Macau & HK - The Tale of One of The Kind Fellow

Macau & Hong Kong/Kowloon (6-13 September 2008)

As it’s only about few months away from my first trip to this country, it’s still very fresh in my mind. This time, I was not with my classmates but with my husband and our parents, it’s so called a family trip I plan to make once a year if possible.


MACAU 6-9 September 2008

To move from one casino to another in Macau or Taipa island was a breeze because everywhere is quite near from our hotel and the facilities like shuttle bus is very good in there to lure visitors to visit their casinos. Basically we only need to o to the terminal ferry and from there we can take shuttle bus to any casino that we want, even when we are not actually visiting the casinos. Of course I brought them to Venetian. The last time my parents were there, they only spent a few hours and didn’t have the chance to visit any places other than Sands that is located next to the ferry terminal. Anyway, Venetian was quite a newly completed casino. It’s a must see as the building is special and huge, modeled after the Venetian in Vegas with the indoor and outdoor gigantic artificial canals. Too bad they missed the shows in Wynn because we split up many times to suit everybody’s preferred interests.

On a afternoon walk from hotel, we took a brisk walk to find convenient store to look for something. We ended up walking quite a distance, and I happened to recognize a road. I was in that road during my last trip, but all I did was following our tour guide in the flood of people, it was bloody crowded because of Labor Day holiday, while pissing off and keeping an eye with one of my classmates who wondered around as she pleased. So I wasn’t really convinced that I can correctly found the way but yeah…I did! After a long walk along the shopping area with some twist and turns, we reached the ruin of St.Paul. I think we didn’t spend a night without going there, reason being, we brought different people there every day, and we didn’t have much thing to so because we didn’t gamble, We tried to go to the Fisherman Wharf, it looks quite promising, but everything was closed, so we only wandered around and climbed the artificial volcano. The weather was quite unbearable as it was really hot we had to find some shade which ended us to a small little café with very huge cake. Worth it.

Another day brought everyone to Ama temple, the must see destination, a historic cultural site in Macau, a temple for fisherman, root of the name of Macau. And on the last night me and hubby wandered around Macau with all the lens and tripod trying to capture the night scenes, the colorful light of sincity of Asia At first we were hesitate about the safety, but then again, we found out that it was okay, a lot of people were still relaxing on the park even after midnight, I guess the city really never sleeps.



HONGKONG/KOWLOON – 9-13 September 2008

On the fourth day, we moved to Hong Kong. We were strolling around Mongkok area when this friend of hubby friend met up with us. His name is Alan and he is one of the craziest but most sincere guy I have ever met. He didn’t even know us before, but offered to drive us around through their mutual friend. We already politely reject the offer when we were still in Singapore, by that time we hadn’t know what type of person Alan is, ha…he doesn’t accept no for an answer.

So, after check in the hotel and everything ,we left around four o’clock to ladies market. Soon, our mothers found their heaven and went around enjoyed bargaining for bag and clothes.
Around seven in the afternoon, Alan called us and met us on the very place we stood. We hesitated that it’s going to be easy for him to look for us in the Mongkok area, as it was very crowded and the place is so full with shops, some has repeated shops on every corner, and we hadn’t even known how each other look like. But he did, and very fast. First impression this fellow is very outgoing and friendly. He brought us the jockey club nearby, so that we can try our luck for the 45 million draw that night. It is an unusual introduction, but he was so energetic and high spirited that we were influenced.

After that, he brought us for special seafood dinner. The dinner was indeed very good, although I don’t enjoy walking around display of live food anymore. The fish in display are in good condition, but I just imagining it’d be more fun to see them in the wild. Still, have to admit that we had very good and delicious meal, and this guy secretly paid for the meal. Again, he barely knew us, and we were party of five. During dinner, he drank beer, we were nervous with that fact, but he said he is used to that, and few bottle won’t knock him down. He mentioned about bringing us to the top of Kowloon, to see the whole scenery of Hongkong.

