Making a mess in Macau, China

We are now in Macau, which is a special administrative district of China. Macau is frequently called the Las Vegas of China, and that seems to be a fair edict. It was a colony of the Portuguese for some time and this is evident in some of its cuisine and architecture. I will tell you this though, we saw no Portuguese people today. I think we may actually be the only two white people in Macau. Everyone is Asian. Macau feels a lot more like China then Hong Kong. We stick out like the huge western map-toting slugs that we are. Macau has a sort of East meets train-wreck/insane sort of vibe. At one point in the day, we were standing on a fake man-made volcano, looking out over a roman coliseum with a middle eastern village and a downed black hawk chopper, all with a massive second rate casino in the background. This specific area that I speak of is known as the Fisherman's Wharf area, and it is sort of a minor league Chinese Epcot Center or something, very strange. Our theory on Macau is that there was a huge rush to put up as many casinos and attractions as quickly as possible, and it is sort of a huge ambitious mess in the middle of a rather large Chinese city. The mall was unfinished, and the wharf area felt like a huge elaborate ghost town. We saw very few people. All said, it is a very compelling place, and we throughly enjoyed it until the casinos overwhelmed us into oblivion.

Our day began in Hong Kong, on the 40th floor, jogging on treadmills overlooking Victoria Harbor. I cannot imagine a more beautiful way to jog without actually moving. After an American breakfast in Cafe du Parc at our hotel, we headed off to take the subway to the Sheung Wan stop, which is where the ferry to Macau departs. I would be lying to you all if I said that our commute to the stop was without incident. Kristin got caught in the middle of the turnstiles after her wheeled luggage registered as a person and locked her in. This was some terrific early morning melodrama. We both laughed it off as a "totally Kristin thing to do" and hustled to the ferry terminal to catch the 12:15 boat. The sea was extremely rocky and we both kind of thought that our breakfast may soon be starring in an unnecessary sequel, "Hash Prown - Part 2" (P is intentional, spelling is hilarious over here). We remembered that I bought these nausea bracelets that had been recommended to us by Kristin's mom. Either they worked or we are tougher than we both believed because the ride was bumpy as hell, but we were like a couple of worthy seadogs. We arrived in Macau and were transferred free of charge to our hotel - The Hotel Lisboa. Supposedly, the Lisboa casino is the most famous in Asia. It is definitely the brightest; our room is lit up like day time at 9:00pm. The Lisboa is filled with ALOT of Asian trinkets and antiques in cases. It is definitely a Chinese glam affair. The opulence is so overdone that if it were a steak it would be a pile of dust. Everything shines and glimmers, even our personal restroom seems fit for a shah. Our shower/tub has jets, foot massage bar, radio, numerous shower heads, and even doubles as a steam bath. Overall, we are very pleased with our room.

For lunch, we decided to have some dim sum at a revered restaurant in our hotel. Dim Sum is a wide range of light dishes usually served in the morning to mid-day. It is sort of like Chinese tapas. Kristin played it safe with a wonton soup dish that tasted excellent, while I opted for the Chef's dim sum recommendation. The recommendation included 8 items such as minced octopus and scallop roll, steamed cuttlefish dumpling, and sharktail bun (which for the record, I am not supportive of because the overfishing of sharks is destroying underwater ecosystems). Lunch was amazing, and neither of us even got a stomach ache. Kristin and I finished all of the dim sum except for half of one piece.

After our lunch, we set out for some light exploring. Taxis are very cheap in Macau, so that was are chosen form of transport. We stopped by the A-ma temple first. The A-ma temple has existed since the 15th century, and is considered the most famous in Macau. It did not seem like a tourist place, located sort of off the beaten track. Many people go to the temples to pray, so Kristin and I tread extremely lightly and take very few photographs within the temples. People buy fireworks and set them off in these temples, which we could not seem to figure out but think that maybe it is to ward off evil spirits. Most people light a bundle of incense and chant their prayers, after which they stick the incense sticks in offering bowls. We both wanted to take part, but have no bearing on the proper temple etiquette.

After A-ma temple, we headed to the fisherman's wharf to check it out. It includes a roman amphitheater, a faux-middle-eastern village, a downed black hawk chopper, a huge volcano (that we think operates a shut down rollercoaster), a huge Chinese temple, and more! It is an odd collection that is perhaps a paean to the random. The place was pretty empty, and we think that maybe it is incomplete. We went shopping in the mall under the volcano, and the grocer was half stocked with some serious welding going on just feet away from the check out line, lots of sparks. The whole area felt like a surreal half built ghost town designed by either mundane idiots or eccentric geniuses, depending purely on your perspective at that exact moment.

