SARS (The Good Kind): Hong Kong and Macau

Back to my story, beginning in Shanghai… A Chinese friend I met in a hostel helped me find a discounted plane ticket to Hong Kong. I was overjoyed about saving money, but this also meant I arrived in at a different time than my friends. I spent an hour or two wandering lost around Hong Kong island, in an attempt to find our hidden hostel. As I searched I really appreciated what I saw: lots of unique restaurants, interesting little coffee shops and boutique stores, as well as a street performance and a girl with a sign that said “Free Hugs.” I became desperate to put down my bag, and a young couple noticed my distress. They tracked down my hostel on their blackberry, and even walked me there; definitely a refreshing change from the frosty inhabitants of Shanghai.

Hong Kong was a colony of England for over a century, and the Westernization was very apparent. Everyone I met spoke English, and although the flashy signs in Cantonese constantly reminded me that I was in Asia, the fashion, the attitude and the general vibe of the city felt very Western.


As far as I was concerned, the dining and nightlife in Hong Kong lived up to its reputation—unfortunately, so did the prices. We met up with a friend who taught English there, and she took us out for sushi and buffet-style hot pot. My favorite restaurant served DIY okonomiyaki (also known as a “Japanese pizza” or savory pancake), which you prepared at a grill in the table. As for street food, we ate some scrumptious beef brisket in chu-hou sauce at the Temple Street Market. In the evenings we frequented a very American bar named Carnegie’s on a street full of young Westerners, who were a sight to behold for someone used to Thai bar girls and old British men.

We were rather diligent about hitting the big attractions during the day, and we became pros at using MTR subway system. In Tsim Sha Tsui we explored the Hong Kong Museum of Art, as well as the Space Museum. I found most of the old relics in the art museum to be beautiful but rather repetitive. My favorite exhibit was of a Chinese painter named Wu Guanzhong, who’d been painting for about 80 years and died only a few months ago; his work was a beautiful mix of contemporary styles and traditional themes. We bought 6:00pm tickets to a film in the Planetarium called “Colliding Universe” (narrated by Robert Redford), but promptly fell asleep the moment we sunk into the cushy chairs. Travel can be exhausting, even after a full night’s rest.


The next day we took the Peak Tram to the highest point in Hong Kong Island, but the views were less than spectacular thanks to the fog that rolled over the city. The Hong Kong Botanical gardens were rather expansive for a public park, and featured mammals including Lemurs, Gibbon and Orangutan.

We decided that rather than stay in Macau for a single night, we’d spend the entire day there and come back on the 24-hour ferry. Macau was a lot of things, but "Chinese" isn't actually the first adjective that comes to mind. As we approached the island I marveled at the gleaming casinos dotting the shore, and couldn’t shake the feeling that I was entering and island-version of Las Vegas. The architecture and food was also very European, since the Portuguese had control over Macau from the 16th century until the turn of the 20th century.

Macanese food was, in fact, some of the most unique cuisine I’ve ever tasted (yes, it’s really called “Macanese”). For lunch we tried a Macanese pork bun, Macanese chicken, curried beef stew and a Portuguese egg tart for desert—the latter two were my favorites.


As we strolled along Lago de Senado and wandered through a beautiful yellow cathedral called St. Dominic’s Church, I marveled at my Catholic surroundings. The Ruinas de Sao Paolo, the façade of what was originally part of the St. Paul Cathedral, was the most famous historical attraction in Macau. Nearby the ruins was the national museum, which gave us a little more insight on the rather complex cultural and ethnic identity of Macau.


As for the famous casinos, they were exactly like Vegas insofar as I could tell, although the only casino I entered was the Venetian. The only casino on the strip I didn’t recognize was the Casino Lisboa, which was actually the largest and originated from a casino in Lisben.

Our last day in Hong Kong was on Stanley beach, a relaxing part of the island characterized by rolling hills and nice condominiums. Stanley’s resemblance to California was eerie, but in an odd way prepared me for my father’s arrival. My travels with my father will (yet again) be a story for another day and another post.

