Namhansanseong, HONG KONG, Macau & Chinese New Year

From the title I just created I'm afraid this might be a long one, I'll do my best to keep it interesting.

My last morning/afternoon in Seoul there was a sight I'd heard 

of that would give me a great view of the city as well as showing me some ancient architecture. You see, I actually wanted to spend some time in China on this journey but since they have Visa requirements that

 take a few weeks to solve (mailing it to their embassy, and waiting for them to mail it back) I opted to just go where it's easy and see the Great Wall of China some other time than the dead of winter. Namhansanseong is Ancient  Seoul's "Great Southern Fortress" - don't get the wrong impression, I know it's nothing like the real thing which I hope to hike a good size chunk of someday, but it did have many similar traits as well as showing me that Seoul isn't all about the metropolitan area's I'd become very familiar with. It was 10 degrees that morning so I bundled up and took a taxi to the top, hiked about 3 miles of the wall which had some pretty steep grades, and eventually back down to the bottom. A nice walk that landed me at a bus stop which I took back to the apartment. It was time to pack my bag and go to Hong Kong!

Jono got back from work, got his shit together and we caught an airport Limo bus to Incheon Airport. It was a four hour flight, we got into Hong Kong's airport late & rode the train to Causeway Bay which was the location of our small but centrally located Hostel. Of course we were a bit wired so we headed out to an OK bar which of course had karaoke and some pricey Hoegarten's - at the bar I introduced Jono to Liar's Dice, a game that I hadn't played in a very long time and thought would make for some good times. After a few games, and a few more beers we sang a song, Hotel California, and I think we were getting booed. Not for our voices but because they were not into an English song at that point in the evening. Whatever, we ignored and finished the song with gusto, and I think got out of there by 4am or so.

The next day was the biggest travel day I've had in a very long time, we got up early and found a cheap sushi place, figured this would be the best way to prep for an afternoon of hiking. Once full we caught the subway to a bus stop which took us to the trail head for the Dragon's Back, a portion of the Hong Kong Trail which traverses the entire island.

The trail was awesome and had some spectacular views, after what I'm estimating as 5 miles we ended up at Big Wave Beach for some pizza & beer.

(Big Wave Beach as viewed from the

 summit of our hike.) 

An hour or so later we caught another bus 15 minutes back to our area and got cleaned up for a night on the town.

On our way to the tram which would take us to a magnificent view of the city/nightly light show we wandered through the flower markets which were definitely different compared to what I'm used to seeing in the west. People take their horticulture very seriously here and produce some of the most 

amazing plants I've ever seen. We finished wandering that "fair" and caught a cab to the Peak Tram, this took us up the mountain.

 The view was sick, the entire city is laid out in front of you, both sides of the Harbor are completely visible as well was the nightly Symphony of Lights. (Because of the haziness it wasn't quite as spectacular as I've seen in pictures plus only down on the Harbor Promenade do they pipe the music in which goes with the lights.) But again, the view was amazing and the ultra modern peak tram upper viewing area was a sight in itself. After about and hour we caught a cab down and it was onto to Jumbo!

There's an area on the southwest part of the island known for it's floating restaurants, Jono had been to the most famous one named "Jumbo" a few years prior and wanted me to experience what they had to offer. He had seen them serve a meal which was prepared at the table and all he remembered was crazy flames. This place was different, we took a boat to the establishment and requested that whatever flaming dish he saw last time be brought to our table. 

The name of the dish was "Drunken Shrimp" -- So here's how it went:

They roll a cart next to your table with a clear glass bowl full of 16 fairly large live shrimp. They have it covered and the server barely lifts the cover to pour Chinese Wine into the bowl. I was noticing that she seemed paranoid something might go wrong but kept pouring more of this wine into the bowl, and the shrimp started freaking out. You see, they're sober, and then the wine gets them drunk so they start to "dance," one actually jumped through the opening upon the 4th pour and onto the cart. It was hilarious, and she seemed unsure of how we would respond. (Of course by that point we were toasting with the neighbors, the staff and the drunk shrimp which made her feel much more comfortable.) After a few more minutes the shrimp had worn themselves out, passed out drunk in their jacuzzi of wine, so she removed the cover and lit the entire bowl on fire! Yeah, now it was starting to make sense, we insisted on tasting the wine and it was hot, spicy and had to be well over a hundred proof the way it lit up so brilliantly. After the flames died down she added some veggies & spices, stirred it up some more and poured those bad-boys onto our plates. The taste was like nothing I've ever had, the shrimp had soaked up a good amount of the wine which then assisted cooking them from the inside out, the spices were new and had also absorbed, pretty much fused with the shrimp meat.

