Post #50 - November 30, 2012, Hanoi, Vietnam

What we did: Women's Museum and trip planning

Budget: 1,200,000 Dong/$60; Spent: 816,000 Dong/$39.80

Patty here.

I am stunned that it's post 50. And to think we would be approaching the last 3 week leg of our trip if we hadn't decided to spend Christmas/New Years away from home. Time is flying by faster and faster for us. And we're getting more and more focused on making this experience last til the bitter end which is tentatively May now. But I guess we'll see how things go. 

Happy to report it was good day for the ol' bank account. We were under budget by quite a bit. From the get go today that was our goal. Luckily breakfast is free at our guesthouse. Mind you it's only an egg and a big white bun but the coffee is unlimited. And we've bought some fruit from several street vendors to supplement it all and now it's a perfect way to start the day.

We were hoping to get up earlier than we did but the pillows at our guesthouse are a little tall for our liking so it's been kinda tough falling asleep for both of us. We ended up downstairs for breakfast at around 11:00am and did some reading, checked e-mails, read up on some current affairs like the highly anticipated release of the Hobbit and off we went.

Our book described the Women's Museum in Vietnam as "excellent... and superbly laid out... it's the memories of the wartime contributions of individual heroic women that are the most poignant. There are regular exhibitions held on topics as diverse as human trafficking and street vendors." It caught both our attention and we were looking forward to going there first today.Turned out to be an excellent experience. As you come in there's these striking photos of Vietnam's wide range of landscapes and the various tribal women that work in each respective area of Vietnam. 

There were lockers in the lobby free of charge so we dropped off our bag and stopped at the change room so Jeff could put on an indigenous dress and fully immerse himself in the experience.

The museum had three floors of exhibits. There was nothing spectacular about any of it. But it was it's simplistic approach that I found most refreshing. It's selection of information and the presentation was interesting and well-written. The first portion of the museum discussed female street vendors in the cities of Vietnam. There was a video playing which was the accounts of I think 5 different women who work as street vendors and have had little choice but to leave their families and villages to go work in the city. I remember one woman who had left her husband to care for their children, only went home twice a month for 6 years. Each week she would make about $20 to send home for her family. Her day started out at 4am in the market selecting the produce for the day's sales. Afterwards she went straight to selling it on the streets. If it was a good day, she would be done by 4pm. On a bad day by 7pm. And then it would start all over the next day. She did this everyday for 2 weeks until she would go home to see her family. Her board room cost her $0.35/day. And she did all this work, all by herself with no family to go home to everyday. One woman said her husband kept telling her "it's only for another couple years until the kids are old enough. Then we can be as poor as we want". She said it made her sad her that her husband had to live a part while they were young. Big sacrifices all to give their kids a better life. And you can find these women selling fruit and other things everywhere here on the streets of Hanoi. All of them with what I'm sure are very similar backgrounds to the women we learned about in the video.

The museum went on discussing cultural and tribal customs regarding marriage, having children, and womens roles in society. I got a chance to carry a heavy basket with only my forehead. I really don't get why they would choose to use their forehead for carrying heavy items. I guess it takes the stress off your back but it really hurts your head. For the record I am carrying it the way it's supposed to be carried:

The last portion of the museum on the 3rd floor touched on the lives of heroic women in the Vietnamese military who played many key roles during wars Vietnam fought. In fact, Vietnam has a long history of strong women, many who have won medals of honour and bravery. The section mainly focused on the Northern Vietnamese generation of women who fought in the Colonial war against the French and then the Vietnam war against the United States, all of which took place between 1940-1975. It was noted that by the end this era close to a million women had volunteered to fight for Vietnam. Many of these women were leaders of their teams and there were numerous sectors of the Vietnamese military that were exclusively women! And their contributions were not just limited to nursing, sewing, and cooking, they also fought with guns, killing enemies, helping disarm bombs, and even taking down enemy planes. I had never seen anything like it. Like Jeff said, it's no wonder the US lost the war, they were fighting an entire nation of soldiers. It was really interesting to see especially because there has always been a serious lack of strong female role models in North America. Many girls grow up idolizing the Kardashians and other mindless celebrities and always trying to fit the mold. Never coming across as too strong or too sure of ourselves for fear of judgement. It gets ingrained at a young age that girls and boys need to act a certain way. So to read stories of heroic women doing the exact opposite and volunteering to fight alongside men, and being honoured for their leadership and contributions and back in the 50's and 60's, was awesome! I think too many girls grow up thinking only men can be hereos. It made me think about how lucky I was to have parents who encouraged me to play soccer. A sport that I love. And as a girl to love a sport, you sometimes need to deal with an unhealthy amount of criticism for it. It's too bad even in today's world this is all too common. But it was these kinds of women that have made ground breaking progress on gender equality and I have so much respect for them. I felt empowered seeing women not afraid to be strong and brave enough to fight. Amazing women no doubt about it. 

At the very end we also came across a very moving photo that was taken after the Vietnam war ended.  It was of a mother and son embracing after 7 years of separation. He had been one of 36 people condemned death. What an amazing moment to have captured:

After the museum we were starving. We found what sounded like a very cheap and tasty place to find some street food and headed there. The place is called Xoi Yen and they specialize in sticky rice topped with things like Asian sausage, gooey fried egg, and slow-cooked pork. Jeff loved it, and I thought it was pretty good. The meal only cost us $5 and it included 2 beers! Here are some pics:

On our way back a lady carrying a big heavy balance and selling mandarins stopped us to try and make a sale. Have I explained how heavy those balances are?! Jeff posted a picture of me carrying one our first day in Hanoi and let me tell you that thing is crazy heavy. Without exaggerating I seriously think I could literally only carry one for no more than a minute. That lady put it on my shoulder in the picture for 10 seconds and I seriously hurt my shoulder. They carry them around all day!! Anyways so after learning more about these street vendors, how could we say no right? We bought 1kg of mandarins for $1.50 and hopefully helped her reach her target a little sooner. We went back to the hostel to drop off some stuff and decide on a place to grab something to drink and finalize plans for Vietnam. 

We headed back outside to a cafe we spotted earlier. Jeff and I shared a slice of cheesecake and a mango-banana smoothie and ended up booking a 2 night stay in Ninh Binh which is a small city of about 130,000 people and located 2 and 1/2 hours away from Hanoi. It'll be our next stop in Vietnam. Apparently there's not much to see in the city itself but tons of beautiful scenery in the surrounding areas. From there we'll head to Cat Ba Island for 5 nights and then back to Hanoi for 2 before heading to Bangkok for a night as a stop over before Delhi. 

Looking forward to spending another day in Hanoi tomorrow. We love this city!

Good night,

Patty

Post #49 - November 29, 2012 - Hanoi, Vietnam

What we did: walked through the Old Quarter in Hanoi

Budget: 1,200,000 Dong/$60; Spent: 1,438,000 Dong/$72

Jeff here. 