Only private car can go there. He is an engineer, and his car is full of tools it made a lot of noise; it’s a fun experience itself to be sitting in his car. Since it was already around ten we again, politely rejected his offer to climb the mountain. He obliged, but still mentioned about the rare scenery, so we use parent card, which is not a lie, to say that they are sleepy and tired, since it was the first day there and almost none of us had good sleep the night before savoring the last night scene in Macau. Anyway, the idea of being driven by a man who finished three bottle of beer through the mountain to the top is never appealing.

When we were at his car, he mentioned again that we just need to relax and sit down, not tiring thing to do, he would do all the driving. It seemed like there was nothing we could say to stop him anymore, so me and hubby just shrugged and what hoped nothing bad would happen. Anyway, everything looked fine, he didn’t look drunker than he already was. Ho….

We passed through mountainous and winding road along the way, Although Alan is breaking all the rules; he drank, he talked through his mobile and drove with one hand, he was steady. After a few kilometers of hesitation, I kind of letting go the doubts. Along the road it was totally dark, there were many stray dogs, big dogs like wolves but I don’t think they were wolves. They wandered n the sides on the road, in the forested area, some standing on the big rock or hardscapes we saw along the way.

The peak of Kowloon can only be reached by private car, even tour group wouldn’t bring tourist up to the peak but halfway only. So it was a rare opportunity for us and our luck to meet this fellow. We could see the full skyline of Hongkong and the way. It was pretty breathtaking, al the high rise buildings and penthouse are standing on the edge of the cliff and they are high rise! I’ve seen villas and pavilions clinging on the cliff, but this was the first time I saw high rise apartments and penthouse block that costs 50K HKD per square feet, for rent, a month, on the cliff. It certainly would be an agony to go up every day, but it must be worth it. So all this concrete jungle and the lighted up skyline decorate the night with fluorescent colors, blinking like stars and framed with the lush of greenery from the mountain. The bay was full of blinking ship, sailing through the silence of the night, accompanied by the lonely wind. We forgot the fatigues and after taking some shoots, we quietly enjoyed the twinkling city.

Previously before dinner, Alan brought us to the top of some building, I don’t know its name, to enjoy the light shows of Hongkong building. There was an audio performance while we saw the light comes from the building on the opposite end, separated by the bay, building beside and behind us. The light was shined from the rooftop or façade of the building penetrating through the sky and danced following the rhythm of the song.

After the peak, Alan parked nearby hotel and walked with us to the Temple street. Temple street is a night market and also known as man street, they sell everything from clothing to sex toys, which were displayed freely on the walkway across the table. It was only opened at night, obviously. We were tired, but very impressed with his sincerity to accompany and bring us around.

Almost an hour past midnight, we finally got back to hotel, cleaned up and dropped dead tired. We decided to change our habit from early riser to night owl to adjust to Alan.

The next morning we woke up only around almost ten and got ready to Stanley market. Alan has given us the direction of how to go. We only needed to take one bus from Central station, the journey itself is a scenic journey, where we were able to see various scenery as the bus climbed up and down the mountain and passed through a famous destinations like Repulse bay and some beach where we could see people sunbathing on the sand. The road was narrow, and at many points of time, we were only like half a meter away from the cliff, and it was a double decker bus. We sat in at the very front of upper storey so we could enjoy the chilling edge overlooking the apartments and tall buildings that hang on to the cliff, we were pretty sure that this was the skyline that we saw yesterday from the peak of Kowloon.

Staley market was not as big as we thought it would be, it has some shops where we could get rejected branded stuff for very cheap price, and one special shop selling wall-e keychain I liked so much and never found it anywhere else in Hong Kong. Too bad, I was holding to the belief that I will see it everywhere so I didn’t buy it. Well, at least I bought the Eva pin o accompany my Wall-e from Singapore, at least it’s consistent with the movie, they are from different area.
From Stanley market, we could go to the pier and looked or walked to the ocean but the weather was extremely hot during our stay, and our mothers didn’t like the idea to go under the sun where they could turn around and shopped again. He he..

We had lunch In a narrow alley, and trying desperately to communicate when ordering the food. They can’t speak meandarin or English, we can’t speak Cantonese, so the only option that we had was sign language ad pinpoint the menu they had. in mandarin. Our parents can speak and read mandarin well, but when it comes to asking something else or making sure what was in the menu, it was also comically funny.

