Macau, 1/2/09
Friday, 02 January 2009 14:23
Macau is about an hour by hydrofoil, to the West of Hong Kong. There are many "independent" areas in the Republic of China, most of which use their own currency. Macau has a Portuguese heritage, just as Hong Kong has a British influence (from colonial settlements). Now I see signs in three languages--Chinese, English, and Portuguese.
Macau itself feels a bit like Vegas; there are lot casinos, and familiar ones (Venetian, MGM, Sands, etc.) I kept thinking of my friend Gregorio, wondering if this is anything like Portugal, but I somehow guess not at all. G, you would have been handy when ordering food because it looks like most of these dishes has been "Chinese-ified."
Another exclusive brunch with Auntie Rebecca before we left for Macau
Three languages for all signs
View of mainland China from Uncle Martin's apartment in Macau
"Tipical Portuguese food..."
Curried chicken something...
There's fish under there somewhere
The new Hotel Casino Lisboa
The Venetian in Macau (St. Mark's Square)
The Grand Canal, sadly, much cleaner than the original in Venice...
Mainland China at night
The facade of St. Paul's church. The rest was burned in a fire during a typhoon (didn't know that was possible) in 1835
Hong Kong, 1/1/09Friday, 02 January 2009 13:42
HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!!!
 Swarovski diplay-thingie in the subway/metro station
I'm getting old. Instead of joining the throngs of 20-something-ers (a group of which I am a member of for only 4 more months), crowding the streets of Lan Kwai Fong and ringing in the new year with boisterous celebration, I chose to sleep from 10:00pm until 11:58pm, waking only to say happy new year to Vanessa and then go right back to sleep. We stayed in, opting to just watch the traffic jams, nominal fireworks, all from the comfort of the 51st floor.
Dinner was at L'Atelier, a Joel Robuchon restaurant. French cuisine again. They had two tasting menu options, both of which were just "eh," so we elected to go a la carte.
Hong Kong, 12/30/08Tuesday, 30 December 2008 12:55
 View of the Hong Kong harbor skyline from the Kowloon side (it's been overcast, drizzly, and hazy the whole time)
For dinner (on Monday), we met some of Vanessa's relations in HK for dinner. The restaurant was on the 10th floor of one of the buildings on the Kowloon harbor side. There's a laser light show on the harbor every night at 8pm--way overrated. They've been doing a lot of land reclamation here, which is adding real estate but at the cost of narrowing the harbor and changing once-waterfront property into not waterfront property anymore; I've heard several people say "this hotel here used to be right on the water until they built the ___________ in front of it on reclaimed land." Landfills were also used for the new airport here.
  Harbor view from the restaurant (10th floor)  Vanessa and me (in my new Mao jacket).
 Pastries at ThreeSixty ($7.80 Hong Kong Dollars = $1 USD)
At night, we met more of Vanessa's relations for dinner at the Chinese Recreation Club, a kind of tennis country club place. Apparently, Vanessa's uncle (Uncle Alex) is on the Board of Directors there, has been a member for a long time, and even met his wife there. Again, food was great...
After, we met some more of Vanessa's cousins in the Lan Kwai Fong area, center of HK nightlife. We went to this English pub, apparently an ex-pat hangout now overrun by locals.
There's not so much sight seeing in the traditional sense (museums, monuments, etc.), but there is plenty of photo-worthy stuff everywhere.
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