It was a pretty uneventful day today. We got down for our free breakfast around 11:00am and didn't leave our hostel until around 12:30pm. Our intention was to visit a bunch of sites today, but that didn't happen. 

On our way to the first site, I was approached by a young boy of about 12 who was pointing down at my feet. I, naturally, looked down at where he was pointing and suddenly I found the kid kneeling down at my feet trying to glue a part of my shoe back into place. I told him repeatedly "no" and began walking away, when Patty said "why not?" and asked the boy how much it would be. I still wasn't convinced, but was persuaded to step out of my shoes and into some sandals the boy was carrying. The first boy was joined by another kid and for a second I got the image of these kids running off with my shoes. Thankfully, they did not. 

The second boy started cleaning one shoe and the first boy was trying to figure out how to glue a part of my shoe back into place. Unfortunately, my shoes have pretty much always been like that, which I think is due to a design flaw rather than anything else, so there was no really good way to glue the parts back down. Instead, he got it in his head that he was going to sow the pieces back down. Awesome. I half-heartedly tried to get him to stop a couple of times, but he was determined. At this point it was very clear the kids were going to expect more than the $1 they had originally asked for, so I was getting pretty feisty. When he was done, my one shoe looked like the Frankenstein monster, with scraggly sowing lines going in all directions. It's now known as The Frankenshoe. 

So, of course, when the kids were done they asked for more than the $1 we had originally agreed upon. I was visibly annoyed by this time and tried shoving $2 into his hand, but he wouldn't take it. So I just started walking away. I gave the money to Patty and she seemed to make things better with the kids. It was a very annoying experience: not only did I not want them to do anything to my shoes in the first place, they actually managed to make them look worse than they already did. I did not think this was even possible.

I was in a pretty crabby mood after this and was annoyed that Patty had persuaded me into agreeing to it. So Patty and I walked in silence to our first site. When we got there it was closed for lunch. We started walking toward the second site, when it started raining slightly and Patty was concerned our painting, which we were carrying with us (packaged up) would get wet. So instead of heading to the second site, we went in the direction of the post office. 

Patty and I still weren't really talking at this point, so once we got to the post office, Patty went inside and I waited outside reading the Lonely Planet. Patty ended up paying over $30 to ship the stupid painting home, which is a complete rip-off, considering it weighs practically nothing. I sent over 8 kg home for that much from Hong Kong, although Patty had sent the painting home by air, rather than by ship.

We then picked out a restaurant from the Lonely Planet to have lunch at and headed there. The walk took about 30 minutes, but we were seated immediately and our food came soon after. The restaurant was a real hole in the wall, but the food, which was a kind of mix between a noodle and beef soup and stir fry, was amazing. Here's a pic: 

After our lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around shops, again, mostly in silence. Finally, we had had enough of being annoyed over something so stupid, and we decided to sort out our differences. So, naturally, we threw down our gloves and went at it. 

After I tapped out (by arm bar), we decided to head back to the hotel for a couple minutes to change, before leaving again for dinner. We went to a restaurant called "Lean and Green", which advertises itself as a vegetarian restaurant even though it's menu clearly has plenty of non-vegetarian dishes. Very odd. Anyway, our dinner was really good. The egg fried rice (not in the picture) and garlic fried eggplant (on the right) were absolutely spectacular. Here's a pic: 

We once again wandered through the shops in the Old Quarter before a couple dresses in a window caught Patty's eye. She went inside and proceeded to peruse the wares. The shop was really hot inside for some reason, so I decided to just wait outside. Apparently while I was waiting outside, the worker in the shop didn't treat Patty very respectfully and she was pretty upset when she left. I guess Patty had spoken to her a couple times and she completely ignored her. We started walking home, when Patty insisted we go back to give the worker a piece of her mind. I wasn't really sure what to think of this, but it was clear Patty had been strongly affected by how this girl had treated her, so I didn't object. On the way back to the shop, Patty stopped a couple of times to rethink the point of her going to talk to the girl. In the end, she decided that she had never really stood up for herself like this before and that now would be a good time to start. 

I didn't enter the shop with Patty, although I observed from the window. I just saw the girl nodding, but other than that she hardly moved a muscle. When Patty came out she said that it was one of the weirdest experiences of her life. I guess she had told the worker that she made her feel very disrespected and unwelcome, and that she should be nicer to people. In response, the worker simply said "OK, thank you for the experience" with apparently no facial expression. Neither of us were sure what to make of that. Maybe she's a psychopath? Hopefully not. I wasn't checking to see whether she followed us home...

Tomorrow we have our sights set on the Women's Museum. Hopefully we make it there! 

Good night!

Post #48 - November 28, 2012 - Hanoi, Vietnam

What we did: Haircut, Bach Ma Temple, shopped in Hanoi's Old Quarter, walked around Hoan Kiem Lake 

Budget: 1,200,000 Dong/$60; Spent: 2,640,000 Dong/$132

Patty here.

It's probably apparent that we haven't been able to stick to our budget lately. Hong Kong turned out to be quite pricey, and I find myself in awe of all the novel things you can find while travelling and let's just say the temptation to buy has been too strong for me! It's so tough not to browse around when there is block after block of vendors and little shops of things you have never seen before and that you would never find at home. Today was another unsuccessful day with respect to sticking to our budget. However, I have absolutely no regrets about overspending today. Our purchases, which I will get to later were awesome! In fact, my heart flutters at the mere thought of our little finds.

Our day didn't really get started until about 1pm. We slept in and it was much needed. We woke up at 11:30am and Jeff started writing his blog while I kept myself busy reading. The blog took about an hour and half to write and by the time it was posted we were starving and slightly irritable. Because as many of you know, nothing stands between us and food!

We got down to the lobby and ended up chatting with one of the receptionists/possible owners named Peter. We had some questions about bartering in Vietnam since it wasn't totally clear where it's appropriate in the Old Quarter. It was a challenge trying to explain our question to him, but eventually we kind of got an answer indirectly. There are some stores with prices posted, but with no tags. And then there's others with prices on tags, but they're hand written so it's pretty unclear. Anyways, it seems it's okay in most places so what we decided was to at least try to haggle and if not, the worst they can say is no. The other thing we were determined to do today is finally learn a little bit of the Vietnamese language. Peter was very helpful with this, and taught us to say hello (pronounced "sin-jow"), goodbye (pronounced "dam-bee-uht"), and how much money (pronounced "bow-new-tien"). We felt very ignorant our first night in Hanoi saying every single word down to a simple hello in English. It's a simple thing to do, and the locals appreciate it so much. The first time we said thank you was at lunch/breakfast. Peter directed us across the street to a cafe which also happened to be recommended by lonely planet. The server brought us our food and we said thank you in Vietnamese (pronounced ga-mon) and she looked immediately impressed. She actually smiled at us and  repeated the word giggling to herself. It was the first time a local actually smiled at us that wasn't trying to sell us something. And that set the tone for the rest of the day. Honestly I can't believe what a difference it makes during your exchanges with locals when you know how to say something in their first language. I guess it's like someone coming to Canada and saying thank you in a foreign language. You may know it means thank you, but it's just not as meaningful hearing it in a different language. So I can see that.