Compare to Macau, Hong Kong food is cheaper. Maybe because in Macau we mostly wondering and staying around the Macau island, where the highest concentration of casinos are located.
That night, as mentioned, Alan came and brought us to the peak of Hong Kong. While Kowloon peak is quite inaccessible for tourist, Hong Kong’s has been commercialized as one of attraction and it is very easy to go there on your own by taking the tram or bus. The difference when we went with Alan was, we got the chance to be there pass midnight, when things were quiet and there were almost only us around.

That night, he brought us to the Japanese food district. Having been working in Japan before, Alan’s favorite food was Japanese food and he knows where to get the freshest and good Japanese food. But the thing was, this guy is one extreme guy who never ceased to amaze us. Except some really good food and sushi, he ordered sashimi. On our mind, sashimi is the pinkish fish flesh that comes with sushi or on its own, pieces of small pinky cutting on a plate. His sashimi was, well, when it was delivered to our table, me and my mom freaked out and almost jumped. There were ices on the plate with cut fish meat, and half of the fish with head facing up sitting on the ice, and the fish was still moving, jerking and breathing. All my life I had been afraid of dying fish, and now, it was before my very eyes and we were supposed to eat it. As fast as it got there, the dish was shifted from in front of me to in front of Alan and hubby. Alan seemed to feel quite guilty and he canceled some other ‘similar concept’ type of dish.

We learned that he was a certified scuba diver too, but again, nothing can be too ordinary for him. He actually asked whether we catch lobster during our diving trip etc because he did when he was still diving. I know that in many parts of the world, catching with own hand is allowed, but I hardly heard it in Asia. So he caught the lobster and there was his next meal. We were imagining diving with him. Taking pictures and he would give us the sign ‘Okay? Finish with the pictures? The he would grab the lobster and made his dinner. Ouch.

Back to the Hong Kong peak, the quiet midnight of the place was the perfect way to catch the skylight and the lights of the concrete jungle below. As pretty as it is, Kowloon peak still win my vote more.

Third day, we decided to go to Thung Chung, to take Ngong Ping cable car ride to a very big Buddha on the top of the Hill. The cable car was very stable and slightly bigger than what we usually took in Genting or Sentosa. But imagining if we come during peak period, one cable car is expected to hold as many as 10 people sitting and 7 people standing, and it’s only slightly bigger than the four-people car. I can imagine that it’s going to be elbow to elbow for the passenger, but to think about people actually have to stand for the almost half an hour journey is a way too much for the price. I would definitely give it a pass if it was crowded. Standing, see scenery through people shoulder, and it was hot when we rode back, and it would be heavy. Heavy. Cable car. I call skydiving calculated risk, but not this one.

The weather was quite unpleasant that day, even though we were so called on top of the hill, it was very hot digging into our skin and somehow there were this small little bug biting my leg, gave me around a dozen of polkadot. But overall, I don’t complain. We went back to the Thung Chung area to visit the outlet mall, when everything is ‘outlet’. Good stuff, good price. Shopping it was then. I had never been convinced why would somebody take a shopping trip to Hog Kong, but now I understand. We found a food court which is maybe the branch from Singapore, the food kind of tasted like Singapore food, bland.

We also spent times around Yau Ma Tei that day wandering around the RC, camera and miniature shops. It was mouth drooling window shopping. RC stuff was much cheaper for hubby delight, camera depends, but it was high price for miniatures although the variety and the quality made me didn’t want to go back.

Our hotel is located strategically near Yau Ma Tei and Mongkok area, so it was okay to let our parents roamed by themselves while we were searching for our own stuffs. There were times and again we got lost in the crowd, the shopping district stretch from Tsim Tsa Shui until I think, Prince Edward area, so there are a lot of chances of us getting lost.

Hongkong transport system is quite similar with here. That’s why during my half a day visit in May, I was confident that it would be easy to roam around. They are using card with deposit to pay for the transport, while I borrowed from a friend, the rest of the group had o purchase the card, but it was very helpful for our convenience to get around and also for our future visit in December.