Shanghai Sleek

I’ve begun the first leg of my Pan-Asian journey, and it already feels like there’s too much to say. I’m going to begin with Shanghai, and save the Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau) for another post.

After the dizzying experience of clearing out my apartment in Chonburi, I stored my luggage with my cousins and departed with some fellow teachers for China. We arrived in Shanghai early in the morning, and wandered sleep-deprived through an outdoor market on Zoushan Road in search of our hostel. There were live ducks, frogs and pigeons for sale, along with plenty of unfamiliar dried goods and pastries; just as I began to feel confident about my knowledge of Thai food, China blew my knowledge out of the water.

We met up with a friend who lived a couple blocks away, and he proved to be an invaluable guide thanks to his Mandarin skills and familiarity with the city. He introduced us to our first (but not last) Hot Pot experience in China, and showed us around the lovely YuYuan Gardens in the afternoon:



The next day we walked along the Bund, a promenade that provided a sweeping view of the grey Shanghai skyline. We took a ride through the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, a cheesy but amusing tram ride that was supposed to depict a trip through the center of the earth (lights would flash around us and a speaker would announce something like “you are entering a meteor shower!”). We ended up in the Financial District, which was full of towering buildings including easily recognizable Pearl TV Tower.


Another rather metropolitan section of the city was the French Concession, where we shared a delicious Chinese dinner with our Shanghai friends at a restaurant called Sichuan Citizen. We hit the town that evening, and I tried some sort of rice liquor called baijo, which I’d be content if I never tried again.

Our second hostel was close to People’s Square, another uppity location in the city (you may be noticing a pattern here) where we tried some crab dumplings and braised lamb, and drank Longjian tea on a rooftop bar. I thought that we were visiting an unusual amount of cosmopolitan places in the city, until I realized that Shanghai was simply more modern than I was used to. Even the “local” part of town we experienced on our first evening was relatively clean. The waste management system, the subway and the buildings were all very efficient. Shanghai was clearly quite proud of this modernity, as I noted in the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum, which espoused the city’s progressiveness with regards to its urban development, modernization and environmental consciousness.

Nothing indicated Shanghai’s city pride more than the Expo. The Expo was advertised throughout the city using a mascot named Haibo. I thought Haibo looked liked a glob of toothpaste, but according to descriptions he was supposed to represent international unity and development. The Expo is something like a modern World Fair, with large interactive structures to represent each country. We managed to visit seven countries (New Zealand, Indonesia, the USA, Brazil, Greece, Angola and the Netherlands), a number we later discovered was rather impressive considering the usual length of the lines. My favorite was the Netherlands, which had a round walkway winding up towards a flowery pinnacle, with unusual displays of modern art along the way.



Our last evening was spent in a bar called Vue, which provided a great view of the city, and even had a hot tub. While sitting on a large red pillow overlooking this futuristic city, I reflected on the vast distinctions between China and Thailand.


I’ll give Westerners some credit and acknowledge that most of the Americans I know realize that all Asian countries are not the same. However, much of Asia becomes somewhat of a blur in people’s mind, whereas everyone feels that a continent like Europe is clearly divided into separate countries and cultures. The distinctions can be just as drastic in Asia; in some ways China and Thailand were like night and day. Shanghai is economical and spotless, while I often feel Thailand to be rather inefficiently designed and maintained. This competence is reflected in the Chinese educational system, which my friend who teaches in Shanghai encapsulated in this description of his teaching experience: “Speaking to my first graders in English is like talking to small adults.” I thought about my first graders running in circles screaming in Thai, and could only laugh at the injustice (it’s worse if I considered how much more he gets paid than I did).

In the same token, people in China were the opposite of Thais when it came to being accommodating and jovial. I would occasionally ask someone in Shanghai to take a photo of us, and the person would walk by as if I were invisible. I decided everyone in Shanghai was very serious, but this was perhaps because I was fresh from the Land of Smiles. People in Hong Kong, however, were much friendlier… I’ll save this for my next post.