It's interesting, as a Winnipegger it has been difficult to relate to people who have to deal with tourists all the time. We're always the tourists, never the locals. As we all know tourism in Winnipeg is so tiny and essentially non-existent, at least to the vast majority of us... Maybe we get 10-20 foreign tourists a year??? I'd like to know the stat especially since we came across a Lonely Planet for Canada today! That was exciting to see. But, I'll get back to Lonely Planet books later. I like trying to see things from the perspective of the locals. Places where tourism is over-saturated, can be tiring. The locals treat tourists very differently and can often be cold, withdrawn, and frankly seem annoyed most of the time. It definitely takes more effort to win them over. But even on our way out of the restaurant at lunch we said thank you and good bye in Vietnamese and that's all it took for two of the workers to warm up to us. They stopped us to look at our lonely planet book and then ended up helping us with our pronunciation of words. It gave us an opportunity to connect with locals like we haven't in a long time and I have no doubt it improved the experience we otherwise would have had today immensely. Our perspective of the people today vs. yesterday is so much more positive.

We had originally planned to go to a hair salon a couple kilometers away because it was recommended online, but when I noticed a salon by the same name across the street from where we ate lunch, we decided to check out the price there. I managed to ask the lady there how much it was in Vietnamese and again she smiled at us, and said 100,000 Dong which is $5CDN. Peter from our hostel recommended we show them the paper bill to ensure we get charged the right price since we're dealing with dozens of zeroes here and they can take advantage of that sometimes. So we pulled one out, and she confirmed. All I needed was a trim so no further questions were asked. Where else can you get a $5 haircut?! And the girl next to me had just gotten a really nice haircut so I was feeling confident about it. I had also read online that you can get a decent haircut in most places in Hanoi. Fast forward 10 minutes later, my hair was trimmed and I was quite pleased with the result I must say. The best part was it was $5 and the lady was very sweet, like most of the people here in Hanoi.

During my haircut Jeff had done some reading in our Lonely Planet book and mapped out our day. We first headed to the oldest temple in Hanoi named Bach Ma Temple located in the Old Quarter. It was free to get in and there were many locals there praying which we didn't totally understand since the temple to our knowledge was a historical monument that was built in honour of a horse that led a king to that site. And it was at this site he decided to build the walls of the city (which are no where to be found today). So we're not sure who/what they were praying to but there was lots of praying happening. Jeff said there were two cute little old ladies praying at a shrine that motioned to each other that we were standing there and from the looks of it were hoping we would take their picture. Funny enough it had crossed my mind, but we didn't out of respect. They also likely would have charged us for the picture - those little rascals. Here's a picture of the horse I mentioned from inside the temple:

Afterwards we came across a bookshop selling new and used books in English. There were a bunch of Lonely Planet books in the front window which peaked our interest. We've been thinking about getting one for New Zealand and actually found one in the store. It was photocopied, and a 2010 version, but still relevant. So we asked about the price. He said $7.50. We looked a bit more and then saw the Lonely Planet book for Canada. We actually got excited to see what it had to see about Winnipeg. We have been reading these books for so long and they can make or break a decision to visit somewhere. They can make a place sound like heaven and describe other places like somewhere you wouldn't want to step foot in. We took a picture of what they had to say about Winnipeg:

We eventually bought the New Zealand book for $6.50. We were happy we saved $1.50 and agreed to buy two draft beers later that day with our savings!

Vietnam was once invaded by the French so there are many remnants of French culture still here today, particularly in Hanoi for some reason. Consequently, their baked goods are said to be on par with those of the French. I am a bakery fiend! So after the temple visit we were hoping to find a cafe/bakery and sit down to check out the baked goods ourselves. Well, the place recommended by the book was closed sadly but we did end up finding a super awesome shop with very unique and affordable clothing. They had exactly what I have been looking for - a full length skirt I could wear in India and other places requiring a more modest attire like churches/mosques etc. Okay it wasn't exactly a skirt, it was way neater. They were wide black linen pants, but from the front it had a sheet of the same material that came across my hips making it look like a skirt from the front. I was so excited and the price was super good too - $14. I then tried on a really neat off the shoulder, teal coloured, cotton/spandex shirt with asymmetrical sleeves and I had to do it. I bought it for $12. Jeff liked it too. Even though it was cotton it was surprisingly elegant looking. I almost felt like I could wear it to a wedding. I tried my best to barter down the price but failed. But, I have no regrets whatsoever about purchasing those two items. The prices as they stood were more than reasonable and I love them.

I tried on another several pairs of pants but they were a little too trendy for me. The genie pants are really in style in Asia. They have really wide pant legs, the crotch comes down super super low sometimes to your knees or even to your ankles making them look like a skirt. Then they come into your ankles tightly with little cuffs. They're super neat, but not sure if that's going to be a trend I follow. I've seen a lot of people wearing them and it's just not flattering on them. It's certainly not for every body type, but very cool. They also had these pants that had what looked like aprons on the front. They were supposed to look like skirts but the one I tried on looked like just that, an apron. So another super original style at this store, but it didn't work out for me. But definitely left and impression and some inspiration.

We continued on and mosied into a shop selling some gorgeous paintings. Immediately there was one that caught both our eyes. It was very simple; just an enormous perfectly symmetrical tree in the center of the portrait. The background was stark white, and the entire tree was a lime green colour - a very surreal image. I don't want to get artsy fartsy and all deep and profound cause I know nothing about art but I would describe it as life-like. The tree made me feel alive and it looked like it was a living breathing tree. The colour though was a little much, but it was what initially drew us into the store. Turned out they had many versions of this tree and this type of painting. They were all replicas done by famous local painters and so fortunately for us, the price reflected this. It was very cool, they had all these students in the back of the shop working on canvasses, just painting away on little stools. We ended up falling in love with two paintings. There was a pink image of the tree, again with a stark white background, and little huts just under the tree. There was something so warm and vibrant about that one that I loved. The other one was slightly larger, and was a white tree (with a stark white background), with little flowers in pink, orange, and green sitting under the tree. I believe there was also a little boat but we saw so many I can't remember. We stood there contemplating buying one for probably 10 minutes going back and forth to each other and looking at others and we kept going back to those two. We were both in love. The guy first quoted us $60 and we said it was too expensive. We then kept talking and tried to decide if we even really wanted one. The answer was yes. Then it was a matter of price and which one. We went with the white tree. Then it was about the price. We offered $40. He declined and came back with $55. We said no and he went down to $50. We said we would think about it. And walked away, deep down hoping he would come after us. We were down the street when he yelled at us and said okay $45. And that closed the deal. We walked away with a painting that we both sincerely love.

