 'ol RMB. The concept of the "Special Administrative Region" is one I still don't completely understand, but all I know is that it was cool to just be able to stroll into another country.
Once in Hong Kong, priority one was meeting Matt - good friend from New York, former college roommate, and owner of an iPhone. After collecting him from the airport that night, we hung around a bit, tried to get our bearings in the huge city, and eventually called it a night.
The next day was spent on two of the outlying islands of Hong Kong: Peng Chau and Lantau. Peng Chau was a beautiful island that we were able to bike around and remind ourselves of the fact that Hong Kong is located in quite a warm part of the world.
Lantau was another nice island vastly different from the metropolis that is Hong Kong Island. Aside from the trees and the far too narrow roads, the main spot on Lantau was the "Big Buddah", who was, as advertised, very big.
Due to visa constraints, another day needed to go by before we could actually see Hong Kong proper. But we made up for it by hopping to another country. Sort of. Not really. We grabbed a boat to Macau, and made our way to the former Portuguese territory. If Hong Kong is a world away from Mainland China, than I don't really know how to describe Macau. It was like stir fried Eastern Europe, with a dash of Western European Spice, cooked up in a decidedly Chinese Wok, and served with a side of Moped Traffic Fried Rice.
Yeah, that about sums it up.
We strolled around the city/country taking in some of the essential sights like the ruins of St. Pauls and some other remains of Portuguese architecture. And made sure to sample some Portuguese/Macanese cuisine. After that, we had planned to check out Macau's own outlying islands, but our plans were halted when we saw something rather... unique.
There was a Moped/Scooter/Motorcycle protest blocking the main roads in Macau. Allegedly, they were protesting some changing parking laws, and showing how damn many of them there were. It was effective enough to cost us a trip to the islands, but entertaining and strange enough that it didn't matter.
By the time the protest died down, we were on our way to what Macau is really famous for. Drowning our money in the black hole known as Gambling. Our stop? Non other than the brand spanking new Venetian Macau. The largest Casino/Hotel in the world. Excess was the name of the game here, with indoor Gondola Rides, a shopping mall styled after Venice with a roof that looks like the sky, and a gaming floor at least twice the size of the one in Vegas. Unecessary? Maybe.
After losing a few Hong Kong dollars, it was time to head back to the big HK.
Finally, we'd have our Hong Kong day. We got to walk around the island, see some of the sites, and of course, roll up the longest escalator in the world.
That night, with Matt already in tow, we had a mini Syracuse reunion featuring guest appearances by other Alumni stranded in China: Cody who we had met up with previously in Beijing, and Terrie who is teaching in Guangzhou. We got to live large strolling around Hong Kong's bar territory, including a stop in a bar that shoves you in a freezer armed with fur coats and shots of Vodka that are (supposed to be) freezing cold.
Just like Syracuse really.
The aftermath day of our night out was supposed to be spent reconvening with our friends, eating some Dim Sum, grabbing our newly envisaed (great new word) passports and heading back to the Mainland. But things didn't go quite that smoothly. The Visa service we used through our Hostel decided that our new Visas couldn't be issued since no one ever drew a line with a pen (seriously) through our previous Visa. So we find out about this at noon, and have to forgo dim sum, and head straight to the Visa office. After wasting a whole day waiting, we find that we're going to need to spend an extra night in Hong Kong thanks to the ineptitude of our hostel. Oh well, there are worse things that could happen.
That night, we got to take the Star Ferry (nice and cheap at 2 HKD or so) too and from Kowloon, to get an incredible view of the Hong Kong skyline before returning to our new abode.
The Chungking Mansion, the place we stayed for our extra night is definitely worth a mention as it is probably one of the most striking and bizarre places I have ever been. Being from Queens, and spending most of my time in New York City, I've seen a fair bit of ethnic diversity. I've been to neighborhoods like Harlem and Jackson Heights that have very ethnically unique feels, but the Chungking Mansion was something else entirely. Filled with (my guess, Illegal) immigrants from Africa and Indian, Chungking Mansion was a strange melting pot of bootleggers, struggling immigrants, Hong Kong bourgeois, Indian Tailors, backpackers and tourists. All coexisting with only minimal petty theft. I'm glad we got to spend our last night there, it was a place I'll never forget. (With a fairly unique smell to boot).
Our hostel owner was a shockingly nice old Hong Kong man named Mr. Fat who presented us with gifts for the rest of our journey. He gave Corey, Matt and I three Lucky Jade Buddhas, which if not gifted by him would have been deemed far too touristy and tacky for me. But we put them on in thanks, and I'll say that we needed all the luck Mr. Fat's Jade Buddhas could provide in the coming days.
Tune in tomorrow for Whirlwind China II, Chapter 2.
- Shawn
2 comments:
I like your format....any pix of Chungking Mansion
I didn't take too many pictures in the Mansions because to be honest... I didn't want to be flashing my camera around too much.
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