More Macau

I had a free day yesterday and decided to see some more of Macau.  It is quite a small city and I had already done most of the main tourist sites on my previous visit last year, including the museum, fort, etc, so there was not a whole lot more to do.  I went for a walk round the old port area where there were a number of churches and other historic buildings associated with Macau’s past as a major trading post for the Portuguese.  I ate lunch  in a Portuguese seafood restaurant. It is interesting to see how the Portuguese influence as merged with the Chinese, in terms of architecture, cuisine and the local people themselves, many of whom show obvious traces of their Portuguese ancestry.  I don’t think you could say the same of Hong Kong.

In the evening I just sat in a bar people watching, there being not much else to do in Macau if you are not into gambling.

 

Macau

The ferry journey to Macau was straightforward - a repeat of the trip I did last year when returning from Guilin.  The only downside is that the whole process took up the best part of a day, so it was early evening by the time I checked into my hotel.

I spent the evening wandering around the by now familiar streets of Macau, which is a very compact and walkable city.   I popped into a couple of casinos to watch the Chinese at play. Having sampled Nevada casinos as recently as this January, it was interesting to compare the Chinese and US gambling styles. The US punters all seem to look glum and disinterested in the whole process, whereas the Chinese are much more noisy and outgoing, and seem to be actually enjoying themselves.

I had a relatively early night ready for my meeting on Monday.

Guangzhou

After reviewing our respective schedules, it turned out that we would be rather constrained for the first phase of the China trip as I had to be back in Macau by Monday and Jason had to be in Dongguan on Friday and then in Chengdu on Monday.   As a consequence, it was not really feasible to travel to far from Hong Kong at this stage. We decided on spending an evening in Dongguan then travelling to Guangzhou on the Saturday.

The journey from Hong Kong to Dongguan was by train, which was very modern and efficient, with great service all the way.  After checking into our hotel, I had a relaxing afternoon wandering around while Jason was at his meeting.  Dongguan is essentially a city that serves the vast industrial complexes in the surrounding Guangdong region, so not a lot of cultural sites to take in.

Talking of culture; in the evening I had my first experience of an Asian karaoke club. This seems to involve participating in various types of drinking games, designed to get the guests into a sufficiently merry state that they become uninhibited enough to sing, or conversely, not to notice the appalling efforts of other singers.  I think I did rather well with my covers of various British classics.  I don’t think Jason’s Chinese business colleagues were sufficiently familiar with the originals to spot the way they were being massacred!

On Saturday we made the short train journey from Dongguan to Guangzhou, and spent the remainder of the morning looking round the Guangdong Museum and some of the temples in the city.  In the afternoon we took a bus to the Baiyun Shan Park, which is a few km north of the city.   This turned out to be a vast area and we could only cover a small part on foot.  Even so, there were some spectacular mountain views and various temples to see on the way.  The evening was spent dining on more delicious Cantonese food and checking out some of the local bars.

All in all, I would say that the parts of China I have seen in the past two days, whilst not being on the normal tourist itinerary, were nevertheless well worth doing. Even though I had already gained some idea of modern China from my trip last year, it is still impressive just how advanced everything is here compared to the UK.  Guangzhou in particular seems to have become a very sophisticated modern city.

Tomorrow, on to Macau.

Hong Kong and the New Territories

I spend most of yesterday revisiting many of the usual tourist spots in Hong Kong that we had previously seen on our family holiday about 10 years ago, including doing the Peak Tram ride, and taking the Star Ferry across to Kowloon for the spectacular view of the Hong Kong skyline at night.  

Today I decided to explore some of the New Territories, and took the ferry first to Lamma Island, where I wandered around for a while and had a great meal.  In the afternoon I took another ferry to Lantau, which is a large island to the West of Hong Kong and adjacent to the airport.  Some attractive walks around here.

In the evening I met up with my friend Jason, just flown in from Singapore.  We spent the evening catching up with things over a beer or two and started planning our China itinerary.

Hong Kong

I arrived in Hong Kong late afternoon after an OK flight, having treated myself to a Premium Economy upgrade.  Took MRT from airport to Hong Kong island and then shuttle bus on to my hotel in the Wan Chai district.  In the evening I explored a bit and ended up sampling a few bars in the Lan Kwai Fong area of Central, which seems to be quite popular with the expat community.  The place was overrun by US Navy personnel on R&R, with five ships apparently currently in port.  Not many other obvious changes since my last brief visit over six years ago.

Monaco

Makes a change from freezing London.