After that we were hungry and grabbed dinner at a place selling $0.75 draft beers. We got a nice meal on a balcony overlooking the streets below and talked about how much we liked Hanoi. Looks like we'll be here for another 3 days. And luckily, we've managed to book our same room for the remainder of our time here. It'll be nice staying in one place for awhile. We agreed that part of the reason we liked Tokyo so much was because we got to know the city well. Hopefully we get to know Hanoi in the same way.

After dinner we went for a nice stroll around Hoan Kiem Lake nearby. It was kind of chilly due to the humidity but we still enjoyed ourselves. A really nice day overall.

Good night,

Patty

Post #47 - November 28, 2012 - Hanoi, Vietnam

What we did: mailed home some stuff, flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi, poked around Hanoi's Old Quarter

Budget: 1,200,000 Dong/$60; Spent: 1,880,000 Dong/$94

Jeff here.

For the first time ever, my fear of missing a plane was actually replaced with a disgruntled acceptance that the plane would be missed. We got started a little late this morning, so that coupled with the fact that we thought we had more time than we actually did, produced quite the predicament. Our flight left at 2:30pm local time, so, it being an international flight and all, you'd think we'd want to be at the airport at least at 12:30pm, which would have meant leaving our hostel around 11:30am. Well, I can tell you that at 11:30am, I was running down the street of Hong Kong carrying a 20 pound plastic bag filled with things we wanted to ship home. 

At least we woke up to a hearty breakfast! I don't think I'm saying anything revolutionary when I say that very little will keep Patty and I from a good meal. So while we were eating we probably should have been packing. And while I was running down the streets of Hong Kong like a crazed maniac, we probably should have been on the bus bound for the airport. Well, you live and you learn. 

I left Patty to finish packing in our room to take our stuff to the post office because of how late it was getting. I was already freaking out by this point, so I'm sure Patty was happy to see me gone. Anyway, our hostel gave us poor directions again (I think this is the fourth time) so I had to ask people along the way how on earth to get to the post office. Thankfully, people speak English in this blessed town, so that wasn't too much of a problem.

Once I reached the post office, conveniently housed on the 10th floor of a shopping mall, the worker there informed me that I would have to pay in cash, which I did not have....but (!!!) there was an ATM in the basement. I must have stared at him in anger/disbelief for a couple seconds, hopefully he didn't think I was going to attack him. I considered curling up into a little ball in the corner and crying, but then decided to run my butt down 10 flights of escalators. Thankfully, the ATM was not hard to find and it accepted my card. I then ran back up 10 flights of escalators. Did I mention that Hong Kong is pretty much sitting at 100% humidity right now? Yeah, I was soaked. What fun!

So, the guy handed me a box to fit all our stuff in, and I quickly jammed everything inside. The box was a little big so I hope things will be OK. I then paid, and got the hell outta there. I basically sprinted back to the hotel. Thankfully, Patty was ready in the lobby waiting, so we grabbed our stuff and got out of there. The hostel staff recommended we take the airport shuttle bus instead of the subway, so we headed for the nearby stop. Well, I think that was bad advice #5 on our hotel's part. Honestly, we probably could have got to the airport and back by subway in the time it took for that stupid bus to get to the airport. 

Under other circumstances, I would really have enjoyed the ride to the airport. The infrastructure that was constructed to get people to that airport is spectacular. A monitor on the bus said it's the longest combined bridge/raised highway in the world, at about 22 km. Some of the bridges we passed over are probably worth more than the city of Winnipeg. Again, under other circumstances...

So, at this point, even Patty is starting to get worried, and she tends to think everything will always be fine. I'm already preparing myself for the likelihood that we would be buying two more tickets to Hanoi at grossly inflated prices. The bus ride went on and on and when we finally could see the airport, it was less than 45 minutes to our flight's departure. We weren't sure which terminal to get off at, but saw some signs for Vietnam Airlines so jumped off at Terminal 1. Thankfully, we guessed correctly. We ran up to the check-in counter, told them where we were going and frantically got our packs ready for transport. When we were leaving the counter, we had 35 minutes to our flight and had to pass through both security and customs. They told us to run.

And run we did. Security wasn't too busy, but still time was ticking. I was in shock that we even had a chance...more than a chance, really. I pretty much went from having no hope at all to knowing that we would be fine in an instant. What a day! We got through security, grabbed all our stuff and went to wait for customs. The lines were pretty long, but not so long that I felt nervous about it. Again, we passed through customs with no problem and started running for our gate. It was quite a run, but we had some moving walkways to help us out. It's actually pretty fun running down those things. Never had an excuse to do that before today!!

It was actually a pretty big let down when we got to our gate and our plane wasn't even boarding yet. I can't believe how out of shape I am, though. My poor heart was not happy with that run. It kinda felt like a little like it was going to explode. Anyway, so we had some time to go looking for some water before boarding.

Just before boarding, we realized that we didn't have the bottoms of my pants. That's an odd sentence, so let me explain. The pants I was wearing are the kind that turn into shorts. While waiting for the bus earlier, I had been sweating so decided to remove the bottoms and we had packed them away in our small backpack. It must have been at security when we removed our laptop from our bag that they got misplaced. Really unfortunate since I just shipped home my other pairs of pants. Now I have only shorts. Sigh.

The plane ride to Hanoi was very enjoyable. The food was excellent and the service was great too. We'll have to fly Vietnam Airlines again!

Anyway, everything was on time and we arrived in Hanoi at 3:30pm local time. There was an hour change in there somewhere. Patty had emailed our hostel and asked them to pick us up (which is a service they provide) and there was a driver waiting for us as we exited with our bags. I can't explain how fantastic it was to not have to worry about getting to our hostel from the airport, especially after the day we had.

The drive took about 45 minutes. When we arrived at our hostel, we were greeted by perhaps the most friendly and kind lady that we've encountered on our trip so far. She speaks a somewhat broken English, but is understandable. We were given free waters and taken up to our private room, which is pretty spacious and very clean.

By this time is was 6:30pm and we were starving so we headed out into Hanoi looking for some grub. We were set on trying street food, so we did. We are staying in a place in Hanoi called the Old Quarter, which is a pretty touristy area. We had only just left our hostel when an older lady approached. It's difficult to explain what happened next, but here's a picture of the result:

It was very easy to find some food. The first place we tried served some kind of fried batter with sprouts and meat, which we then ate inside very thin rice tortillas. The restaurant was quite busy, so we trusted that somewhat. We paid 60,000 Dong between the two of us, which sounds like a lot but that's less than $3. Here's a picture:

We were still hungry so consulted our Lonely Planet book. Turned out there was a recommended restaurant/hole in the wall not far from where we were, so we headed there. This place served various kinds of soups. They were delicious! The soups had meat and noodles in them, and we added some hot sauce. Yum! And paid 85,000 Dong total ($4.25). Here's a pic:

After this we walked around the Old Quarter. There are many shops that we looked through and otherwise just tried dodging the 1000 motorcycles on the road at any given time. Vietnamese traffic is a whole other level of craziness that I've never seen. There are more motorcycles than cars and they're zipping around all over the place. It's madness!

