We just left Hong Kong and have now arrived into Siem Reap where we’ll spend a couple of days exploring the temples of Angkor.
We spent eight great days in Hong Kong, despite the fact that I fought a cold and laryngitis over the entire duration of our stay. I’m beginning to think that I’m allergic to China.
Nadia loved Hong Kong since it’s a bustling city with LOTS and LOTS of shopping. For me, the crowds aren’t really my speed, but I managed to find lots to keep me entertained. We saw some great sights, including three day trips we took out of the main part of the city.
On one day, we went out to Lantau Island, where we took a 30 minute cable car ride to see the world’s largest seated Buddha. The 40 metre high Buddha statue sits atop a mountain that requires climbing hundreds of steps to reach. We’ve attached some pictures of “Big Buddha” and the cable car journey:
We also managed to catch a procession of monks coming out of the nearby Po Lin monastery:
The setting nestled amongst mountains was perfect for a holy site such as this.
We also took a day trip to Stanley to go to the famous Stanley Market (thanks for the recommendation Uncle Baigals!). It was a nice seaside escape from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, and the market had some more unusual and artsy items compared to the rest of Hong Kong. The journey by bus took us cliffside along some great seaside villages. Here are a couple of pictures from the town of Stanley itself:
We also took a day trip by TurboJet ferry to the former Portugese colony of Macao. We went to go see both the remnants of the Portugese town and to check out what Macao is more recently known for…its casinos. The old town is still fairly well preserved, and we managed to get some good shots of the Portugese churches, buildings, etc.:
Macao is busy at work trying to turn itself into Southeast Asia’s answer to Las Vegas. We’ve been told that they take more money in on a daily than does Las Vegas, but you wouldn’t know it from the part of the “strip” that we saw. We checked out the Venetian, which is an exact replica of the one in Las Vegas – I guess the Chinese have moved on from copying handbags, watches, and shoes…The casino was fairly tame compared to Las Vegas in a controlled gaming frenzy. However, we were surprised to see things such as a Las Vegas-style dancing show and a few “ladies of the night” that were scoping out potential patrons as they made their way up to their hotel rooms. The highlight though was an amazing Cirque du Soleil show called “Zaia” that we caught while we were there. We managed to get tickets to a half-empty theatre for a mere $25 Canadian per person! The set was incredible and it was likely the best Cirque show we’ve ever seen. Here are some pictures from the Venetian and a couple of other casino pictures from Macao:
We took the ferry back to Hong Kong harbour after midnight and managed to catch a few great shots of the lights:
We’re now enjoying ourselves in Siem Reap and looking forward to doing some great touring of the temples. We will keep you updated in the near future.
Emperor Mike and Empress Nadia
We also took a day trip to Stanley to go to the famous Stanley Market (thanks for the recommendation Uncle Baigals!). It was a nice seaside escape from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, and the market had some more unusual and artsy items compared to the rest of Hong Kong. The journey by bus took us cliffside along some great seaside villages. Here are a couple of pictures from the town of Stanley itself:
We also took a day trip by TurboJet ferry to the former Portugese colony of Macao. We went to go see both the remnants of the Portugese town and to check out what Macao is more recently known for…its casinos. The old town is still fairly well preserved, and we managed to get some good shots of the Portugese churches, buildings, etc.:
Macao is busy at work trying to turn itself into Southeast Asia’s answer to Las Vegas. We’ve been told that they take more money in on a daily than does Las Vegas, but you wouldn’t know it from the part of the “strip” that we saw. We checked out the Venetian, which is an exact replica of the one in Las Vegas – I guess the Chinese have moved on from copying handbags, watches, and shoes…The casino was fairly tame compared to Las Vegas in a controlled gaming frenzy. However, we were surprised to see things such as a Las Vegas-style dancing show and a few “ladies of the night” that were scoping out potential patrons as they made their way up to their hotel rooms. The highlight though was an amazing Cirque du Soleil show called “Zaia” that we caught while we were there. We managed to get tickets to a half-empty theatre for a mere $25 Canadian per person! The set was incredible and it was likely the best Cirque show we’ve ever seen. Here are some pictures from the Venetian and a couple of other casino pictures from Macao:
As for Hong Kong “proper”, we had a good time strolling its various neighbourhoods, going through various markets, including the ladies market, sportswear market, temple street night market, antique market, etc. We also hit the typical tourist sites such as Victoria Peak, taking a tram to the top, catching the nightly laser show from Tsim Sha Tsui (“TST”), etc. As a treat to ourselves, on our last day, we went to The Peninsula hotel for High Tea. Here are some pictures – I’ve even included one from our hotel lobby, which was in itself photo-worthy:
The timing of our Hong Kong trip was intentionally geared such that we would be there for New Year’s. We booked several weeks in advance to get a window seat view of the fireworks that would go off at midnight over Hong Kong Harbour. According to the newspaper, the spectacle would cost a mere $30 million Hong Kong dollars. Whatever the cost, it gave us a nice roughly 5 – 10 minute show. Here’s a snippet:
The timing of our Hong Kong trip was intentionally geared such that we would be there for New Year’s. We booked several weeks in advance to get a window seat view of the fireworks that would go off at midnight over Hong Kong Harbour. According to the newspaper, the spectacle would cost a mere $30 million Hong Kong dollars. Whatever the cost, it gave us a nice roughly 5 – 10 minute show. Here’s a snippet:
We took the ferry back to Hong Kong harbour after midnight and managed to catch a few great shots of the lights:
We’re now enjoying ourselves in Siem Reap and looking forward to doing some great touring of the temples. We will keep you updated in the near future.Emperor Mike and Empress Nadia
We loved your Hong Kong blog, Emperor and Empress Arlitt. We LOVED HK as you know and we're happy you did too. Macao looks interesting - but too much like Vegas. Thanks for the fireworks display - felt like we were there!Looking forward to Cambodia and Vietnam!
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