Monday, September 22, 2014

Joyous Journeys: Hong Kong Day 3-4

July 16-17, 2014
Don't get me wrong, I had several helpings of everything for my fuel for my last day in HK ahead of me. And what did my last day in Hong Kong entail? Click to read about my last-day-adventures.

Our first goal was to visit Macau before we left Hong Kong, so after the commotion and chaos of trying to get the best deal that day, we finally boarded the ferry for our hour-long ride. 
The thing I miss the most from Macau is their Portuguese egg tarts. I've had Chinese egg tarts in America and never really cared for them much, but for some reason, Portuguese egg tarts are just something else. Like, I need to get a hold of some and find where they sell authentic "Po-tarts" near my house so I can eat some more, soon. Thanks El for the heads up that I just had to try some "Po-tarts" while in my short stay in Macau!
 When we arrived into the city, we decided to visit the Ruins of St. Paul's (after all the chaos of some tour guide whisking us away trying to convince us to buy a tour package and then figuring out how to get to certain tourist spots on our own). The hordes of people grew and grew, the closer you got to the ruins. It was clearly a tourist spot, but the site was no doubt majestic and beautiful.

I also found the somewhat anachronistic Portuguese styled plaza right before the ruins (pictured above), as well as the compact streets bordered by towering tiny apartments (pictured below) to be in themselves their own tourist attractions. They held a certain beauty to me, which was added by the environment of all the tourists plowing through the streets and all the street vendors handing out free samples of their pastries and dried meats. 
 
The view from the top of the Macau Museum (which we didn't actually walk through since we didn't feel like paying for a tour).
 After an incredibly long day of a self-guided tour through Macau, ending with a visit to their version of the Venetian (which is an incredible replica of the one in Las Vegas), we headed back to the ferry (and that hour long wait felt like forever). My family and I decided to take one last night stroll around the brightly lit, heavily crowded streets of Hong Kong. While on this stroll, we discovered a hidden food court that we all wished we found at the start of our HK trip. There was such a huge array of choices, all for fairly cheap prices. 
Another recommendation from one of my former housemates: get a freshly squeezed fruit juice from the street in the infamous orange and white cups. The freshly made watermelon juice was definitely refreshing and quenched my thirst for about thirty seconds. Then my water-lacking body, all due to the humidity and walking around all day, needed water. I never wanted water so much than while I was in HK. And I'm really bad at remembering to drink even one cup of water back home. We all then got a night's rest before we headed back to the Philippines the next morning. 

To finally visit Hong Kong (living there when I wasn't even a year old doesn't count) was an incredible experience, and has left me craving to travel to even more places; to view the beautiful sights of other countries, eat authentic food to that country, meet the local people, and experience their unique, rich cultures. 

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