We didn't buy anything from the stores. We weren't sure whether we could barter because there were price tags on most of the items, so we were confused. Turns out we can barter, but we didn't figure this out until we'd already got back to our hostel. We wandered around the streets of Hanoi for a bit and found a nice square overlooking a small lake. We decided to try the infamous Vietnamese beer, which is supposed to be the cheapest in the world, so headed to a nearby pub. It was on the second floor of a building and overlooked the square. Needless to say we weren't getting the cheapest beer in the world from this place, but $1.75 for a beer isn't bad either!

We stayed on the balcony of the pub for some time, talking and people watching. It was nice to finally be able to relax! We decided that we might be able to spend more time in Hanoi than the three days we have booked so far. We'll have to talk to the staff at our hostel tomorrow about extending our stay here.

And that concluded our first night in Vietnam! It was a good start, and I'm really  looking forward to spending more time here. 

Post #46 - November 26, 2012 - Hong Kong

What we did: Star Ferry to Kowloon, walk-in clinic, Dim Sum at Tim Ho Wan, Shopping at Ladies Market, Argyle Center, and Langham Place
Budget: $200; Spent: $213

Patty here.

It was an exhausting but productive day today. We stayed up kinda late last night trying to get a hold of our health insurance company. It seems I've developed a bladder infection and last night my lower back started bothering me. After doing some research it turns out that this is a symptom of a bladder infection that has progressed into a kidney infection. But the thing was that we had also been walking all day so I wasn't totally sure if that may have been the cause of the back pain. None the less, I didn't want to have to worry about it the next day, and a kidney infection is nothing to mess around with so we decided to head to a walk-in clinic first thing in the morning.

The beauty of having access to a kitchen  at our hostel is that you get a very cheap homemade breakfast. We got to eat some boiled eggs, toast, yogurt, and fruit (all store bought) this morning. Afterwards we dropped off a big bag of laundry at a nearby shop and got it all washed and dried. Turned out to be a bargain compared to mainland china where our laundry often came back still damp and was more expensive. We then went in search of the health clinic the hostel staff had given us some vague directions to. Unfortunately, the only info we were provided with was the name of the street the clinic was on. We had no name of the building and no address. As you can imagine, in Hong Kong this is an issue. So we clearly didn't find the clinic and decided to head back to the hostel for more info. A different staff member sent us to another street nearby saying it was somewhere there but at least this time, he provided us with a spot on the map...Didn't find that one either. We stopped a lady on the street and asked if she knew where it might be and she thought a clinic was down another side street. Discouraged but hopeful we attempted to find it where she directed us. No luck. We gave up and used Google's advice instead. Google's suggestion was to head to Kowloon which is across Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong Island where we're staying. We mapped out our journey there and the shopping areas we wanted to see and off we went. It took only a quick metro ride away to get to the Star Ferry terminal from our hostel so that was good. We hopped on for only 5HK$ total which is less than $1CDN! A great price especially for the spectacular view of both sides of Hong Kong.

Interestingly, our book mentions that back in the 60's there were huge riots in Hong Kong over a price increase in the ticket prices for the ferry crossing between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Maybe it was those people that paved the way for us to enjoy the wonderfully affordable prices we see today. It was only short 5 minute trip, but with the number of boats and bridges we saw between the islands, there's no doubt the harbour has played and still plays a vital role in connecting the city together. Though I am sure now a days the metro is a much more popular option for getting to and from the islands.

We arrived in Kowloon and took another metro to the location of the clinic. With a little bit of help from our map we found the building where the clinic was located. We're still not sure if we found the exact clinic Google recommended because this building was 12 stories high and filled with various clinics. But we did find a clinic and the staff there were super helpful and very accommodating. Initially we were told they were booked solid with appointments all day but interestingly, 5 minutes later a nurse told us to have a seat and that a doctor would see me shortly...The doctor was nice enough, he didn't seemed too concerned when I told him about my symptoms and my history and he said that the nurse would check my temperature to hopefully rule out a kidney infection. We were relieved when a couple minutes later we paid our bill and walked out with my antibiotics! I had no fever.

Shopping time began. We first headed to the Ladies Street Market. The workers there were much less friendly than in Beijing and really didn't engage you the way they did at Silk Street which was kind of disappointing and made the experience of bartering much less fun. So after a quick walk through the market I bought some much needed sandals and that was it. The flip flops I brought on the trip were left behind in Yuan Yang because one of our roommates decided to help themselves to them and used them for a shower. Call me picky, but it's not cool wearing sandals again when some strangers feet has been in them. 

Then it was dinner time. There's a place called Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong that is said to have the cheapest, most delicious Dim Sum that China has to offer. Plus, it's one of the most affordable Michelin starred restaurants ever. The chef, a former Four Seasons chef opened the restaurant several years ago and has created an entire menu with his own take on the delicious cuisine of Dim Sum. This was one of the main destinations we had been looking forward to during all our time in China. And today, Tim Ho Wan restaurant engaged all our senses in a cosmic dining experience.  Naturally, there was a lineup out the door. We took a number and waited patiently. We were number 63 and when we arrived they were at 55. We were prepared to wait several hours if we needed too. Looking back on it I would have camped out there all night to eat there again. But, the coolest thing about a restaurant concept like Tim Ho Wan is that the turnover is insanely quick. We had a table in 15 minutes! Even though the menu is super cheap, they make all their money on the simple concept of having high turnover. And trust me it's a high turnover. In a matter of an hour they must have turned over 30 tables in space the size of our kitchen at home. They use every inch of space in that place for seating so customers often get seated next to complete strangers. This for me, adds to the experience because it's very conducive for meeting people and it's a fun fast paced environment to watch. But the downside is it also gives you this sense of urgency to eat and then leave ASAP. Oh my god, and the food!! It was the most delicate, subtle, but incredibly fresh and tasty pieces of food I have ever eaten. I know we keep talking about all the great things we're eating, but it's for real. Everyday, we're trying new things, and for us, it has been one of the most fun and memorable parts of our travels. To top it off, we met a really sweet local couple who were graduating from high school next year. Their names were William and Jeanette. We chatted about Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and mainland China. William told us that 2 years ago, you would have had to wait hours to ever get a table at the restaurant and that the very reason the restaurant received a Michelin star was thanks to their BBQ pork buns. They were so cute that they even shared a whole pork bun of theirs with us after we had pretty much finished all our dinner without having ordered them. They then offered us some of their egg cake!  But we were full from our 11 dish smorgasbord of Dim Sum.