We headed north for a walled city garden, Lom Lim Ioc Garden. The garden was definitely a local place, with Chinese skinny old shirtless dudes doing t'ai chi and families relaxing next to lotus ponds. The park had ponds, bamboo groves, a huge gnarled banyan type tree, and a bridge with 9 turns in it, said to be used to escape evil spirits. Evil spirits can supposedly only go straight. Our walk through the park was filled with pleasantries, and felt unbelievably authentic. We left the park and since we were so deep in a local area, we could not find a cab. At first this seemed awful, but we had a very interesting mile long walk back to our hotel through a Chinese urban jungle. We got to peak into a number of strange stores, dodge mopeds, and brush elbows with locals. It was a great walk.

We finished our night exploring casinos and looking for a place to have dinner. Some encounters of note are the droves of dolled up Asian prostitutes roaming the bottom floor of the mall under our hotel/casino and the 3 american looking girls dressed like wild beasts dancing to Prodigy on the main stage at the Grand Lisboa casino.

We ended up throwing in the towel early, and shamefully ordering American food for room service. Tomorrow we head back to Hong Kong for two days and are going to explore the outer islands. Here are some pictures from today:

Kristin getting her temperature at our Hong Kong hotel

On the subway to Macau Ferry terminal

It was a pretty full car

Ferry ride to Macau

Our hotel

Kristin in hotel lobby

Our room at Lisboa

View from room

Another picture of room

Opulent restroom

Little tree

Kristin's wonton soup

Dim Sum

Is this face intentional?

Shrimp dim sum dish

Lisboa Sundae

Entry to Hotel Lisboa

Typical Chinese street

Macau

A-ma temple entrance

Justin at temple

Praying in temple

Kristin making an offering

Temple dogs with Macau tower in background

Offering bowl at temple

Macau casino skyline

Fisherman's Wharf - empty

Roman Amphitheatre?

Large Temple

Too much going on here...

The Vulcano

Kristin and Justin

Cool statue on water

Lom Lim Ioc Garden

Gnarled tree

Lotus Pond

Curving (9) bridge

Mannequin store

Walk through Macau city

Kristin in front of casino

Hitting the ground running (Hong Kong)

We took this picture after our morning workout and swim overlooking

Victoria Harbor

Tin Hau Temple, this lady covered her face in the photograph

Unfortunately we had to pay for subway tickets because we were too

tall.  The subway system in Hong Kong is the best I have ever used.

We have been enjoying the english on shirts over here like this

"Be Confident" fashion polo

No Smoking I will crazy

Women's toilet

View of Hong Kong from Victoria Peak, we took an awesome tram

up to the peak for this view

Kristin enjoying the view

The tram that you must take to the peak, many wealthy people have

homes at the Peak

View of south side Hong Kong Island

This stuff was great, even Kristin enjoyed it

A luxury water shop

Chinese Lou

Walking between giants

Bank of China Tower, thought to impose negative feng shui on

surrounding buildings

In all the parks, there were hordes of ladies hanging out with

each other in groups of 4-15.  We found out later that many of

these women are Indonesian and Filipino maids enjoying their

day off

 

We took the subway over to the Kowloon side, which is connected

to mainland China, this is a picture from a southern Kowloon pier

Trying to find a place for lunch

Empty subway car

Entrance to Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple in new Kowloon

Temple - the place is filled with worshipers and

fortune tellers

 

Inside the temple

Inner-peace

Thanks for reading You, sorry I am too tired to actually write tonight

Kristin and I, self timer FTW

Dragon statue - weird seeing these in their proper place

Just another commuter

From the desk in our room at sunset, Chinese junk in harbor

Zoom of Chinese junk

A protest in the streets

Closing time at booth in wet market

These ladies got pissed at us for taking a picture a second later

Taxis

SRSLY????

We are beyond tired.  We woke up very early and spent the entire day riding the subway throughout Hong Kong island and Kowloon.  I had some interesting commentary about our day, but sadly my mind is too confused with the time change and sleep deprivation to successfully articulate how amazing Hong Kong truly is.  We have a few more days to spend in this wonderful place, but tomorrow we head to China's Vegas - Macau. Wish us luck...

Chasing the Sun across The Pacific (Hong Kong)

Kristin and I woke up at dawn to attempt a visit to the "Full House" house before boarding our plane for Hong Kong. I have been very skeptical about this visit from the start, mainly because the significance of this house is lost on me, not being a fan of the show. 3 unattached bachelors raising a bunch of girls in the homosexual capital of the U.S. sounds like groundbreaking material today, but apparently these dudes were straight and their ringleader was a widower. This was the early 90's, a completely different century. These were the days of TGIF I suppose, when TGIF was more a weekly event than a restaurant with a 40 page drink menu. I had attempted numerous angles to nonchalantly convince Kristin that our visit to this sitcom mecca was a waste of time. I would casually look up from my laptop and mention, "Did you know that the house was only used for the opening sequence, and the show was filmed in front of a live studio audience, on a set? I had no idea...weird" She would not budge. She was an ardent supporter of this cause, and as a good boyfriend I reluctantly caved to her wishes.



