Macau & HongKong

Its that – I like to take her out on her birthdays generally. Last year, bunking office for her birthday didnt seem working and my India vacation made her to say no to my ‘Birthday Offer’. This year, somewhere I missed and I got stuck with office. However, her birthday trip stayed valid irrespective of dates. We ended up in travelling between 3rd Feb to 7th Feb 2010. Still she had her birthday with little surprise.. 😉

I took her to Changi Village Ramar temple (SG) in the evening. I am comfortable to lean a little towards the atheist group if my stand questioned. However, yes – however, if I like to (?!!), I like going to temples for the vibes and ambience. Trust me, there is something in the air. When I take the last deep breath there, I feel like I lost my worries a little. I cant ask for 100% relief and that’s exactly why I said I lean towards atheism. When we left there, I told the Taxi driver (I didnt drive my Honda – well, not accord or city or city zx, just Phantom that runs with two wheels) to take us to the Swissotêl – The Stamford and there was a ‘Oh Really?’ look came from her. Equinox Restaurant sits comfortably at 69,70th floors of the Swissotêl – The Stamford and offers one of the greatest views of the city, a so called river, the skyscrapers and the waterfront. I had got a window table reserved for 8:30 pm after almost giving all my information. We were bit earlier to the place (city hall), so did some window shopping there. The restaurant has dedicated lifts which directly takes us to the giddying heights in no no time. We were greeted by friendly staff and I was happy to see my reservation acknowledged and infact we were offered the same table as it was free by 8 itself. Well – so for so good. It was really rich for almost all senses.

We got settled and there comes the Menu card. When I opened, what I call that? a mixed mode of feelings?. First, prices were more dizzier than the height, fine – cant afford to show in front of your wife on her birthday. Second, thats just a 3 page menu card I dont find anything I might eat. She advised to order a desert and suggested dinner elsewhere :P. I persuaded her as thats her special day. We ended up in ordering some Prawns and a Vegetarian course meal. Then came the soup after like ages, with the best dressing I have seen and a sip reminded me the height of gentle and blend. The soup is
“Light Soup from sweet Buttered Corn on the Cob,
Chili Pepper Popped Black Rice and Basil Cream”
ofcourse, I had no idea when I sipped. Now with the help of their website menu, here it is.

“Vine ripened Fruit Tomato stuffed with Fresh Goats Cheese,
Candied Shallot Confit and Genting Herb Puree”
..and thats the appetiser. Which looked extremely beautiful and tasted really awesome. This has already raised the expectations of the main course. However, whatever came after that, shhh…lets not talk about that.. nothing interesting. However, ‘luckily’, what I had pre-ordered, the birthday cake was tastefully decorated. Happily my office colleagues munched the cake during my night shift.. 😀

3rd Feb 2010
Now I had visited few countries that I could say. But one thing hasnt changed. The tense. One thing is for sure. A package tour gives peace of mind but a worked out itinerary gives the sense of accomplishment. and this tensed feeling, a compliment. no matter how much I read, I never feel ease about the travels. Its pretty easy for my wife. When I say the place, she will google “must see + ” and she will get all the titles. if I stress more, she writes them on a stick note. and then starts my real headache. I should read more, then adding removing places in the stick note happens along with polite answers on “why”. Then fixing a itinerary comes. Honestly, I prepare them just one week before the actual trip. Because its that complicated (for me).

This is no exception. Generally people get confused about choosing Hong Kong hotels. Unless we do a complete map based search, its pretty tough to choose I bet. Let me help you.

HongKong is a set of islands plus a portion of mainland (china). Interestingly the main islet is also called
HongKong. Well, the small portion of sea which separates them is Harbor and both the banks has the most important office buildings. Mainland part is called Kowloon and the islet is HongKong itself. Kowloon has many hotels, all are business class and if you are a tourist, just forget kowloon area for staying. Now we are left with the islet, which has MTR (metro) stations along the bank and has variety of hotels. Wanchai is popular among tourists for the moderate cost and the shopping possibilities. Causeway Bay area has more hotels, again they charge almost your flight tickets for the stay. Now with this info, check agoda.com (honestly, a best site for hotels). We ended up in choosing Royal iClub hotel at wanchai which is a brand new hotel with lovely eateries around.