After dinner, I wanted to do more shopping (I can always shop til I drop) but Jeff was pretty bored and tired of it all, and I can understand why. Hong Kong is an enormous mass of space dedicated to retail. It's overwhelming and I felt like a chicken with my head caught off not knowing where to go and what was worth looking at. I was spending a lot of time going into stores that simply didn't have anything we needed or that we were looking for. But at the same time, when you're in a big city like Hong Kong, you want to give lots of shops a chance cause you never know what you'll come across. When you only have 3 days though, this is a bad approach. So after Jeff and I chatted for a bit, we regrouped, narrowed our focus to a list and became a lot more selective with the stores we entered. It paid off. Jeff bought 3 shirts for less than $40. One was at H&M, and another 2 were at a popular domestic brand store called Bossini. Bossini was great for men's stuff, but not so great for women's. Prices were awesome though. Jeff got the other 2 shirts here for less than $30. The store was a mix between Tommy Hilfiger, Aeropostale, and Mexx. Highly recommend it for anyone in Hong Kong. We felt really good about our buys. They were good deals, 2 shirts were from a store we would never find near Winnipeg, and now Jeff has some nice shirts to wear on our trip. Next on our list was city/walking shoes for me. I have been looking like an obsessive avid hiker everyday of the trip. The only pair of shoes I have been wearing are the Merrell's I brought. After 6 weeks of wearing the same brown, unfashionable, boyish shoes, I can't explain the motivation I had to find new shoes. The motivation really came through because we went into store after store after store, and found nothing. There was a pair of Lacoste ballerina flats that I liked, but of course 2 different stores selling them ran out of my size. I almost bought a red version of them, but I held out for something better. We had basically given up and were headed home when finally, it was the last shop I walked into while Jeff was trying to find the street to get home, I found them! A super cute pair of floral printed flats and they were more than 50% off, comfier than the Lacoste pair, and cuter. I paid about $25CDN for them. Goes to show that good things come to those who wait... and who are persistent ;)

After that, we were shopped. and walked. completely. out... yes even me. Thank god Hong Kong is really not that expansive a city. It's densely populated but not widespread so we literally got from Kowloon back to Causeway Bay on the metro in like 10 mins. I had always thought Hong Kong was comparable to Tokyo in size so the quickness of our trip came as a big shock to me. In Tokyo we could spend 30-40 mins on a metro getting from one area to another. I really liked that about Hong Kong and found it to be a very livable city.

We still had to drop by the supermarket on our way home but one was located just a couple blocks away from our hostel. We made a quick trip in for body wash, kettle cooked salt and vinegar chips, Schweppes Cream Soda, and our breakfast for the next day yogurt, and mandarins and walked out. But then we then realized we had walked out without having paid for the mandarins so Jeff went back in line to pay for those.

You would think that would be the end of a very long day, but no. We went into the lobby of our hostel to get things organized before our flight to Hanoi the next morning. I began trying to write the blog and Jeff was sifting through e-mails and calculating the day's expenses. Doing all this next to a funny brown guy from San Francisco who is urging people to join him on a trip to 7 Eleven for a 2-6 of Whisky is basically impossible. It was even more so when he came back with the alcohol and offered it to us. Jeff and I both declined but inevitably this led to chatting with fellow travelers til 3am. We met the first Canadians of our trip. A nice couple from BC in their early 20's. The girl was visibly intoxicated but super nice, and quite a world traveler. She ended up talking to me for an hour probably while I was tyring desperately to write my blog. Eventually, I gave up and just engaged in conversation. We then met a German guy named Mark (like little Marky but not nearly as cute!). He ended up talking to us about his travels for awhile. Even at 3am, another friendly English dude began trying to engage us in yet another conversation as we were trying to get to bed. As fun as it was to talk to these nice people, we paid for it the next morning...

Well we've arrived same and sound in Hanoi. Off to bed. Jeff will catch up with the blog and what we did today in the morning hopefully.

Goodnight,

Patty

Post #45 – November 25, 2012 – Hong Kong

What we did: Ocean Park, shopping

Budget: $200; Spent: $483

Today was one of those days travelers fear, but know is always a possibility: cloudy, rainy, and a little chilly. Today was a day that would make most people stay home, and the rest stick to indoor activities. It was a day that few people would wish for. Thankfully, we were just those kind of people!

Today was a day we had been planning for quite some time. It was a day I've been looking forward to since we entered China. Today we visited Ocean Park, Hong Kong’s answer to Disney Land. And what an answer!

But first, allow me to explain why we might hope for weather of the poorer variety. Yesterday, the streets were absolutely teeming with people. More people than seems right. It was a real struggle to make it from one store to the next. What we didn’t want was for Ocean Park to be like this. What we didn’t want was to have to wait three hours to get on a 60 second ride. And I am happy to report that our longest wait was probably 15 minutes, and only because we wanted very specific seats. But I’ll get to that in due time.

Today we woke up relatively early so that we could maximize our time at Ocean Park. We had bought some food the night before at a grocery store so we cooked up a nice little breakfast of boiled eggs, toast, yogurt, oranges, and coffee. Patty also made peanut butter and banana sandwiches for a lunch. Let me tell you, I’m really getting used to all the white bread we've been eating. It’s a little bit ridiculously delicious!

After our tasty breakfast, we headed out the door. We decided to walk to the place that shuttle busses to the park leave from. This was perhaps a bad idea, first because of the weather and second because of the distance. We were a little concerned it would take all day, but in the end it took maybe about 20 minutes. I doubt the subway would have been much faster. We were able to buy park tickets and return bus tickets and hopped on a mostly full bus that left almost immediately. Lovely!

We were at the park in about 10 minutes and excited like school children. Actually, maybe even a bit more. We were practically giddy with excitement. We had no idea what to expect, but we couldn't wait to scare the crap out of ourselves, which, come to think of it, really isn't that difficult. But that was our goal.

Turns out the park itself is split into two separate areas. The area directly through the front gates houses some small rides, stores, and an immense aquarium. We decided to forego all this and head straight to the good stuff. This meant crossing over to the other side of the park, and as far as we knew, we had to take a cable car to get there. Well, I can definitively tell you that the cable car ride was the scariest ‘ride’, for both Patty and I, of the entire day. It is quite a distance between the two sides and the cable car basically takes you along a very steep and high hill that heads straight into the ocean. We even started singing ridiculous songs to each other to ease our nerves. I hate cable cars. Here was the view:

After this lovely experience, we were ready for some less horrifying and more thrilling experiences. The first thing we noticed was that this part of the park is on the top of a hill that extends out into the ocean, so it has some amazing views of the city.

