Hong Kong - Day 1

Date: 27/8/09
Destination: HONG KONG!! Er, Macau first...

Our journey started on the wee hours of 3:30 am. Had to get to the airport by 5. Flight was on 7 am, via Air Asia Airlines, from LCCT.



Thanks to H1N1, we're all wearing masks (though we know it's totally useless).



A carpet of clouds.



Reached Hong Kong International Airport （香港赤腊角国际机场）early (gasp! Didn't even know such a thing could happen) at 10:30am. Such a big airport, with lots of shops, and with great facilities. The people working there are a responsible lot, it's no wonder the airport is named one of the best in the world.

Thermal cameras are set up at every check point to make sure no one with a fever can enter without a body check-up. Tourists are required to fill in health forms (which quickly became a hassle for me as we entered Hong Kong -> Macau -> Hong Kong, try filling in the same thing 3 times = =)

Oh, and what I love about the country is they have hand sanitizers almost EVERYWHERE, where you can sanitize your hands in prevention of H1N1. Gosh I forgot to take photos of the dispensers.




The legendary Hong Kong cabs. They're roomy and comfortable, but the fare is very expensive.



Tsing Ma Bridge 青马大桥 (frankly, I don't know the exact English name of the places I'm mentioning here, but pretend that I do, because I'm too lazy to check them up on Google). This bridge connects the airport to Hong Kong Island.



I...sorta forgot the name of this building. But when it's finished, it's supposedly the tallest building in Hong Kong, and the whole of Asia too (I think...).



解放军驻港大厦



Nearing Central 中环, and the road goes up and up a lot of slopes. This is the famous area of 半山, where only very rich Hong Kong people and expatriates live. Can you imagine me walking these slopes everyday? Seriously. I think I've grown some muscles.



Crashing in on my brother's house. This is my cutest nephew, Von Zen-E!



1:00 pm, 1st meal in Hong Kong, take-out (外卖). And no, it was terrible, and the price was too high.



Currently the tallest building in Hong Kong, IFC (IFC国际金融中心二期). More on this later.



The reason why the street my brother lives on is called Mosque street (摩罗庙街, I think I got this right).



2:30 pm, leaving for Macau.

Just a darn small office :)



Hong Kong-Macau Ferry (港澳码头) , ferry ride every 15 minutes, 1 hour travel time, and pretty darn expensive. (Don't ask me about the price of stuffs, 'cause my brother pays for almost EVERYTHING :p I'm a lucky bastard, I know)



As we were leaving Hong Kong to Macau, another country, we needed to go through immigrations (and later on fill in those blasted health forms again).

3.45 pm. The inside of the ferry, pretty darn comfortable, and I had a nice nap.



5:00 pm. Bloody hell, every big hotel has got their own shuttle bus!



渔人码头, sorta like a theme park cum shopping mall in Macau. Didn't get to visit. I heard that's a volcano that will erupt.



Macau's buildings are mostly high-rise, like Hong Kong. We stayed at Holiday Inn, which is in the town center.



6:30 pm, visiting Macau. As it was summertime, the weather was very warm. There were no wind and the air was drier than Malaysia, which made it a very uncomfortable weather indeed.

As is the same with Hong Kong, Macau town center is packed with high-rising buildings. There are many buses and taxis on the streets of Macau, whereas cars are few (and often expensive) and the people drive big hogs and vespas, no kapchais.

I love the walkways of Macau.





Macau street posts.



I saw these notices everywhere in Hong Kong and Macau. But seriously, everything in Macau is in Portuguese and Chinese. Where's the English?



仁慈堂大楼，a very old building from the mid-18th century, the office opened the first western-style hospital in China.



玫瑰堂, one of many old church buildings in Macau.



Macau street view.



大三巴牌坊，the ruins that remained of the 圣保禄教堂 after a terrible fire. Its chinese-western style is one of its kind in all of the catholic churches in the world.



Soler can be found in a lot of ads here.



Macau's small, small post office.



The famous Senate Square (Largo Senado, 议事亭前地), also called 喷水池 by the locals, famous with its wave-like pavement that was created by Portuguese experts in a traditional style found in many parts of Southern Europe.



8:00 pm, dinner time. I saw a lot of people burning incense and hell money and offering food along the streets. Not much different from here in Malaysia. I wanted to take photos of them, but mom superstitiously said no. We don't want our 'friends' following us home now, do we?

A vintage baby chair in a chinese restaurant.



Our dinner, a typical chinese fare. The lala was a bit rubbery in texture, the sotong tasted really good, the sesame chicken and jellyfish smelled and tasted too much of sesame, the kangkung is strangely cooked in a claypot, and there was a pot of tofu while the baby had a plate of steamed tofu (he only had a mouthful). The food was okay, though I won't say it was delicious. There's a better restaurant near my house in KL. And it is much cheaper.

Typical of chinese restaurants, live fish, crabs and shrimp, even frogs are found outside the shop for people to choose and cook fresh.


I am disappointed with not getting to eat Portuguese-Chinese delicacies in Macau, but I will return someday.

9:30 pm, we couldn't get a taxi. Turns out it was shift change time. The restaurant owner used his own MPV to drive us back to our hotel, what great after service!

Had fun with the TV in our hotel room. A lot of English channel are provided, and I've even managed to find an 18-SX movie channel (NC-17 rated for non-Malaysians :) ), but of course it costs money, and I'm not that desperate :p

This concludes my first day in Macau :)