We landed HongKong by late evening and opted to MTR to reach the hotel as the shuttle timings didnt work for us. Its pretty easy to use the MTR, however it costs a whopping 100 HKD for a person to reach Central station which might be the highest MTR cost anywhere in the world to know my knowledge.. 😛 Interestingly they have dugged very deep for the metros. When I had to come out of the MTR station at wanchai, I guess I used 3 longest or lengthiest escalators. And the bad thing is, we have to walk a lot inside the metros and at interchanges. May be am comparing with Singapore standards. 😀

Hotel was lovely and we got some dinner packed for the night. Not sure what made me the night owl (me) to sleep in less than 5 mins after dinner. may be I was tired or got scared of just 6 hours sleep for the night. Yes, next day plan is to day tour the Macau (China – Special Administration Region) a yesteryear portugese colony which surpassed Las Vegas by showing $5.5 billion turnover a year. I seriously wonder one thing. For me, my standards I feel pretty okay to lose 200 USD at casinos provided I visit them 4-5 times in my lifetime. If I consider that way, how many Billionaires it take to Macau to generate $5.5 billions. Well, as usual, why should I bother. hmmmmm…

4th Feb 2010
You should see a TurboJet boat atleast in google. It looks great and sails great. We took a taxi to Wanchai ferry pier and reached by 8ish. If you are early, you can have less queue and quick immigration processes. TurboJet capable of seating 200+ passengers or more. They look exactly like your flight seating just 2-3 folds. Very surprisingly it give smoothest sailing at that speed. I couldnt believe my senses at all. When I got down, I got the answer. Basically the TurboJet has two sailing ship bases and a platform to join both of them. having two knife edge fronts, it sails to macau in less than 1 hour.

Macau ferry pier is a little sleepy environment with a immigration allows almost everyone without asking any questions. Yes, most of the countries do not require Visa to enter Macau. I always felt bad when I see India not listed as Visa Free countries list in most of the countries. Am glad that HK and Macau didnt ask for one. Tourist information centre was human-free when we went and none of the other tourists bothered about that. But we knew thats the only place where I could grab couple of Maps. We took the map and fixed the itinerary.

It was bit unfortunate that the weather was dull out there however not at the ruining level. Currency used there is Pataca which is almost equivalent to HKD. We hired a taxi and reached the Ruins of St. Paul church, a church’s leftover from a fire mishap. Gardening infront that is beautiful. Right next to that, we have Macau Museum which has good collections from the good old colony day of Portuguese.
It was pretty amazing to see their maps. They were not accurate but indeed had great detail. My humble respects to them.. Without them, world still would have had aliens sitting in the neighbourhood countries.

From the Macau Museum you can exit at the top floor to reach out to Mont Fortress literally means Fort at a mount. There is nothing really to write about it except the count of 30. Yes 30 Canons guard ed this fort and they are still there. We just wanted to explore the small city on our own and started to walk towards the Senoda square a busy market street. While she wanted to buy Almond cookies at a departmental store, I tasted one. Its been ages since I smelled some pesticide directly. I tasted, ate it in the name of ‘sample’ almond cookies. I looked at her and she was totally enjoying my discomfort. Rain started to drizzle and became little heavier. We continued our walking and crossed St.Dominick church. And in no time, Senoda square also gone. We came back to make sure not to miss Senodo square. Honestly, nothing there. We took a taxi and went to Macau Tower which is vertically a KM plus. Has a good observation desk and you have the option of skyjump (reverse fall), bungee jump and few other options to walk with harness. Observation desk as a glass walk. Interestingly, its really scary to walk on that. Weather wasnt good enough to offer good views. Anyhow, who comes to Macau come for sightseeing.. 😛 Next stop was at the famous, new Wynn casino. Sits comfortably at the area where most of the Casinos situated. It has 100s of desks and 1000+ machines to digest our money.

