Macau & Hong Kong - bright lights, africans and dim sum

You may ask "why macau" or "wwwhhhere", well Macau is about 50km east of Hong Kong and when we were looking at flying to China from Malaysia we found a super cheap Air Asia flight to Macau. But Macau is a hidden little gem. It is a portugese colony (handed back to china in 1999) and is rich in history as well as money from gambling. It raked in more money than las vegas last year!!! But away from the glitzy casino lights and hoards of chinese day tripping to spend there yuan at teh casinos (photo 1) there are gorgeous little alley's tucked away the feel like you are in portugal (not that we have been there......yet...see photo 2). But apart from the laneways and forts the only other thing portugese is overpriced food targeted at foreigners. But there is some great macanese cuisine, such as egg tarts, almond biscuits and slabs of thin bbq meat which are marinated in honey and soy. you can sample all these for free at little shops along the lane ways.

We only had 1 night in macau but it is definately somewhere we would recommend. It is pricier than china, but a little less than Hong Kong.

We caught a 1 hour ferry to Hong Kong and checked into a guesthouse in a builing called Chunking Mansions (those familiar with HK will know the place). It is a huge building with 5 towers and is about to fall down. But it is a rabbit warren of shops selling EVERYTHING from phones to clothes on the bottom floors to restuarants serving Indian, African, italian, Pakistani and chinese cusine. On the other 15 floors are countless guesthouse and if you stood outside the main foyer you would see about 50 different nationalities in a few minutes. We tried to get into a place in our guide book but were recommended another place a floor lower. It turns out it was a nigerian run place and we were the only white people, there were load of africans staying there, all coming here to import cheap electronic back home. But the place was great, we often came home to the owner fixing our bathroom, and nat has promised some tours when they come to NZ. But the building is like a global marketplace with so many different cultures coming together haggling for counterfit rolex or nokia phones. It is estimated one quarter of all cell phones in sub saharan africa are bought here!!

Apart from this, we spent alot of time in Hong Kong.........shopping. We stocked up on more gear we need for europe, such as camping equipment. We got a multi fuel stove, thermarest matresses, some winter clothes, a water filter and all for 50% of NZ price. We also visited the northern territories near the chinese border to get Nat a new frame for her bike. Her paintwork started to come off, so trek told us to visit a shop in HK and they gave us a new frame. Pretty good service....thanks Trek.

We also went to the history museum, which was the best museum in asia to date. We had some fantastic food, steamed dumpings, wonton noodle soups (we are in a wonton and dumpling faze), and the odd Hong Kong breakfast of pasta in a chinese broth with a fried egg in it, strange but really good. He were staying in Kowloon on the main part, but we caught the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong island to wander the streets.

We really enjoyed our time in Macau and Hong Kong, apart from coming to grips with more expensive prices we would defiantely come back, and didnt really view it as a transit town like some do, it has so much character and buzz to it.

In Macau by walking a few blocks you can go from this.....


To this......


You say you want a police riot suit and chemical protection suit for xmas.....no problem, Hong Kong is the place to find it.