The Vegas of Hong Kong

So I officially survived my first and only weekend in Hong Kong. Our program director, Dr. Jay, has been around the world, and to him Hong Kong is one of his favorite cities in the world. He also warned us that it’s a good transition into mainland. . .reasoning being is because it looks like the US just is covered in Chinese symbols and language…therefore the sites of Xiamen won’t be as foreign. Am I scared? Yeah I am terrified…..just kidding….I like to keep my parents on the edge of their seats. I really enjoy it here in Hong Kong. For those who have asked where exactly I have been in Hong Kong my answer is everywhere. I am trying to soak in as much as I can while I am here. Our home base is at a YMCA camp in the New Territories right down the street from Ma on Shan on the East rail. Much of our play has been down in Kowloon. That is where we spent time going out to eat and to the night market the other day…which I must say was incredible. Lucus and I took an adventure down to the night market. It is called Men’s Street because of all of its products for men. There was a lot of cool stuff, but the sights were even more stimulating. The China you always thought of was exactly what we saw. Olden signs, bikes, fish, traffic and people everywhere were the main event. Best part was walking into a restaurant containing no English. Lucus and I pulled the old pray, point and order. With open minds and hardy stomachs we went to town on whatever it was. Dog, pig intestine, frog, or possibly even worse.
Now that you have an awful taste and may feel a bit sorry, pull out your check book and send me a monetary present to dine at the finest of the finest where I could possibly get pig’s feet under glass. One thing that is for certain is that the diet here is much different than expected....for instance....there is no fiber. Thanks mom and Tedd for the Ducelax….I have become the trip pill pusher to get things moving throughout the group. We still are wondering if it’s worth the sleepless nights on the toilet (Which are Squatty Potties….I will let you guess)…..This is the part of the blog where you put another zero behind the number on the check in front of you….
Our trip or at least my trip, since we make it what we want it to be has been adventurous. I love our group and since many of us are business majors we have a lot to talk about. We did get to go through a wet market yesterday which was a lot of fun. As you can imagine….it was wet. ..Wet meaning the floor was covered in water from the plethora of seafood, veggies, hanging meat and the “unknown" dangling from the ceilings. To be honest, it was a bit over whelming to see all the action in the market, but it was quite the experience.
Yesterday was an adventure to be much appreciated for years to come. . . The Vegas of Hong Kong. We took an hour ferry from Hong Kong Island to an island known as Macau. Macau was once a Portuguese controlled island now home to Casinos, architecture, fun and Fernandos (The world famous meat restaurant). The buildings were absolutely amazing and we had a blast just looking around. Don’t tell anyone but we did have the opportunity to play a little Roulette over tea and coconut cake. After a few bets we were off to check out the ruins from the olden days of Portuguese control. The streets around Macau were littered with Portuguese signs complimented by Chinese characters and English with the feel of Europe. The ruins of the old church were incredible, but the excitement afterwards was even better. No sooner did we leave the ruins, we noticed an infiltration of Macau Police around the ruins and shut it down. Then we noticed the presence of some type of foreign secret service scoping out the local area. It was clear that someone special was about to visit the ruins. Though we did not end up seeing anyone special, spotting 4 sniper teams on roofs was by far a blatant sign. Definitely a Jason Bourne experience and view from the 360 degree lookout of the city.
Time in Hong Kong will come to an end on Wednesday and may mark the end to the freedom of Facebook and blogging. We will see when the time comes…

For now….Life is Good.