Macau and the Rest of Hong Kong

Yes, Macau did surprise me. Smack in the middle of the main area are these beautiful pastel colored, Portuguese-colonial-style buildings, leading up to a lovely ruin of an old cathedral. It almost felt like Europe. Ahh....! Remembering that continent fondly, we treated ourselves to lunch at Joel Rubochon's restaurant. Indeed we are indulgent :) It was a good value compared to NY (right?), and the food was delicious. On the downside, we were still not feeling 100% and felt rather tired afterwards. But we forged ahead and went to the Venetian. Meh, just like the Venetian anywhere, but apparently the largest in the world? We also went to Taipa village, which was pretty dead on a Monday night.

From Seoul & Hong Kong

From Seoul & Hong Kong church ruins

Today (Tuesday) we had the goal to chill out. Well, first I had to go to the post office and mail home a box of wintry stuff that I dont need anymore. But after that we got to do fun stuff - dim sum with Jina's friend Gordan (yay Jina for having friends in Asia!), then another treat- massages at the spa at Grand Hyatt. It's been fun going around with Jina because we are staunch supporters of each other's indulgences. For example, we both can't walk by a macaroon display without buying one :) The massage was amazing and, again, I had this very chatty masseuse who told me all about what I need to do (and also that I was dehydrated! like the foot massage guy).

We went to an NYU Stern alumni event and Gordan, Jeff and Ji-Song (all people we hung out with here) also came. Then we went to dinner and had a second delicious chinese traditional meal of the day. Roast goose at a famous place (Yung Lee? I need to confirm).

From Seoul & Hong Kong on the streets

As its my last day in Hong Kong, here are a few quirky/interesting things I noticed about Asia so far: (1) people really wear SARS masks when they are sick - lots of people walk around with them, and apparently its a practice that pre-dates SARS (2) they have a different concept of politeness - in that, they bump into you and cut you off as if you arent there. It's not like it happens all the time or its so overt, but you notice it (3) electronic sounds - seems like everything makes a sound. also TVs everywhere - US seems so unadvanced in comparison (4) lots of malls! I thought it was just a Jersey thing, but man, these guys have us beat. At least in Hong Kong, I think part of the explanation is that the streets are so narrow and the city having grown rather sporadically, that the malls are a good way to contain crowded shopping areas. In HK, there is also a HUGE network of covered foot bridges that sometimes it seems you can cover the city (with many mall stops) without over going outside.

Tomorrow I leave for Vietnam. As typical with trips like the one coming up, I have a strange mix of excitement and nervousness. Much like the night before the first day of school. You know by the end of the school year you will be able to look back and think a lot had happened to you that year, so that is exciting, but from day 1, you have no idea what those experiences will be. You just have to wait!

From Seoul & Hong Kong example mall

From Seoul & Hong Kong