Hong Kong (December 5th 2016)

On December 2nd at 11am we took a 3 hour bullet train from Guilin to Shenzhen in Southern China. From the train station we transferred to the Metro and 26 stops later we arrived at Shekou Port. The ferry terminal had just recently moved and there was a shuttle in place to carry people, like us, who didn't know this, to the new ferry terminal. Here we cleared Chinese Immigration and took a ferry to Hong Kong Island.

Having not yet had a chance to change money we used an ATM which gave us the equivalent to two one hundred dollar bills.  Once at the Star Ferry Pier we realized we needed coins to use the machine to buy the 50 cent tokens to ride across to Kowloon. With nowhere to change money we asked a security guard what we should do.  A kind woman overheard the conversation and gave us the coins we needed. Just another example of how good people aren't hard to find. We were then on our way across Victoria Harbour and on to Nathan Road.

Here we made our way to the world famous backpacker mecca Chung King Mansions.

 It had been 20 years, and was before the British handover, since I stayed in this crumbling old building with its mini budget rooms. It was interesting to go back to the same old place.  Except for replacing the old cage elevators nothing else had really changed that much.

Hong Kong is a huge multicultural city. It is full of energy, very crowded and the lights are dazzling. It's a place, where whole buildings are made up of lights, video screens and changing pictures. A great place to take it all in is from the legendary Star Ferry that we rode back and forth across Victoria Harbour.

We spent one day walking around Hong Kong Island. Here we endured the crowds and welcomed the nice warm weather. It was interesting to see all the Christimas decorations and hear the music. There was no sign of Christmas traveling through mainland China at all.

Years ago, when I came here, I remember being  eager to eat non Korean food. It was funny how this time our first two evening meals were Korean and restaurants were my suggestion.

On Sunday December 4th we spent the day in the former Portuguese colony of Macau. Being only about an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong we figured it would make a good day trip. It definitely had a different feel about it. Here we took a walk past the ruins of St. Paul and stopped to listen to a Filipino choir sing Christmas carols in Senado Plaza.

Later we walked down Rua da Falicidade where scenes from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were shot. As we walked along humming the Indi tune we looked up at the shuttered terraces and imagined Dr. Jones flying through the window.

As we made our way back we passed a number of massive Las Vegas style casinos. We spent long enough to use the washroom facilities in one before continuing on to the port to take our boat back to Hong Kong.