Hong Kong Wetland Park

Saturday, Lex, Anna, Tim, YoYo and I explored the Hong Kong Wetland Park, just outside of Tin Shui Wai. A short ride away on the Light Rail, the Wetland Park was one of those places that is surrounded by skyscrapers but inside, it’s a completely different world. 

The Wetland is a popular sport for bird watching, and we were able to see a variety of birds. Signs told us that there were Herons in the area, but I didn’t see any. :-(

If you look really close you can see a little white bird in the middle

The Wetland Park had numerous paths that weaved in and out of different areas and habitats, allowing us to see quiet a variety of things.

We met a girl from St. Olaf’s College who is currently studying abroad- she’s on a five month program that started off in Geneva, Switzerland, continued on to Cairo, Turkey, India, Hong Kong, and will finish with Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul! We all enjoyed talking with her and exchanged our perspectives as well as various ins and outs of Hong Kong.

Macau

Wednesday morning, Lex, Kat, Anna, Anna’s friend, Mimi from Taiwan and I traveled to Macau for the day. We were supposed to leave campus at 8:30, but my old habits kicked in and I didn’t wake up until 8:38, so we got a later start. Oops.

We took a boat called TurboJet from Central to Macau, which took about an hour. When we arrived in Macau, the weather was not great- cold and rainy. And it lasted all day, so it put a damper on our day, but we made the best of the day.

We explored Macau Fisherman’s Wharf, where there were these huge replicas of famous world sites, like a Roman amphitheater, a volcano, and a smaller Forbidden City. We then hopped on a bus and headed to the Portuguese side of Macau.

{Macau used to be a Portuguese colony until 1999 and is now a Special Administrative Region of China, like Hong Kong. The official languages of Macau are Cantonese and Portuguese, but many of the signs are in Portuguese, Mandarin and English and a lot of the local people speak Mandarin.}

While in the Portuguese side, we explored the St. Paul’s Ruins, as well a church, which I forget the name of…

We grabbed lunch at Pizza Hut before heading to another section of Macau, to the casinos!

Macau is known for it’s casinos and gambling; it’s nicknamed the Las Vegas of Asia, and many Chinese people go to Macau to gamble (90% of Macau’s visitors are from China!).

We were able to take a free bus service that one of the hotels/casinos offered, called ‘The City of Dreams.” The bus played music and each seat had its own mini TV, which played commercials about the casino, to get you, excited to gamble and what not (it was Macau's Party Bus).

When we arrived at “The City of Dreams” we walked around for a little bit, ended up in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel, before deciding to head over to the Venetian, or the world’s largest casino. At 546,000 square feet, 3,400 slot machines and over 800 game tables, the Venetian holds the title of the largest casino in the world. In addition, to the casino, there are hundreds of high-end shops, as well as three canals where visitors can go for a gondola ride! It was insane!!

The gondola driver singing!

We all took a chance at the slot machines- only Mimi walked away winning. We were interested in possibly checking out playing Black Jack or some other card game, but when we were informed you had to pay $300HKD to get in, we decided against it. Haha.

Trying out the slot machines!

Mimi, Anna and Kat playing a game

We wandered around the casino and hotel for quite sometime, avoiding the nasty weather outside. We grabbed a late dinner before taking the shuttle back to the ferry pier for our 9pm boat ride back to Hong Kong.

The Venetian at night

Well, the boat ride back to Hong Kong is a story in itself. It should be noted, that when I was younger, boat rides (and subways for that matter) scared me. My mom says that after I saw Titanic, boatrides were never easy for me. Somehow I got over that (e.g. Antarctica). But Tuesday night, I watched the Titanic trailer on Youtube for some reason and Wednesday night, I saw my life flash before my eyes about 5 times.

Heading home, the water between Macau and Hong Kong was so rough; the TurboJet was going a million (okay, I exaggerate) miles per hour and the boat was rocking from side to side. People were throwing up all around us, and I thought I was going to die. It was raining and you could hear the waves crashing against the boat as the boat rocked from side to side. The entire time I was thinking, “Okay, how do I get to a lifeboat,” “do I take my purse or do I leave it?” “Does China even have a coast guard?” It was insane. I was so glad to be back on land and will never get on a boat in that type of weather again.

Although Macau would have been better on a nicer day, it was still fun to explore the old Portuguese colony! 