We were a little lost when we got off the cable car, but we eventually meandered our way over to Flash. Did I mention there was no line? Awesome! The Red River Ex in Winnipeg has a similar ride. Basically, a bunch of people get strapped into a circular contraption, all facing outward. The circle, which is attached to a massive, vertical arm, starts rotating and then the arm starts swinging. So, we start swinging and rotating until we are eventually completely upside down very far from the ground. Yikes! I wish I could have taken a picture, though, because I literally saw Hong Kong upside down! Here is a picture of the ride:

After this, our confidence was pretty high: we had made it, unscathed, through our first ride! We decided that a roller coaster was the next order of business. We got in line for a cute-looking roller coaster, but left when we noticed the average age of the riders was like three years old. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it was definitely a good decision. We headed straight for Hair Raiser. We only had to wait for the ride to finish before climbing on. It is not a roller coaster with carts. Instead, we were seated, four across (and several rows), and the seats were attached to two rails below us. Neither of us had any idea what to expect, but we were definitely blown away by the ride. Imagine a roller coaster on the top of a hill that overlooks Hong Kong’s harbour and you might get an idea of the kinds of views we got riding this thing. Half the time it looked like we are just going to go flying right off the hill and plummet into the ocean, a couple hundred metres below us. Though everything happens so fast that, at least for me, there’s not enough time to experience any specific kind of fear…it’s sort of just fear of the constant variety.

Anyway, we loved the ride so much that we basically just jumped right back on as soon as we got off. Lovely not having to wait! It was just as good as the first time and we were both as happy as could be. Again, picture school children. From here, we decided to eat our packed lunch. The sandwiches were quite yummy and curbed our hunger.

We decided that we needed to spread our wings and try some different rides so off we went. A water ride caught our eye, but it turned out to be a very tame ride. We avoided getting too wet. Luckily, although it was raining most of the day, the rain was very light. Most of the time, it was difficult to even notice the rain falling.

Off we went again, in search of more scares. After quite a long walk down the hill, we came upon a roller coaster called Dragon. It was a little more traditional kind of roller coaster, with the carts. It turned out to be a very different ride than Hair Raiser, mostly because of how the carts moved along the rails. It was much more of a bumpy ride. Whereas Hair Raiser was super smooth, Dragon was bumpy and jolted us left and right. On occasion, we bashed the sides our heads into the cushions, and Patty joked that we would have cauliflower ears after riding. All in all, though, it was another awesome ride and we, again, jumped right back on for a second run.

After the Dragon, we had no choice but to go The Abyss. I have to admit, the name doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The ride just takes a bunch of people up a huge vertical pole and then drops them. It’s basically the Drop of Fear, for those of you familiar with the Ex in Winnipeg. This was a little different, since it exploded upward (good times!), waited at the top, dropped to nearly the bottom, and then bounded back up to about the middle, before finally falling back to the ground. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the feeling of free falling. It’s pretty exhilarating though!

After this, we went to see a dolphin show nearby. By this time it had started raining pretty hard, but luckily there was some shelter and we managed to get under it. The show itself was pretty good. The dolphins were flipping and clapping…you know, normal dolphin stuff. They also brought out some Sea Lions, which were super cute. They did all sorts of dances with them and even got them to stand on two flippers in like a hand stand. It was neat to watch, but just made us wonder whether the animals had much of a life outside these shows. Hopefully they do. Here's a pic from the dolphin show, with The Abyss and Dragon in the background: 

Once the show was over, we decided to go on all the rides we had been on one more time before heading home. First up was The Abyss. It was easier for me than the first time, but more difficult for Patty. We faced the ocean this time, as opposed to the park the first time, so we really got a sense of how high we were. I’m not going to lie, I was terrified up there. The fall itself though was a little easier. Next up was Dragon, which was great but I again got banged around. Maybe I was trying too hard to not get banged around?!

We decided to take a quick break after this and feed our ever-demanding stomachs. We grabbed the most massive chili dog (or, as they like to call it in Hong Kong, ‘hot dog with meat sauce’…yum!) I have ever seen and we split it. We then did Flash again, but this time we sat on the opposite side to the first time and had a materially different experience. This time, when we were approaching going upside down we were moving backwards, as opposed to forward the first time. The second time, for me, was way scarier!

Then, it was Hair Raiser. We decided that we had to ride in the front, and we wouldn't accept anything less. We had our longest wait of the day getting onto the ride, which amounted to about 15 minutes. We climbed into the front of the ride and proceeded to have the ride of our lives. Honestly, I’m not sure that I can do another roller coaster unless I’m at the front. What a different experience! Seeing everything flying at me was awesome. It also gave me a way better sense of how bloody fast that thing goes! And going around those loops is also pretty crazy, too! I was sitting on the outside seat, which was way scarier since it never actually looked like my seat was supported by anything at all!

We thought about going on the ride again and even went to check the line, but it had grown pretty long by that time and we decided we had ended on the perfect note. So off we went.  Turned out that we didn't have to take the cable car back, so that was a bonus! There was an underground train that did the route about 10 times faster. Getting to our shuttle and back to the pick up point was pretty uneventful. We decided to not go back to our hostel and just grab a bite to eat at a mall called Pacific Place, where we also did some shopping. We had a pretty good dinner, and Patty did some shopping at Zara.

That concludes our day! If you’re ever in Hong Kong, I think we would both highly recommend checking out Ocean Park. Awesome experience!

Post #44 – November 24, 2012 – Macau and Hong Kong, China

What we did: Turbo Jet trip from Macau to Hong Kong, shopped in Causeway Bay
Budget: $200; Spent: $182

Patty here, writing from Hong Kong!

We woke up this morning at 9am for breakfast with hopes of seeing more of Macau. Unfortunately it took us awhile to pack and find the restaurant we wanted to eat breakfast at, so no sight-seeing took place. But that’s okay, cause we feel like we got a nice taste of Macau and we left satisfied. I liked Macau more than Jeff did. It really had a latin flavour and reminded me a lot of Mexico. I think it was a combination of the architecture, the weather, the smells of seafood, corn, and well, pollution, as well as the Portuguese signs everywhere. Every sign is written in both Cantonese and Portuguese.  It was very neat to see the two cultures fused together. But, I did find that most of the Portuguese presence was simply remnants of the past.  Albeit its official language is Portuguese, almost nobody speaks it, and there are few full-blooded Portuguese living there today. Having said that, there are many locals that did seem to have a slight Latin look about them, very much like Filipinos actually. Fair to say these are likely people of Macanese decent.  Still, I’d say the majority of the population in Macau are Chinese.

Back to our day today, it took us an annoyingly large amount of time packing our stuff for some reason. We just have WAY too much stuff and we are at point where we cannot wait to rid ourselves of all our excess baggage. It doesn’t even feel like we brought that much, but when you have to keep packing and unpacking it all it just becomes a real pain the more stuff you have. So we fully intend on sending most of our warm clothing home, plus our jeans, and my runners. Wooooo can’t wait!

