Day 3, 4 and 5: Living the life of a TVB character, big buddha and Macau

I had a mild case of food poisoning on Wednesday so after popping some meds for safe measure, I passed out in my bed.

Day 3: Living the life of a TVB character
A few years back, I was a closet fob. I was listening to tw/canto/j/kmusic and was watching k/j/tw/ch/canto/sg drama (yes i kid you not, all of them). Now that I am actually in Hong Kong, I recognized several landmarks from various drama. There is a ferry that connects Kowloon to HK island called Star Ferry and I realized that every single drama has a scene where the characters are jumping on a ferry to get back home/go to work. While I was waiting for the ferry, I had a sudden epiphany that it was this exact ferry that they take! How awesome. Upon the arrival to the other side of the sea, I arrived on Hong Kong Island, the financial hub of the country. There can only be one word to describe my initial reaction: OVERWHELMING. Overwhelming in the sense of HOLY SHIT THERE IS 10X MORE PEOPLE THAN IN KOWLOON type of overwhelming. After getting lost on the small streets, I stumbled upon a very steep road where there is an escalator that goes up to god knows where (I stopped half way and I still don't know if that is a stairway to heaven) called Shelly Road (part of it leads to SoHo, yes, just like in NYC). Once again, a mental flashback of a drama scene came to mind and I then realized how common this area was too!

Speaking of life of a TVB character, women characters are usually uber sweet or uber bitchy mean, i-am-going-to-fuck-you-up-if-you-are-in-my-way type of mean and jump on the first rich character. I had dinner with a friend who lives in HK and she's telling me how all the girls here are fighting to find a rich man and hope to marry him and not have to work ever again. Rather scary if you ask me

Day 4: Big Buddha (Tai-O)
To be honest with you, this is a destination where you do it once in your life to say "I DID IT" and carry on with your life. The highlight is there is a GIANT statue of Buddha and the scenery is BEAUTIFUL. That's about it. If i were to come back, it will be for hiking since there are a myriad of trails and the mountain sceneries are just breathtaking. I just don't know how people deal with the heat... imagine 20km of roads to walk.. in a mountainous area?

Day 5: Macau
Yet another greatly overrated destination. Sea sick people beware, the ferry ride can get bumpy and if you have a sensitive stomach, chances are, you'll get to see what you ate prior to the ferry. Macau is known for two things: cathedral/ruins and casinos. The ruins are literally ruins: one of the main highlight is a cathedral that is built next to one of the biggest fortress in Macau. The catch, all that is left of the cathedral is the front wall (And the arches) that's it. The rest burned down a few centuries back. The other ruins are the remains of fortifications. The casino itself are also pretty underwhelming. Maybe I had expected something like Vegas where there are BIG statues with lights and what not. I went to the Venitians and if it wasn't for the sign that says: "Venitian hotel", I would have never guessed. The outside looks like a typical 5 star hotel. Inside, it's golden, big and nice. The casino area has a surprising amount of bacarrat tables, a bunch of slot machines and your usual games (craps, blackjack, roulette etc) and ONE poker table area (with a 500$ buy in which is about 60$) where it's a cash game. My biggest beef is that people can SMOKE. Terrible.

Day 2: Hong Kong - Lost, dazed and confused

After a somewhat good night sleep on a bed that is exactly 6 feet long (I am so grateful that I'm not a mutant like Yao Ming) and waking up at 6am (thinking i have over slept), I have ventured into the urban wilderness of Hong Kong. First thing I learned was to to look RIGHT before LEFT, something I have forgotten since my trip to the UK 4 years ago. I finally arrived in Mong Kok for the quest of a new cell phone (for those who do not know, my current cell phone is an ASIAN model, which means it lacks the 850 band which seems to be mandatory around my house). My coworker referred me to this placed called "Sin Tak" which apparently tells 2nd hand phones. What I didn't know was that it was a PLACE (ie mall) called "Sin Tak" and not the store.

The heat is another thing I'm having trouble coping with. Growing up in a country where the temperature is below freezing point for about 3/4 of the years, a 38 with humidity area is quite a shock for me. I think i downed about 1L of water within an hour and I had to buy more. This is something I have to get used to and quick because once I exhaust my desire to shop (which will probably end tomorrow), I have trips which involves walking around non air conditioned area and then I have singapore which is worst. Oddly enough, night time is as bad, minus the heat, but it seems that everybody comes out at night. It's like i'm living in a twilight movie or something :P

As for food report, there isn't much to report today. I am still taking it easy on the "exotic" food just to avoid weird surprises, so I went to Cafe de Coral (it's a fast food chinese chain) for char siu and duck and rice, and dinner was fried lo mien on a street corner. The language barrier is going to be rather tricky since I barely know any cantonese and my mandarin is mediocre at best. Speaking english is the equivalent of putting a huge "I'M A TOURIST" sign above my head.

Going to try to exhaust myself by staying up as much as i can and hope to get a good night sleep. My objective is to NOT crawl back into my hotel and take a nap. If i have to drink 10 coffees to stay awake, then dammit that's what i will do!!!

Day 1: Hong Kong - The adventure begins

After over 7 years, I am returning to Asia, but this time, I'm going there alone. After the usual 20+ hour long flight, walking through a maze called HKG and having the shuttle bus drop you off at a corner where the hotel is nowhere to be seen, I have arrived in one piece! I'm hoping jet lag won't kill me tomorrow. I have already ventured around my hotel (which is conveniently located a block away from the Temple Street night market) and went on a hunt for street food, mostly something easy to eat (read snacks) and also to scout the area and see what there is to offer around here.

Between the overwhelming feeling of what seems like an infinite amount of stalls selling knock off tshirts, random accessories and cell phones and tourists, I found a few places which sells meat on a stick. With my incredibly limited cantonese, I pointed to squid and this thing that looks like sausage and said one of each. Quite interesting, the squid is not really my cup of tea though, boiling it isn't hitting the spot, probably grilling. It's amazing how there are so many tables outside taking over the corner of the street. One thing for sure, I'll check out those restaurants.

Speaking of food, I just have to comment that Delta Airline has one of the worst food I've ever had on a plane. My flight from Montreal to London on AIR CANADA was better. Note to self: when they offer a CHINESE and a WESTERN menu, stick to WESTERN. The chinese one was just a plain insult to the cuisine