Monday, January 16, 2006

December 30, 2005

Today’s Menu:

Explore Macau (no specific agenda)



Travel to Hong Kong from Macau by ferry

Highlights: Discovering the diamond in the rough in Macau, setting eyes on the Hong Kong landscape for the first time at night

Lowlights: Losing my beautiful, pink fake croc, Ralph Lauren cosmetic case with my contacts, Tweezerman tweezers, a cool toothbrush, and loads of beautiful and sentimental jewelry. It hurt. Fawk.

Excerpt from journal: “We are on the ferry returning to Hong Kong from Macau. Though our stay in Macau was brief, it was lovely, due in large part to our fine hotel, the Pousada de Mong Ha, which is run by tourism students. It was absolutely beautiful with its highly varnished floors, crisply made beds with duvets, a lazyboy with an ottoman, a beautiful floor to ceiling mirror, a glass shower and an office area. I was quite happy considering the deplorable accommodations in Beijing (grimace).”

We didn’t have time to fully explore our surroundings as we arrived fairly late, and the temptation of cable was too much for us to deny. We did venture out and found a vegetarian restaurant for dinner, but we returned to our hotel to be slovenly. It was around this point that I found out that my cosmetic case was missing. I was devastated, so much so that I actually cried. A lot of memories were tied up in that sexy RL cosmetic case. It broke my heart…

Today started out well in the fact that we had a nice breakfast – eggs, baked beans, bacon, sausages, whole wheat buns, cereal, skim milk – the works. Satisfying…We decided to do a little walking to the center of the city and I was pleasantly surprised by what we found.

After walking for a little while through grimy, smoggy, motorbike infested streets, the town opened up into the commercial district. Bling bling left, right and center. Serious gold, diamonds and platinum, but still out of reach even with the good exchange rate. But the center was beautiful – Portuguese styled buildings, paved roads and sidewalks, a town square – my desire to go to Europe ripened in this city. Macau demonstrated its charms and vivacity. We even went to church and got some spirituality. We visited St. Joseph’s, which is Teresa’s church back in New Zealand, and she got to do what she had to do. Myself, I got to slow down and reconnect with God (it’s been a while). Though we have frequent conversations, it was nice to back in the House again, especially at this time of year.

After church, we headed back to the square to do a little bit more investigating. We were not disappointed. From the bleakness of the streets came the glory of affordable commercialism. At our second store, we hit pay dirt and proceeded to go crazy. We each bought two pairs of shoes; I bought a lovely brown, rounded toe specimen with three multicoloured circles on the side. Delicious. The other pair had a beautiful burgundy and green flower on the toe, and the shoe itself was a deep burgundy/dark chocolate brown colour. Deeeelightful!…”

December 30, 2005 – January 2, 2006

Menu:

Exploring Hong Kong

Cheap shopping

Eatin’
Chilling in our executive suite


Enjoying the early summer-like weather

Highlights: The phat hotel room (ooh baby, yeah, that’s the freakin spot), the cleanliness and friendliness of the city, bilingualism, the subway system, Li Yuen E. & W. shopping streets, the fine weather.

Lowlights: Lack of interesting sights, expensive, Victoria’s Peak, having to stay an extra night in our posh hotel due to a change in the train schedule.

Aside from the positives of the city, there wasn’t much to see or do in Hong Kong. I really wanted to go to a particular monastery to see a huge, golden Buddha, but we ran out of time somehow. I didn’t even really take any pictures. But it was nice to be in warm weather. Must do warm/hot next winter vacation.

No comments: