Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai, etc.
This post finds us back in Shanghai China after a whirlwind four countries in as many days. A few days ago we left Bangkok for Hong Kong, made a side trip to Macau (technically a separate country) and flew this morning to Shanghai. Tomorrow we head to Tokyo for a short stay in Japan on our way back home. Somehow this schedule all seemed like a good idea back when we booked it.
Hong Kong is spectacular and we instantly fell in love. It has all the charm and energy of other cities we have found in Asia while having many more trappings of home, including tap water we can drink and many, many English speakers. I have heard it described as New York on steroids and I think I would agree. It is amazing how many huge buildings are packed tightly together on such a small piece of land. Thankfully some of the terrain is too steep for humans to safely live on, which gives the island a decent amount of greenery as well. We had a blast wandering through the streets, riding the train to the top of Victoria Peak, and enjoying good (albeit expensive) food. When the happy hour prices are about $6 a beer you know you're in trouble.
Perhaps this picture (of about 1% of buildings in Hong Kong) will give an idea of the sheer size of the city.
We decided to take a side trip by ferry over to Macau about an hour away. We were expecting to find a Las Vegas on steroids. What we found was more like a Reno that took too many steroids in the 60's and is now suffering the consequences. Actually, it seemed very quaint and nice but we really didn't have enough time to give a full, fair exploration. We did go to the Wynn Casino, which is nearly identical to the Vegas property.
We got into Shanghai early enough today to spend some quality time in the city. Let me translate - we made one more mad dash to the market for stuff we couldn't live without and had to buy a bigger suitcase to bring it all home. I wish I was kidding. We were able to get to the river's edge for our last meal of Chinese food in China. At night the sides of the buildings in this area are utilized as giant electronic billboards, which we tried to capture with this picture.
Jen and I got cheap a few weeks ago and decided to forgo purchasing a travel book for Japan since we are only going to be there for four days. I have now spent the last two hours trying to figure out the Japanese subway system from information online so that we can get to our hotel tomorrow. I am so confused as I am not even confident that our hotel is even in Japan. Consider this fair warning that my next post could be very angry and full of expletives...
Hong Kong is spectacular and we instantly fell in love. It has all the charm and energy of other cities we have found in Asia while having many more trappings of home, including tap water we can drink and many, many English speakers. I have heard it described as New York on steroids and I think I would agree. It is amazing how many huge buildings are packed tightly together on such a small piece of land. Thankfully some of the terrain is too steep for humans to safely live on, which gives the island a decent amount of greenery as well. We had a blast wandering through the streets, riding the train to the top of Victoria Peak, and enjoying good (albeit expensive) food. When the happy hour prices are about $6 a beer you know you're in trouble.
Perhaps this picture (of about 1% of buildings in Hong Kong) will give an idea of the sheer size of the city.
We decided to take a side trip by ferry over to Macau about an hour away. We were expecting to find a Las Vegas on steroids. What we found was more like a Reno that took too many steroids in the 60's and is now suffering the consequences. Actually, it seemed very quaint and nice but we really didn't have enough time to give a full, fair exploration. We did go to the Wynn Casino, which is nearly identical to the Vegas property.
We got into Shanghai early enough today to spend some quality time in the city. Let me translate - we made one more mad dash to the market for stuff we couldn't live without and had to buy a bigger suitcase to bring it all home. I wish I was kidding. We were able to get to the river's edge for our last meal of Chinese food in China. At night the sides of the buildings in this area are utilized as giant electronic billboards, which we tried to capture with this picture.
Jen and I got cheap a few weeks ago and decided to forgo purchasing a travel book for Japan since we are only going to be there for four days. I have now spent the last two hours trying to figure out the Japanese subway system from information online so that we can get to our hotel tomorrow. I am so confused as I am not even confident that our hotel is even in Japan. Consider this fair warning that my next post could be very angry and full of expletives...
posted by Dan Horsley @ 7:54 AM
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