The MRT is called MTR. Mass Rapid Trasit = Mass Transit Rapid? Not sure. While in Singapore, we have to stand on the left of escalator for those who are not in hurry, in Hongkong is the on the left. Staircase here is freeway, although I notice the tendency to walk on the right (which is weird thinking of the left side system on the road). In Hong Kong it depends, there will be some arrow to let you know which way you should be taking, and it could be right or left. They drive on the left side, just like Indonesia and Singapore. In Macau, they have two types of cars, driver on the right, or on the left, but they also drive on the left side.

While I heard a lot about Hong Kong people walking four times as fast as Singaporean, it’s quite an exaggeration. Either Singaporean had been catching up, or our experience squeezing the MTR during peak hour was not an adequate sample.
Rudeness, they are facing same problem with Singapore. While the younger generation or majority can be friendly and helpful, some aunties were extremely rude. But then again, who know if the friendly ones were foreigners and vice versa? But for what I know, although hubby is lucky to always have this kind of friend, people like Alan is very rare. Someone so genuine and crazy.

He becomes the highlight of our trip. When there was one day we decided to just do shopping around Mongkok, he still came to bring us around to camera and miniature shops, because he knew we were looking for some stuffs. While with him, we had always been totally full until we couldn’t eat anymore, one night without dinner with Alan ,we actually missed it and fell hungry. Kee keke..

Hong Kong food, what to say, our friend brought us to the best food. The last night he brought us to the steamboat where we really ate very fresh octopus and prawn. Dead. We insisted to have dead food. Yet, it was the first time I ate raw prawn and it tasted very good and fresh. The steamboat was special, they have meatball with cheese inside and it melted in the mouth when we bit it. He also ordered some other unusual things that we didn’t even know the names but it tasted very good, even the soup was tasty. After the big meal, we were all stuffed and full, he brought us for special desert, durian and mango wrapped with special skin with cream inside, also fruit platter with all kinds of fruit. The durian dessert tasted very good and although we were full, we happily trying to stuff it in.

For that dinner and dessert, Alan especially did a lot of effort. The place is in new territory, pass through the underwater tunnel in place I can’t even pronounce, I remember seeing Pak ‘Oi on the street signage. He worked and stayed nearby. So he purposely picked us up at the other island, brought to dinner, sent us back to hotel and went back to work again after midnight. As he was a civil engineer, he works almost 24/6, after midnight is popular hours if he need to get on the road. During dinner, we told him not to send us back, we could take MTR or cab. But he grinned and said the place doesn’t have MTR yet and the taxi around are only green taxis. Green taxis are not allowed to cross to Kowloon. Ha….his broken English made it funnier. He is Cantonese speaker, with quite good English and Mandarin, and command other languages like Thai and Japan too.

We fell that we owe this guy so much every one of us pledge that if he ever come to Singapore for visit, we would do all we can to help him the same deal. But from our stories, he said he doesn’t see himself liking Singapore. What? 10.30 above we only can eat in Mc. Donald or pubs? Sight seeing on the mountain, the most we can do it take Singapore Flyer that can cost us ten-days lunch.
Dinner and dessert? Night food? Night life? There are only limited places that we know and it was not all that good. So…

So I think he deserves it that I attribute this trip to him for his kindness and uniqueness.
Even until now, we can’t help to laugh remembering how crazy the fellow, how nervous our moms went through the adventurous times with him. You should see how my mom looked when we were climbing the mountain or when the sashimi arrived at our table, or when mil had to stay up pass midnight while usually knocked off to bed at nine.

Other than shopping and a lot of sightseeing and eating, me and hubby stole few hours to Disneyland….entrance. We didn’t go in because it was not the place that our parents would like to go ,and the weather was crazily hot that it burned even though we only moved around to take pictures for a while. Anyway, when we are back in December with hubby’s colleagues, it would be more suitable and the weather should be cooler.

Overall, Hong Kong is the city life that we like. It’s busy it’s modern, yet the touch of small people and street are so alive. It’s like what we would like Jakarta to be. Where we can roam the street easily without afraid being mugged. Where we can tasted the street food where everything is cheap and affordable, where scenery is still free and there is heaven for our hobby.

Of course, 5 -6 days experience is not too fair to justify, but supposedly close enough to tell.


I'm very sorry that I still haven't put up all pictures, so here are some pictures hubby took that might not possible without our new good friend, Alan.