I swear I have luck. My first try was with 2 hongkong dollars which returned me a 20 HKD bill. I dont call that luck anyhow. The very next win was 100 HKD when I tried with 20 HKD. hmmmm.. I knew that wont conitnue. 😛 Lost some 200 HKD wholeheartedly and called it enough of Macau Casino experience. 😉 Later we took a taxi and went to Fisherman’s wharf. It hosts a City Mall, and bustling night market. I was looking for a dome decorated by Mirrors. I never found that there. 🙁

TurboJet boat took an hour to change our geographic location back to HK. Luckily HongKong had a better weather still not the best. We caught couple of trains to reach Tsim sha Tsui station. This also a ferry terminal. Famous “harbor cruise tour” operates from this ferry terminal. HongKong hosts a spectacular permanent light show everyday by 8PM. Almost all the tall buildings along the shores participate in this lightshow. We hoped on to the 8PM harbour cruise tour which took us exactly a place which offered lovely view. There is a live commentary and music as well for the same. As the weather was not at its best, show wasnt at its best. Still the colors were great. Later, we took a ferry to cross the channel and reached Wanchan ferry terminal and walked to our hotel.

Repulse Bay, DeepWater bay, Stanley Market
We just wanted to have less plans for the day as we were hell tired by Macau visit. This day turned to even worse. :D. We started to Deepwater bay by catching a bus from Central. Sitting at top deck of double decker (especially on the right side) give lovely views of Deepwater Bay, Repulse Bay. We got down and Repulse Bay and spent some time there. Cliffs and a small tide-free beach makes the place beautiful and the climate was awesome.

Later, we went to a hilly coastal town called Stanley which is totally free from the problems of city. It was calm. Stanley has a lovely market which sells pretty much of everything you need and 100 other things you dont need. I was looking for some antiques while she settled with some dresses. Later I found a superb canvas art and ended up in buying after a sweet negotiation. Later we returned to the city and took a Tram to Victoria Peak after surfing HongKong Garden. Victoria Peak once was governor’s abode and they had tram service to serve them and few other residents. Its quite interesting journey. You will not really be happy with chinese passengers who rush for a seat. so either we should rush or give up.. 😛 Victoria peak has multiple levels and architecture-wise a great effort. It offers lovely view during good weather. We had super-fog-view (literally nothing).. and we skipped the idea of walking to the next peak as the climate was cold enough to change our mind. Madame Tussad museum hosts wax statues of our favorite stars.

In the evening we went to night market near Jordan which has lovely things to buy. You name a swiss watch or Paris’ top brand handbag, and you will get it in minutes. Ofcourse they are fake, called Copy watches or Copy bags. With that we called it a day and I tried to count how many hours of sleep I got in the last 3~4 days. Before I could think of a number, I was lost in one of my dreamless little stressful sleep.

Ocean Park

Ocean park was the greatest theme park until Disney land opened one in HK. Still we have skipped disneyland for Ocean Park. Ocean park, is not actually a park. They have almost 3 hills. Yes – hills. Entrance is at one of the base with few attractions. A cable car which travels more than 20 mins takes you to the next hill where we have the main attractions. Another 4 longest escalator descending will get us to the foot of another hill where we have few more attractions. Totally, a nice place to lose a day with your family. Attractions are well designed with good taste, offers great views of South China sea. Ocean park hosts a dolphin and sealion show which is interesting and has a multilevel aquarium. and I lost my whole day there.. Lived some thrilling moments..

We went to the Ladies market in the evening at Mongkok which is almost the xerox copy of night market. So skip one to save time. We tried SOHO which can claim itself to have most number of escalators and midlevel has some reastaurents. Unless you want to see the real nightlife of hongkong, you can skip this as well.. 😛

Lantau Island
This was our last day at HongKong. We checked out the hotel and went to Airport by Taxi. Its then I realized. Airport is very far may be nearly 80~100 Kms from the city. We dumped our luggages at the luggage storage and took a bus to Tung Chong. From there, Ngong Ping cable car takes us to the Lantau island. Most probably this is the longest cable car journey atleast as of now. To be precise it takes 25 mins to get us to the Ngong Ping Village. Walking with Buddha, A monkey’s take are interesting multimedia are the shows out there. Giant buddha statue is the top attraction. You will be amazed by the magnificent size. Unfortunately it was raining when we went there. That slightly affected our trip as we had to cancel Tai-O fishing village. We visited the Po Lin monastery which is typical Buddhist monastery as the others.

We headed back to Airport and waited for our flight. Weather gave a good 30 mins delayed start. And here it goes. another country from my list. Like miles to go before I sleep, many to strike out from my list. Just thinking hard about those dreams..

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