They served it with a spicy dipping sauce which went perfectly, and we finished it up with some unique fried rice. Definitely one of my top 5 dining experiences ever.

By the time we got out of there and back on the island we felt perfect so it was time for a night on the town, we were aiming for Soho but ended up in Lan Kwai Fong (the next neighborhood over, close enough for a couple of drunks on a Chinese bus at midnight) - people were everywhere and there doesn't seem to be any kind of open container law ;) After a few we headed to another neighborhood called Wan Chai, here we found a pub where the girls were dancing on the bar (Coyote Ugly style) so Jono got up there and stared working his magic, it was an impressive sight while I slumped in a corner due to our 18 hour day and eventually called it a night. On the way home I got accosted by several obnoxious "mama-sans" trying to coax me into their bars/brothels, which seemed nice enough but not my style, although I was amused.

The next day we checked out, went back to that same sushi place for more raw energy and caught a hydrofoil ferry to Macau, another Chinese Territory that I'm considering SE Asia's Las Vegas. 

An hour ride to the port seemed like nothing, that ship cruised, once docked and through

 immigration we caught a cab to our Hotel Sun-Sun. Again I'm not going to bore you with details of sightseeing but we spent the next few hours wandering around sampling the local cuisine which consisted of a mix of Portuguese & Cantonese, and was quite good. Saw some ruins, temples and strolled back to our hotel to clean up for dinner and casino hopping.

Now we basically checked out the MGM Grand & the Wynn first to get a feel for the place, and then started walking through the rest of the Macaunese casinos which were different.

 Nobody drinks, there were no booze on the tables and it seemed rather quiet, everyone was drinking coffee. This was not what we were looking for but we went through probably six or seven before we gave up and went back to the Wynn. I lost some money which is stupid since I'm unemployed, but Jono won big and took care of me the rest of the night which somehow made everything OK.  (Thanks again buddy!) That was another long night where we were surprised once and a while by tremendous amounts of m-80's exploding every 20 minutes or so. (Fireworks are legal in Macau) - the next morning we caught a cab to the ferry terminal and headed to Kowloon Peninsula, our home for the next two nights.

Kowloon was nice, we walked though the park on our way to our hotel and stumbled upon a hedge maze. We were staying near the harbor at the Kowloon Hotel, fairly pimp since it was New Year's and this was what I was considering my last "nice" place for the next 2 weeks. I donned my provided robe immediately and relaxed before the parade festivities.

At this point we had a few cocktails and since it's easier to tell this part of the story with pictures I'll just do that. I will say that it was an amazing parade that took several hours, and we had a fantastic time.

So

 that night came to an end and the next day I spent prepping for my time in Thailand, that night was the fireworks. Pretty much the entire city surrounds the harbor to view the three floating barges sending their choreographed gunpowder displays into the sky, our challenge was finding a nice central spot to enjoy and take pictures. Again, this went on for 25 minutes and was the best fireworks display I've seen this side of Vegas NYE - (sorry Hong Kong, the strip has you beat for this one) It was longer, and classier, but not as much... Vegas goes big with music that's more my style so now I think I need to go back next year to compare.  (Video of Finale)

After dealing with getting "herded" into the center of town we found our way to the Temple Street Night Market for some souvenir shopping and dinner. This place was crazy cheap and had everything I needed. I had mis-placed my hat the night before and found a replacement for like seven bucks, sorry Bethany it was a good five years :( We had dinner at a very local establishment and made it an early night since Jono had to be at the airport by 10am and I wanted to see one last sight, the Giant Buddha!

On yet another island, Lantau, there is a gondola to the top of a mountain where there lives a giant stone Buddha. (64 meters) So I parted ways with my com padre and made my way to this final Hong Kong destination. It was foggy as hell, and crowded, but I made my way up a long set of stairs to that incredible shrine. It was HUGE, but like I said it was also crowded being the most major holiday weekend of the year, so I bounced after shooting some shots and found my way back down and to the airport for my flight to Bangkok.

That's where I am now. I got into a very chill Hostel last night, made some friends, had some dinner, a few brews and got a nice nights sleep. It's hot & sunny, there's humidity which I haven't felt since Europe last summer, and mosquito's for my first time since Peru last May. It's a good thing I remembered my DDT & After bite. There's a pool & I'm paying $14/night, not bad at all. I'm off to tour the city and tomorrow I'll start my journey south, first stop will be the Krabi Peninsula for some climbing and whatever, we shall see & if you made it this far you'll probably read all about it in my next post in a week or so.