Stanley Market: Now and Then

Four years ago when I traveled to China with People to People, my delegation was scheduled to spend 2 or 3 days in Hong Kong. Due to a lovely typhoon though, we had less than 24 hours, and of those 24 hours, we had to sleep and leave China for good. So we only got to see Victoria Peak and Stanley Market.

Last Saturday, I went back to Stanley Market with Kat and Lex. We took the MTR to Causeway Bay and then hopped on a minibus to get to Stanley. When we first arrived, I was taken aback. The first thing I said was “Wow. They’ve definitely done some reconstruction since 2006.” Of course, this was before I noticed that I was not in the same area of Stanley when I arrived in 2006.

We strolled along a promenade before choosing a little seafood place for lunch, where we all feasted on fish and chips. And then we made our way to the market. And I realized I was where I was when I came in 2006 when I saw the Haagen Dazs ice cream store where I stopped for ice cream with a few friends from my delegation.

Stanley Market in 2006:

Stanley Market in 2010:

Lex, Kat and I strolled along the little shops, purchased a few gifts and goodies. This market sells a lot of different ‘souvenir’ type items. Unlike Ladies’ Market, which focuses around clothing’s and purses, Stanley has a lot of tourist things- like the “I Love HK” shirt I brought back in 2006, or pictures/names with Chinese calligraphy. And Stanley wasn’t too crazy. Although the main aisle was small, we weren’t breathing down each other’s neck.

It was great to actually explore and walk around Stanley; there were many Westerners so in addition to reminding me of my experience with People to People, I was reminded of home. J

Tai O

Yesterday, Lex and I went on an adventure to a little fishing village on Lantau Island called Tai O. I had heard about Tai O from a fellow Heron who spent a semester here last year. She said it was best to go later in the afternoon, around sunset, so that’s what we did. We grabbed a quick lunch by school and then started the 2-hour journey to Tai O; an hour on the MTR and then another hour on a bus. It wasn’t too bad, but it made for a long day. The bus ride went up/around/down/all over the mountains on Lantau; the roads are extremely small and the bus was a coach bus so the ride was a bit bumpy and crazy. It was quite the experience.

We arrived in Tai O around 4pm and spent our time wandering around the village. Tai O is famous for its stilt houses because the villagers don’t feel safe on the ground. We passed numerous shops selling dried fish; one even had a huge dried shark!

Various people were offering 20-minute boat tours, which brought you around the houses and then out into the open water to look for the famous pink dolphins in the surrounding area, so Lex and I decided to go on one. We went at the perfect time as well because the sun was just starting to set so I got some nice shots of the sunset. 

After the boat ride, we wandered around some more before it got dark and then headed back to campus.

Gold Coast and Cheung Chau Island

Last Friday night I went to Gold Coast with Lex, Anna G., Anna S., and Kat. Just a bus ride away on the K51, Gold Coast is a little seaside residence with a variety of restaurants and shops. We wandered around for a bit before deciding on a Thai/Indian restaurant for dinner. I ordered a huge bowl of veggies; it was delicious. I had been craving veggies for a while and this hit the spot.

 Anna S. and I at dinner

After dinner, we roamed around- we explored the Gold Coast hotel and then ended up walking along the beach for a while. It was so nice to hear the waves rolling in and out; it seems like it’s been forever since I’ve heard that. We also came across a BBQ pit area, where there was a bunch of people gathered around various fire pits cooking dinner.

 Gold Coast Hotel

On Saturday, Lex and I decided to explore Cheung Chau Island, located just off of Hong Kong Island. We grabbed breakfast at the canteen before heading out to the Central Pier, where we took a boat over to Cheung Chau. 

When we arrived at Cheung Chau, I was reminded of Lamma Island- lots of bikes and seafood, but Cheung Chau had its own personality. We roamed around the island (it’s only a square mile in size) for a while and got lost numerous times. We found Pak Tai Temple early on, and had our heart set on finding and exploring Cheung Po Tsai Cave but it was impossible for us to find. In the meantime though, we walked the ‘Mini Great Wall’ and got to see spectacular views of both Cheung Chau and the surrounding water. We walked along numerous beaches as well as seafood restaurants and shops. The seafood was similar to Lamma Island, in that it was all open-air/open market.

 Pak Tai Temple

 Part of the 'Mini Great Wall'

While we were walking around we kept seeing people eating this stick of fruit. It looked delicious and we went on a mission to find it and luckily we did. Although the fruit was frozen, it took a little bit of time for it to defrost, but it was delicious and held us over until we grabbed some Mexican food in Soho later on.