Hong Kong Part 4

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Our last day, we ventured out to the Sai Kung Peninsula for some more hiking. It may have taken 3 subways, a bus, and a minibus to get there, but hey, how often can you get to an awesome hike on public transportation? It was pouring when we stepped off the final bus, but our determination (lack of options?) was rewarded with skies that quickly cleared. It was a beautiful 7 mile hike that skirted the coast, crossed some saddles, and finally deposited us at a few beaches where we grabbed ice cream and beer (lunch of champions…).

It was a one-way hike and when we got to the road, we discovered that because it was a Tuesday the bus came only every 4 hours, and we had 3 left to wait. Luckily we had our books, so we just settled in to wait. Two hours in, some nice folks with a cell phone came along and called us a taxi. They seemed shocked that we didn’t have cell phones…I guess not many tourists come to Hong Kong to hike?

After the journey back we hit an awesome sushi restaurant, and then bought some wine and went to the rooftop of the IFC Mall. Hong Kong’s ‘secret’: there are lots of bars up there, but its actually more of a public park, anyone can sit there and bring their own drinks to enjoy the incredible views of the HK skyline.

The amount of (high end) shopping in HK was absolutely unbelievable. We must have seen more than 15 Tiffanys, Dolce & Gabana, Burberry, etc each). Oh well.

Then it was time to call it a wrap, we were headed home. I think we both loved Hong Kong, with its great views, amazing food, and perfect mix of city and outdoors. 

Hong Kong Part 3 & Macau

Part 1
Part 2

Monday morning we relished our last hours at the Intercontinental (before making the move back to the Holiday Inn) by lounging in the pool and set of 3 variously-temperatured infinity hot tubs (yup, it was rough), and taking a walk to find breakfast along the Asian-Avenue-of-the-Stars.

beautiful clear day

promenade

Jet Li & Matts toes

view from our hotel

Rooftop hotel pool

cool towels and handheld fan spritzers delivered by the pool boys

3 different hot tubs, each different temp. and an ok view

Just before lunch, we caught the ferry to Macau. Its about an hour long ferry ride and you’ve landed in the former-Portuguese-colony-turned-Las Vegas-of-Asia. It belonged to the Portuguese as recently as 1999 and while the stuff we read beforehand made it sound cute and colonial looking, that section was really pretty limited. Mostly, Macau is the place that clears 5x as much in gambling revenue as Las Vegas. The ferry ride was pretty, and one advantage of all the casinos is they have free shuttles from ferry to around town. We peeked in a casino and then were off to find Senado Square, which actually was quite adorable still. All the signs/menus/etc were in Chinese, Portuguese, and sometimes English.  We walked around Sai Van lake, and had lunch/dinner at Henri’s Galley, a well known Portuguese restaurant that while lacking atmosphere, had amazing stuffed crab and African Chicken (and jugs of Sangria).  It had started pouring, and we visited A Ma Temple and St Johns Cathedral (ruins) which were both interested but uninspiring. All in all, Macau was cool but I might have skipped it in hindsight (I think the rain also poisoned our point of view a bit though). On the bright side, we accidentally left our umbrella on the bus and ended up buying the only umbrella we could find, which was Angry Birds….so that was entertaining.

Grand Lisboa

Senado Square

 A-ma Temple

St Johns Cathedral

being a goose with the Angry Birds umbrella

Portuguese egg tart