Hong Kong Study Abroad

Friday was great, considering that I don’t have class on Fridays. We were able to go to Lantau Island for the day, and I took the cable car called Ngong Ping up to the top of a mountain. The cable car took a half an hour, but it was worth every minute. The cable car went through the mountains, giving us view after view of the mountains, water, and skyscrapers below. Once on top, we walked around and there were some shops that were interesting, such as a chopstick gallery, and then we found some paths that led both Lantau Peak (which was awesome) and some small villages. I tried to find some locals in the village to talk to, but sadly I couldn’t find any.

After that, I went walking around town and went to what is known as the Chungking Mansions. It was basically 3 floors of really nice stuff, but they were definitely not legit stores. While walking around outside, a man asked if I wanted some watches. Normally I would say no like I do to the other hundred that already asked me, but I wanted to know his prices, so I asked. Just because I expressed interest, he asked if I could come to his shop, even though I said I had little to no money. His “shop” ended up being an apartment on the 4^th floor of a building, but he did have extremely nice watches. After trying to sell a $10,000 watch for $200, I got him to come down to $50 (0.5% of retail value). Like I told him at the beginning, I didn’t have the money to buy a nice watch, and I walked out, but then he got really mad and gave me a lecture as I went down 4 flights of stairs how he might get shut down the next day so I should buy now, and I was stupid for not buying it, blah, blah, blah.

Today was a great day, being my first time traveling outside of Hong Kong, going to Macau (which used to be controlled by Portugal). Macau is such an interesting city, because it is a mixture of China, old Portuguese stuff, and Vegas-like casinos. It is said that even though Macau has only 30 casinos, it makes more money than Vegas. We took a boat ride from Hong Kong to Macau, costing about $20 each way. Once there, we walked along the coast, looking at the old fisherman’s wharf, and then went to some casinos. Although you have to be 21 to enter a casino, apparently I looked old enough to enter, as I was able to go in. It was spectacular, with huge glass chandeliers, tables and people everywhere, and complimentary drinks everywhere. I didn’t gamble, because I don’t think that would be smart, but I did eat at a restaurant that was very high quality, and very cheap (probably so people can spend more money on gambling).

Then we walked to Largo do Senado, which is a square filled with Portuguese architecture and cool paths. There were shops everywhere, and it was more dense in one place than I've ever seen before (Macau is the most densely populated region in the world). From there we walked to the Ruins of St. Paul, but on the way we walked through the end of Largo do Senado, which was a very narrow street filled with even more people and stores. What made this awesome is that every store handed out free samples of either jerky, cookies, or some sort of nut. I probably wouldn’t have eaten dinner if I had known about that!

The Ruins of St. Paul were cool, because it was an old Portuguese church that was destroyed in a fire during a typhoon 200 years ago, but the face of the church was still standing somehow, and some tombs and crypts as well. Speaking of churches, there were some fancy Portuguese churches that we went into, which was a great experience. Around the ruins were some old houses that were awesome. For instance, there was a bright yellow house (seen in a picture that I posted) that had a huge tree with leaves growing out of the bark, which I’ve never seen before.

Over our 2 days in Macau, we walked over 30 miles, and the entire trip cost only $80, including getting there and back, the food, the attractions, and the hotel.

Today was a shorter day, consisting of walking around a little more and going to the Macau cultural center, which was awesome because they had some ancient Chinese carvings that would be high quality by today’s standards. Also, there were 16^th century European paintings that were from when the west started traveling to China. The paintings depicted the European view of China, showing rice yielding and everyday Chinese life. Then we came back to Hong Kong, super exhausted.

When we got back, my roommate asked if we wanted to go eat at a local restaurant, so we went. The only thing is that the restaurant served real Chinese food, which I am not a fan of. Since I wanted to try some local food to get the experience, I ended up ordering a meal that was noodles, vegetables, spring rolls, and cow intestines (I didn’t know that’s what it was until after I received my food). The cow intestines were the worst thing I have ever eaten. It smelled and tasted like actual vomit. I tried to eat as much as I could, but the smell and taste was all over the noodles and vegetables, so I really didn’t eat any of it. Never again do I want to eat that kind of food, it was so incredibly horrible.