Quick Weekend Getaway (Hong Kong and Macau)

I was getting a little bit stressed out by work in general, so my friend and I decided I needed a break. We tried to think of a place where is would be easy to explore most of it in just a few days, and came up with Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. I wanted to stay away from Singapore because it will eventually be on my south east Asia backpacking extravaganza.

So with that in mind I decided to go to Hong Kong. Disneyland won me over. The first thing to note is, Hong Kong is not like mainland China. They were colonized by the British and just recently (like 1997 recently) being returned to China. This is a Korea-blog, so I won't go into too much detail about the trip. The tickets were fairly cheap to get, and we were off. As is my nature I planned each day down to the last hour.

We got to HK in the evening, dropped our stuff off in the hostel and went out to dinner. I wouldn't recommend the hostel (New Garden) but it was in a very central location on Kowloon Island, which made it easy to get around. We went to the avenue of stars and saw the Sympony of lights, after which we went to eat. The food was amazing, after that we walked to a night market, and to Knutsford Terrace, to cap the night off with some drinks. Then off to bed for the next day as it was a big one.

Slide show Day 1:


We spent our 2nd day on Lantau island (hong kong is made up of island). We saw the Ngong Ping Buddha and then headed to Disney land. You can buy a train pass when you get to the country and when you return it at the end of your trip you get a HK$50 deposit back, or about $7... Disney land was amazing, it was also Halloween time so lots of spookiness going on. I was glad to be there b/c Koreans don't really celebrate Halloween. I took so many pictures this day

Day 2 Slide:


Disney Slide: It was my childhood dream. I loved it.


Day 3 was spent exploring Kowloon and then we explored the night life of Hong Kong Island. I really liked the Chin Lin Nunnery, and I really liked Lan Kwai Fong. So Ho was kind of wack. We partied hard with the revellers. I created a pub crawl, it was awesome. Victoria Peak via tram is a must. The view is so beautiful.




We went to Macau the next day. Macau is Vegas, in Asia. But it's also China, with a Portuguese twist. I don't know how to describe it. There were scooters everywhere. I loved the food in Macau, especially the galinha a africana. It was almost a disaster as I forgot my itinerary (gasp planner girl's nightmare) but it all worked out fine. We took an early morning ferry home, we had to pay first class as tickets were sold out, and arrived back in HK around 5 am.
Macau Slide


Our flight left at about 3pm so we took the airport train and got a chance to unwind and explore the airport.
Good Bye HK/Macau. Hope to be back soon

Some tips

1. The airport bus is much cheaper, but the train is worth the convenience and comfort
2. Hong Kong is tropical, much warmer than Seoul... you don't need heavy coats
3. Hong Kong/Macau are very different from the rest of China, for obvious reasons, they are even different from each other (due to English and Portuguese colonization respectively).
4. Related to 3 - in Hong Kong, most people speak English, in Macau, Portuguese
   
5. In Macau, if you want to visit the famous restaurants/sites, plan ahead, just as in Portugal or spain stuff closes down midday, and restaurants get booked up fast. I recommend reservations. I didn't know and I almost missed the most delicious meal of my life.
6. In Hong Kong, you can return your transit card at the airport and get back your deposit.
7. Ride the ferries, they are fun.
   

Educate yourself:
I bought a book called the piano teacher by Janice Lee. It tells the story of two lovers, 1 half European/Chinese, and 1 European in a time of tumult and chaos in Hong Kong during WW2. Good read