To call this journey a disaster would be an understatement. We did not make it to the house. We almost did not make it back to the airport. The Bart rail system decided not to cooperate, a car malfunctioned, and as a result, all we have to show for our 2 and a half hour journey is this picture.

Some random neighborhood

We had to wait about an hour for the broken car to be moved, so that we could head back to the airport, so that we could catch a shuttle back to our hotel, so we could get our luggage, and then get back on another shuttle to the airport to board our flight. These were frightening times. We were stuck in the middle of San Francisco with a rail system that was only moving in one direction, which happened to be opposite of our desires, and we had numerous connections to make. I cursed the Olsen Twins and their television brethren.

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We made it back to the airport in time to board our plane. With the full house debacle firmly in the rear view, Kristin and I moved on to tackling our 14 hour flight. We had booked two seats in a row, 1 aisle and 1 window, with an open seat in the middle. We wanted a whole row to ourselves, and figured with a little bit of monitoring and moving seats around, that we could make it happen. We checked the flight weekly to make sure that no one chose the seat between us. We were sure that we had scored a great victory until a friendly Asian man sat down in seat 21J, right in the middle. This was a bummer at first, but proved to be a blessing in disguise. We probably spent 5 hours talking to this intelligent, funny, and kind Hong Kong gentleman. He gave us the ins and outs of Hong Kong. How to get around, how to save money in Macau, trading stocks in China, and much more. He was a management consultant for the Hong Kong government, and had been so for 30 years. He had witnessed the transition from British to Chinese control first hand, which I found extremely intriguing. We had some interesting conversations, and we always find some of the most rewarding experiences are simple conversations across cultural boundaries. Ivan Chan was his name, and if you are reading this Ivan, I am glad that you sat between us. It was an absolute pleasure.

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14 hours is a long time to be in a plane. We were both full blown gila monsters by the time we landed. Dry breath, sodium swell from the 3 zero-nutrition meals, waddling like desert lizards from being too cramped for too long, we were quite the sight. We basically boarded at 1:00pm on Monday, and arrived at 6:00pm on Tuesday, strange time issues, and the sun never went down.

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After taking a gorgeous train ride from the airport, through Kowloon, and into Central Hong Kong though, a taxi took us to our hotel, The Metropark.

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H1N1 is a really big deal in this area of the world. Half the people on our plane wore surgical masks, and basically all of the employees at Hong Kong airport were wearing these masks as well. When we checked into our airport, the front desk clerk took our temperature before giving us our room key. They have this infrared laser gun that fires a beam onto your forehead from a few feet away, and it takes your temperature.

Anyways, I am pretty beat. Kristin is already sound asleep, and I am about to do so as well. Here is a view from our room and pool. Good Night.

View from desk in our room

From the rooftop pool

Saying goodbye to Dallas

Kristin and I are officially on our way out of Dallas. We had a golden retriever escort us to the airport. Kristin's dog, Lou, saw us off to our departure gate with her mom and

grandmother. It was a somber moment for us, but Lou paid no mind to

our sadness. He was too busy smelling strangers' bags.

We decided to grab one last meal at Cantino Laredo in the 

international terminal of dfw. We probably won't have another chance 

at Mexican food for quite a long time. We are staying in San 

Francisco tonight and leave for Hong Kong tomorrow. Talk to you guys 

later. 

Asia Map

Welcome to our blog. Kristin and I decided to do a travel blog because we travel a great deal, and want to share our experiences and advice with all of you.

We will be spending the month of July touring southeast Asia. Our trip begins with a flight from Dallas to San Francisco, staying a night to make a much needed pilgrimage to the "Full House" house, and then continuing on to Hong Kong. Our adventure takes us through a number of interesting places and we will do our best to update this website daily. We put some pictures from our past trips over the last year and a half up on the website over the last few days. You can find those trips in the sidebar.

What's with the name? Goboogo is a sort of inside joke between Kristin and I. For whatever god forsaken reason, there came a point in our relationship where we started referring to each other as "boo." Trust me, if I ever find a time machine, then tops on my list will be interrupting the series of events that set about this pet name transgression, but for now, it is what it is. When one of us is doing something noteworthy or special, the other will chant "Go Boo Go!" It is sort of a vocal encouragement. Now that you have been allotted a probably undesired and terrifying glimpse into our life, I will leave you alone. Here is a map of our trip:


View Asia 2009 in a larger map

We will be visiting China, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan for a layover on the way back home (and maybe for an extra week if we are not too exhausted).

I want to give a shout out to a few friends that have inspired me with their own wonderful travel blogs, Mark and Cathy Jackson, Jeff and Amanda Reierson, and most recently, Eric Rems. Thanks guys. Hopefully, our blog will be able to beat up your blog some day.

Justin