The Traveling Martens

More Hong Kong....

Finished about an hour walk around Victoria's peak yesterday afternoon. It seems the smog here is nearly eternal, but we got lucky and had a sunny day and could see most of the city, peering out through the tropical trees on the peak.

Dinner last night was another good Chinese dish, we never know exactly what we're going to get when we order. We've asked for water several times and always get a glass of steaming hot water, finally figured out today that we need to ask for the distilled water, which is cold bottled water. The restaurant last night also had the first bathroom which was a hole in the ground, I'm sure we'll see more of that during our trip, lovely....

With only a few hours of sleep on the plane during the previous night, we called it an early night (6 pm) and slept until 6 this morning. Feeling much more energetic today, so we headed to the ferry terminal for the hour ride to Macau. The Sands Casino Macau is the first thing we saw as we pulled up to the island. Macau was Portugese territory until it was turned over to China in 1999, the same year the British gave back Hong Kong. Macau is the only legal gambling area in China, but gambling is obviously very popular in Asia, as we discovered from all the mainland Chinese coming here to bet. The tables in the casinos were several people deep, and people standing behind the players could add their own bets to each player's hands. Guess they wanted to not only take their chances on the cards, but on the player's skills as well.

We walked around the main island, enjoying the strong Portugese influence on the architecture and the large plazas in the city. We sampled an assortment of candies and strange dried meats from a store and ended up buying some spicy pork to snack on throughout the day. Hong Kong and Macau don't let you eat any food or drinks on public transportation, and we think we've figured out why- the foods smell so strong (and sometimes funky!) Next we went to the Westin Macau for a drink in their gardens and walked along the black sand beach.

Back in Hong Kong, we are heading out again for dinner and the famous night markets. More soon...

posted by Mel and Stacy Marten @ 7:22 AM