On Macau and Hong Kong

Right now I'm writing from the Shenzhen airport, where I am very hungry. Unfortunately, despite being surrounded by food, I have only Hong Kong dollars and no way to change to Chinese money. None of the merchants I asked accept credit cards, and I see no ATMs. C'est la vie.

Before I say too much more, let me say that some friends and I have set up a Photobucket so that you can see trip pictures. A picture is truly worth a thousand words, so I suggest you check it out. http://photobucket.com/fbcmacau (I've password-protected it for safety, please email or FB-message me for the password)

I just left Hong Kong, and before that, Macau. Both cities were quite nice, in different ways. Hong Kong's downtown is slightly more dense than Macau, but both are very vertical, with hundreds of high-rise buildings. The most notable thing about Macau is how small it is; you could feasibly walk from one side to another. Not that you would need to, because the bus network is quite extensive and frequent. We still ended up doing quite a bit of walking though. Because of its Portuguese heritage, Macau has an interesting blend of Chinese and European architecture, so there's lots to look at while walking or riding the bus.

Another great thing about Macau is the abundance of high-quality bakeries. There is one on just about every corner, and they sell (quite cheaply) some of the best pastries, muffins, and other baked goods I've ever had. Most famous is the egg tart, which is, as the name might imply, a tart filled with egg custard. Delicious and filling, they make a great breakfast.

Where Macau has historical colonial buildings (and casinos), Hong Kong has dazzling, massive, and cutting-edge skyscrapers. A popular way to take in these architectural marvels, which we did on Thursday night, is to take the tram to the top of Victoria Peak, where on a pleasant day you can see Hong Kong in its entirety. Even more impressive, in my opinion, is to see the Symphony of Lights, a nightly 15-minute light show which is view from the north side of Hong Kong's harbor. The building lights, as well as lasers and spotlights on top of each building, produce a light show which is choreographed to dramatic music. If you can't see it in person, I'd recommend watching a video to get an idea of what it is like.

In both Macau and Hong Kong, we went to Cantonese restaurants and were served dim sum, which consists of a wide variety of Cantonese dishes served family-style. Some of these dishes include dumplings, spring rolls, noodles, and fried rice. On one occasion, I actually ate chicken feet (the only “weird” food I've had during my stay here), and though they weren't disgusting, I didn't think they were that great, although others liked them. There's also a wide variety of other Asian cuisines-- we've had Vietnamese, Thai (several times), Indian, Korean, and others I'm probably forgetting. Overall, I really liked both cities. I'm looking forward to returning to Hong Kong on July 3-15.

Update: Got some much-needed grub on the plane, made it to Shanghai (only 90 minutes late), and now I'm sitting contently at a family friend's house in Suzhou.