Day 12 - Last day in Macau...

This morning came way too early.
Despite being massively hungover from our late night at the lounge, we managed to get a late check-out, ate a gnarly breakfast at an Irish pub called McSorely's and went to the pool for a few hours before our journey back to HK to fly to Thailand.

All packed up...missing this enormous room already

yeah, it had two floors (kind of)

Separate toilet ;)

Ty's big breakfast

I should better than to order pasta at an Irish place...

Cure-all hot tub

We took the ferry back across to HK (1 hour) and had a quick bite to eat before catching the Airport Express subway to HK Airport, which has over 500 gates! 

Vegetable Ramen...delish!

Japanese fried rice with miso soup

Our flight left at 9:10pm and arrived at 12:15am, Bangkok time.  Due to the late hour we had to take a cab, which cost 100 baht (about $3USD), and our cabbie had to pull over and ask 3 different locals where our hotel was.  We checked into our refuge, the Diamond Hotel, at 2am but were so happy to have made it :)

Day 10 - Bring on Macau!

Rather sadly, we left Hong Kong and boarded a 1 hour ferry across to Macau, which is considered a different country than HK or China.  Macau is a former Portugese colony and was administered by Portugal from the mid-16th century until 1999, when it was the last remaining European colony in China.  Macau maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, and immigration.  Gambling was apparently legalized in 2001 and since then it has been raking in cash at the world's biggest casinos.

We checked into the Venetian Hotel & Casino, the largest casino in the world, and were surprised to hear that we were getting the Royal Suite...which turned out to be a big step up from the minuscule Ibis hotel room we just left.

Whooaaaa!
Dinner was at the Food Court...

Venetian Roof

Food Court delight

A graphic meal preview...

We searched the Venetian & Casino mall for the "supermarket", which turned out to be a super expensive market that was selling up to $10,000 USD bottles of wine.  I found a bottle of red that was only $10 USD and some Oreo cookies and we enjoyed our spoils in the room! 

Day 9 in China

Today was our last day in Hong Kong and we decided what better way to spend it than by climbing Dragon's Back to Shek O Peak and then chill down at the beach.  But first we hit up the Sheung Wan Post Office to send off some postcards and a package :)

We hopped onto the Underground and rode for about 20 minutes until the Shau Kei Wan stop, when we took a quick cab ride to the start of Dragon's Back hike, which ended up being about 2 hours with multiple stops and laugh breaks.

View of Stanley Peninsula

Shek O Wan

Shek O Village

It was pretty windy at the top but also so sunny Ty actually agreed to put on Sunscreen (a rare occasion, he didn't even wear sunscreen in Mexico or Costa Rica).  We saw a few other hikers and even a young couple with their 5 month Beagle.

Bamboo Forest

After climbing back down to Shek O Road we ended up waiting for about 15 minutes for a bus to take us the rest of the way to the village.  After a delicious Thai lunch (as recommended by a couple at the Hong Kong Airport) and 2 super-large TsingTao beers we wandered down to the beach.

Relaxing beach view...$2.50 chair rental

By the time we got our act together, took the bus back to the Underground station, rode back to our stop, and walked to our hotel, it was 7:00pm and we were pooped!  We met a friendly Aussie last night on the Avenue of the Stars who gave us a brochure for the Pub Crawl so we are hoping to meet up with that crew later on...

Day 8 in China

We slept in this morning and barely managed to get a table for brunch at the Harmony Restaurant...an "authentic" place that celebrates white bread with the crusts cut off!

   

Cheese & Egg sandwich and Egg & Ham bun

We decided to actually see some sights in Hong Kong and took the subway to Lantau Island, which also had a sweet outlet mall (I didn't get to check it out)...We had to wait in line for about 20 minutes but once we got onto our tram we cruised up the tramway to the Ngong Ping Village.  Apparently we could also have booked a tour to go see some White Dolphins and a nearby fishing village but because we got up at 11:30am we were already running short on time.

Older gentlemen with the longest eyebrows I have ever seen...

View of the Lantau Skyline from the tram

Ngong Ping Village 

Quite a few dogs wandering about and sleeping on the ground

Maintaining the property

View of the Tramway from the Big Buddha

Incense burner

Temple in the Po Ling Monastery

In this photo you can see that behind the temple there is a framework made of bamboo going up, apparently the monks are raising money for an even bigger temple!  I am guessing that is why they allowed photos in the temple (rare)...it is a fairly new area of development.

  

                             

Some locals making the trek downtown

After another 15 minute Metro ride we got off at the Mong Kok station and were immediately shocked at the number of tourists and locals mingling up and down the streets.

Mong kok Market

After about an hour of wandering a market full of fake handbags, sunglasses, shoes, and headphones, we were ravenous and thankfully stumbled onto Red Chili, a Thai restaurant with terrible service but delicious curry!   

After dinner I finally found some Ladies clothing and bought some great Engrish T-shirts (3 for $15 USD) and a Teapot for $30 USD.  Feeling delirious with shopping I agreed to explore the Red Light District, which actually looked like every other street except for a few PG-13 billboards.

Red Light District next to Mong Kok

Portland Street is next to the Red Light District                                                     

We then hopped back onto the Metro and arrived at the East Tsim Sha Tsui station to check out the Avenue of the Stars and take a night-time ferry back to Hong Kong. 

Hong Kong Museum of Art

View of the skyline from Avenue of the Stars

Action!

Hong Kong Clock Tower

Hong Kong Cultural Centre

Once our ferry landed we hopped it back to the hotel and wrote some postcards...so keep your eye on your mailbox!