Gabe's Incomplete Post on Hong Kong

Hong Kong - We arrived in Hong Kong. It was a fourish hour flight maybe. Anyway the airport was nice and the customs was no hassel and very quick. We then rode the airport express, a 5 USD trip that took us into town in under 30 minutes. It took us to an elevator shaft which we rode down to attempt the regular subway, called the MTR.  Here we were stuck behind an entryway to the MTR and had to buy a ticket, only we didn't have small change. I then attempted to obtain change from a few passerbys who, to my surprise, were Brasilian tourists. They did not have change.

Eventually change was obtained through officials near the airport express. The MTR is nice, kind of like a metally large version of Singapore's MRT, but significantly faster. We made our way to the hostel from the station. Upon stepping out we shaded our eyes from the daylight, created artificially by lights everywhere. It was 10 PM but bright out. The hostel was in a regular building and quite nice. The room was clean and had 12 beds, 6 of which were cubbie style where we slept. But not before getting dinner in a restuarant nearby. It was reminicent of Singapore. I had a prawn noodle which was beehoon noodles, Michelle had a ham sandwhich. Both were good. To drink Michelle had Ice Lemon Tea, which if I havn't mentioned before is basically sweet tea with lemon. I had almond tea with egg whites, which is exactly what you would think it would be, unless you have never had hot almond milk with egg whites in it. Sleep.

Thus ends the fist day of our Hong Kong edventure.


DAY-2

We awoke. We descended. We ate; our food came from a small cafe at the bottom of our hostel. There I had some banana mosli (fancy for toasted grains milk yogurt and honey (and bananas)), Michelle had toast with eggs and Bacon. Then, we bussed under the river to the other side (called Kowloon) and purchased our tickets to Beijing. After, we wandered about a bit about the walkways and found some museums. We made our way to the history museum and bought half year long passes (which at student prices where cheaper then the tourist week pass and single tickets to two museums.) And explored the history of Hong Kong. Twas a nice museum. We then walked to the water front, on the way stopping for some soupy noodles with things in it. Mine had lots of things, michelle's mushrooms and sausage. It is around here we discovered Hong Kong hates walking, walls are put everywhere barring your way and crossing streets, forcing you blocks and blocks to pedestrian bridges and tunnels. When we found our way to the waterfront, it was very nice. There there was a star walk with various hand prints of people we dont know, then creepy pictures of stars we did know. Twas interesting. On the water there was a space museum. It was attended by us. They had some interesting exhibits; nothing was American and American activities were not talked about.  We sat on a gyroscopic thing and spun in slow circles and then did some moon walking in a very uncomfortable harness. 

After the museums, we walked around, in the very expensive part of town, where there were very nice stores and fancy cars.  We stopped for kebaps on the street and watched cars go by before heading back to the hostel.  Gabe had a nice double chocolate stout while I had a Kriek.  We sat on the balcony and watched the river for a while before heading to bed.

DAY THREE:

We woke sort of early and headed out.  Breakfast was delicious coffee (chocolate and banana flavored) and chocolate (mint) with waffles for Gabe and crispy bun for me (which is sortof like a fancy toasted hamburger bun with butter and sweetened condensed milk).  We then walked to the convention center and along the coast towards the west coast.  We stopped in Hong Kong Park, where we saw some very cute turtles sunbathing and then saw some pretty birds in the aviary.  Across from the park was Peak Hill, where we took a trolley up to the top.  The track was literally at a 80 degree angle at some points, and we had a great view at the top.  I got some interesting candy across from the Bubba Gump restaurant, and then we sat for a while. On the way back down, we stopped and got some french fries with chili, bacon, cheese and other yummy stuff from a place called New York Fries.  We headed back down the mountain and walked over to SoHo, which is basically a big food district.  Every type of food imaginable was there.  We got delicious Nepalese food; Gabe had spicy lamb curry sort of thing, and I had yummy mixed bean soup.  Gabe picked up some Fuller's Organic Honey Beer, which he enjoyed at the hostel.  Around the corner from our hostel is a place called Crumbs, which is a frozen yogurt place.  We shared a large with strawberries, house cookie crumbs, gummy bears and maples syrup covered bananas.  Then it was bedtime.

DAY FOUR:

This day, we tried to go to Macau... but we forgot our passports, so we walked around the western part of Hong Kong Island.  The market was not really a market, but little stores that weren't open yet, and we walked by some of the more "local" areas, where there were little to no tourists.  We found the Medical History Museum, which was interesting.  It focused on the SARS epidemic and vaccines, but also had a room about midwifery and some old radiology equipment.  Then we kept walking and came across the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum, which was rather boring and difficult to understand.  We ended up back in SoHo and stopped at a delicious little Italian restaurant.  Lunch was a four course meal for $88 HK (about 13 USD) - mixed greens salad with quail egg, tuna and potatoes, fresh bread, potato soup, and orange-lemon cheesecake for dessert.  For our main dishes, Gabe had shrimp and asperagus risotto and I had incredible spaghetti carbonara.  Then we went towards the financial districty part of town, where we found the Hong Kong banking buildings, complete with an "Occupy Hong Kong" camp in the breezeway below the building (it was open on the ground floor, with the offices above).  We went into a large, expensive, fancy mall to go to the bathroom... The place was ridiculous - wooden hingeless stalls and marble and automatic lighting. It was incredible.  We then saw The Avengers 3D and got some amazing chocolate and caramel popcorn.  For dinner, Gabe got something on a stick from a street vendor (it was raw and then they boiled it, then dipped it in some sort of spicy nut sauce).  I had a cup of mushroom noodle soup and a small can of pineapple slices at the hostel.  Then it was time for bed so we could get up early for Macau (again).

DAY FIVE: MACAU
Portuguese food - yum!
Casinos - played nothing but baccarat and some dice game (one table craps, three tables Omaha poker, and computerized roulette).
I made $4 HK.