- Trip Report: TPA-ORD-NRT-HKG on UA/NH in C
- Trip Report: InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong
- Trip Report: Holiday Inn Macau
- Trip Report: Conrad Hong Kong
- Trip Report: HKG-SIN-DPS on SQ, T3 @ SIN, new T3 SKL
- Trip Report: InterContinental Bali
- Trip Report: DPS-SIN-PVG on SQ, PVG-YYZ-ORD on AC, Renaissance Suites O’Hare
- Trip Report: Hong Kong and Macau
Let me start the last installment by saying I’m tired. I’ve spent nearly three days on this report, and as much as I enjoy it, I’m ready to wrap it up. It’s not so much the writing, but rather the picture process that I despise. First I have to upload them to my computer. Then I have to upload the pics to Photobucket. Then I have to save them to my desktop, resize them, then upload them to the blog, then actually place them in the post. It takes forever, and it’s no fun.
That being said, in the end it’s all worth it. Thanks to everyone that has chosen to join me on this adventure, I had a ton of fun with the actual trip, and nearly as much fun just looking at the pictures which I’ll have for years to come.
Instead of writing a detailed report of what we did in Hong Kong and Macau, I’ll just stick to the highlights and comment on the pictures I’ll be posting.
Here we go…
Since we got into HKG late on Tuesday night and weren’t tired yet, we decided to do some walking, starting at around 12:30AM. Hong Kong’s a very interesting place at this hour. As we took the elevator down to the lobby we saw some American sounding guy getting out of the elevator with some local girl in a bright red dress, slurring “my room’s this way.” Real classy…
We walked along the harbor down the Avenue of the Stars and by the InterContinental Hong Kong, eventually turning back and taking a more scenic course back to the hotel.
The crowd on the street at this time is interesting, be it the girl with a red dress in the phone booth trying to read a number off a business card or the drunk foreigners stumbling through the streets.
The next morning we did a lot of walking around town, including a visit to Victoria Peak, which boasts amazing views of Hong Kong.
Star Ferry to get to HK from Kowloon
Tram up to Victoria Peak
View from Victoria Peak
We eventually made it to the longest system of escalators in the world (spanning about 800m), taking us uphill.
Sidestreet from escalator
The nice housing (billboard reads “On average, apartments behind this billboard cost over HK$20million each”)!
Later in the afternoon we took the ferry to Macau, which took about 70 minutes. Macau is extremely glitzy, so I wasn’t a big fan. I’m not a huge fan of skyscrapers and bright lights, but prefer natural beauty/landscape.
Macau hotels
The Wynn
Inside of the Wynn
While I’m happy to have seen Macau, I don’t really need to return. When I read up on it before the trip it seemed like it had some European influence as well, which I saw a little bit of, but not nearly enough. If I want to go to a place like this I’ll choose Vegas next time. Maybe we just missed out on the good stuff….
Since we weren’t too excited about Macau, we took a ferry back to HK relatively early the next morning, this time with TurboJet, which is slightly faster and only takes about 60 minutes.
I was going to ask if they needed VDB’s, but I guess not…
Bridge shortly after leaving Macau
Approaching HK
After checking into the Conrad we made one of my favorite afternoon excursions to Stanley Market and the surrounding area. It’s about a 45 minute bus ride, but the ride is nearly as exciting as the destination, so it’s totally worth it.
Some of the condos approaching Stanley Market
Stanley Market
Surrounding area
Ah, I feel right at home
Someone was a bit too excited to get to Stanley Market
I swear they put those boats there just for picture taking
Yet another nice view
That evening we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was surprisingly good.
Hard Rock Cafe
We finished dinner shortly before 8PM, just in time to go to the waterfront to see the Symphony of Lights, which happens every night at 8PM.
Symphony of Lights
After the show we went to the Ladies Market to do some shopping, although came back surprisingly empty handed.
Hong Kong remains my favorite city, one I’d love to live in, at least for a while.
Thanks to everyone that has followed along. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions, and I’ll do my best to answer.
Now it’s time for me to step away from the keyboard (after nearly three days straight of working on this)!
Thanks KT, sounds great! I once did a tour called "The Land Between," and we went to some of the fishing villages, so it sounds like this might have been it, or maybe this was a different one, I'm not sure. Sounds very nice though, definitely worth visiting on my next HK trip.
Lucky, if you prefer natural beauty rather than the glitzy skyscrapers, next time when you return to HK, you may want to go to Sai Kung Peninsula where you will find the true beauty of the countryside.
Matt,
That's the feeling I got. Frankly we were tired when we got there from walking around in the scorching HK heat all day, so just decided to stroll around the area near hotel, which was around most of the casinos. We were very disappointed by that for sure. It was the next morning at breakfast that the table had a sheet with all of the cool stuff to do. By that time we were...
Matt,
That's the feeling I got. Frankly we were tired when we got there from walking around in the scorching HK heat all day, so just decided to stroll around the area near hotel, which was around most of the casinos. We were very disappointed by that for sure. It was the next morning at breakfast that the table had a sheet with all of the cool stuff to do. By that time we were already all packed up and looking forward to HK. I guess I'll give it another try in the future, although it did seem like many of the non-gambling areas were tourist traps as well.
HK is probably my favorite city in Asia, but I think you really missed out on what Macau has to offer. I'll agree that the casino stuff has gotten out of control - on LAX-HKG last fall I nearly thought I had woken up somewhere over Nevada when we flew over Macau. Nonetheless, if you go south from all the casino mess, there's quite a bit of stuff to see and do. There are many...
HK is probably my favorite city in Asia, but I think you really missed out on what Macau has to offer. I'll agree that the casino stuff has gotten out of control - on LAX-HKG last fall I nearly thought I had woken up somewhere over Nevada when we flew over Macau. Nonetheless, if you go south from all the casino mess, there's quite a bit of stuff to see and do. There are many beautiful churches, squares, houses in bright colors, all with a fair amount of Portuguese influence. There are narrow streets with great Macanese and Portuguese restaurants and shops, plenty of less developed areas, old forts and tons of other stuff - even beaches if that's your thing. It isn't big enough to keep you busy for days on end, but there's definitely a lot there besides the casinos and the downtown that you can see by car. In fact, I pretty much never use a cab there except to get to/from Taipa and Coloane - if necessary I might use a bus though. There's a lot to see on foot. Otherwise, nice trip report.
I love HK too, but I haven't been there in 6 years. I was in Macau about 20 years ago when it was a sleepy Casino town. I guess Macau has become the Vegas of the East now. Thanks for sharing. Great job on the trip report!