After packing we went looking for breakfast. Once we finally arrived, we thoroughly enjoyed the meal.  They had fresh baked croissants, tasty/healthy smoothies, and decent coffees at this place called Cuppa Coffee. Initially, we paid the bill with RMB (aka Yuan) and the exchange was 1 for 1 with Macanese Patacas, equating to a big loss for us. Luckily, we had HK$ from our bit of gambling the night before and so we got our RMB back and paid with HK$, which are still slightly better than the Macau Patacas but still gave us a much better rate. The currencies in Macau are a bit of a problem for tourists. They accept 3 different currencies and no doubt the locals must all make a killing on simply exchanging them all.

We got back to the hotel to grab our stuff and head down to the lobby to catch a free shuttle to the Macau Ferry Terminal. By the time we collected ourselves, the shuttle was full which meant we would have to wait another 30 mins for the next one – no big deal. We finished writing our blogs and sent them to Chris to post. Come to think of it, we could have probably done it ourselves since we now have access to both facebook and our blog. Shoot. Well Chris if you’re reading this, hopefully those are the last posts we ask you to post for us. Thanks so much for all your help!

We finally got on the shuttle at around 12:45pm and arrived at the ferry terminal shortly thereafter. The Turbo Jet (a very high speed boat) leaves every half hour so we were on one in no time but not until we went through customs since Macau is practically considered its own country (only kind of). We were tempted to take the Helicopter ride over to Macau which departed just next to the Turbo Jet, but we decided the price tag of $359 a ticket was slightly out of our budget range. But then again, so were the superior tickets on the Turbo Jet so sadly, contrary to Ivan’s recommendation, we went for the Economy tickets. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to buy the superior class tickets, especially when we saw they were twice the price of the economy class tickets. I’m sure the superior class would have been much better, but we gotta make our trip last 5 more months! We sat in the very middle of the boat with an aisle and 4 seats between us and the windows, and it wasn’t much of a fun ride. In fact, if Jeff and I hadn’t totally focused on our breathing most of the 55 minute trip, we would have been just like the poor girl sitting next to us – puking in a brown paper bag. I don’t know how fast the Jet was going, but it looked like we were taking off on a plane for most of the trip. And, frankly I was happy we weren’t sitting next to the window because it was cloudy for starters and whenever I did, I quickly became nauseous. Well, it got us from point a to point b safely so it wasn’t so bad after all, plus it was a short ride.

When we got off the boat we had to wait in line again to go through Hong Kong customs. This took about 20 minutes and we had no trouble getting through. Just seemed like an unnecessary procedure.

We managed to find the subway pretty quickly and eventually arrived in Causeway Bay, the area of Hong Kong our hostel is located. We were doing great up until that point. We even realized we had the precise directions to our hostel from the metro station in an e-mail from the hostel. So we kept the e-mail open and as we’re being guided through the completely insane streets of Hong Kong to our hostel, the e-mail disappears. We spend what felt like the next 30 minutes searching through Jeff’s inbox for the e-mail. At this point, we’re both infuriated and rapidly losing patience with everything. The whole experience was very reminiscent of arriving in Kyoto that special morning after our night long bus trip. It even played out like it did in Kyoto. Some random strangers who happened to be staying at the same hostel  came up to us and pointed us across the street and directly at our hostel… so yes it was right in front of us, we were even facing it!! But, in our defense when you’re in that state of mind, and there are masses of humanity coming at you every which way, and tons of traffic blowing by, you think there’s no way you’re gonna find it without that e-mail. Funny, it was right in front of us. How lucky we were that we looked so helpless and lost, that two travelers just happened to cross our paths and just happened to be staying at our same hostel and say “hey are you looking for Yesinn hostel”. Crazy.

It sucks to be back to sleeping in a mixed dorm again, but at least the place is clean, the service is friendly and its only for 3 nights. It was around dinner time when we got ourselves settled in the hostel and mapped out our plans for the remainder of the day. There weren’t any good options for food that our book suggested so we ended up finding a mall and a floor full of restaurants. We ended up at a Sushi restaurant where we ate what we both agreed was the best sushi we have ever had. Yup, we thought they did it better than the Japanese themselves. And the price was reasonable. Here are some pics from dinner. The platter consisted of an assortment of salmon sushi, and those are miso soups in behind:

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the night roaming Causeway Bay and following the weak recommendations a site gave me for shopping. Although there were many beautiful fashions, everything was very pricey. There were so many designer stores too. We got tired of the area so we headed elsewhere. We thought we’d have more luck at the market near our hostel that the book recommended called Jardine’s Bazaar. Well, the book was wrong about this place. It was correct that the market has lots of stuff, but all of it was cheap, unfashionable, and poor quality. We were discouraged so we treated ourselves to a slurpee at 7/11. It was crazy good! Jeff’s bro is a slurpee connoisseur so we took this picture to get his signature of approval on the quality and texture. I do think it’s important to point out the flavours we got were Passion Fruit Green Tea and the other was Lychee Yogurt so they should get extra points for creativity/innovation:

Looks like we are in a predicament where we cannot find a happy medium between, fashion and price. We’re going back to the drawing board for a plan of attack on Hong Kong’s retailers. But, not until we hit up Ocean Park tomorrow!

Goodnight,

Patty

Post #43 – November 23, 2012 – Macau, China

What we did: Guangzhou to Macau, Macau dinner and casinos
Budget: $200; Spent: $219

Jeff here.

By the time we reached our hotel today, we had been traveling for 24 hours straight. Again. China is just too bloody big! Though I have to say that my sleep on the overnight train was much better than the last time. We arrived in Guangzhou at around 9am this morning and weren’t really sure what to do. All we knew is that we needed to get to Macau.

After talking with a couple different train station workers, and then another person at a tourist information booth, we decided to take a bus to Zhuhai, which is very near Macau. Luckily, the bus station was near to the train station, so it was only a five minute walk, or so. We bought tickets no problem and were on our way to Zhuhai. It wasn’t until we had been on the bus for nearly two hours that we realized that the cheaper, faster light rail option (that took only 29 minutes!!) would have been the better choice. Not to mention the bus was playing more horrendous Chinese movies. At least the characters weren’t screaming every line like they were being tortured, like yesterday.

By the time we arrived in Zhuhai, we wanted to kill our bus driver and perhaps ourselves as well. I don’t know how many busses passed us on our way into the city, but probably 50 is a good guess. He was certainly in no rush. Anyway, we were so disgruntled at this point that we decided to take a taxi to the port where we thought we’d be able to take a ferry to Macau. We got the taxi no problem, he even didn’t overcharge us, but we went to the wrong port. Sigh.

Turned out, though, that busses left from that facility and that we could walk across the border into Macau. So, we said, why not? At least we saved ourselves a couple bucks. Did I mention the bus ride to the border was free? Even better!

The bus ride to the border was less than 5 minutes and when they let us off we had no idea where the heck to go. We were dropped off outside a mall, but we were dropped off in an underground stop for the busses. So we entered the mall and looked for signs and saw none. We asked a young-ish looking kid who was working at the mall the direction to Macau and Oman, which is what they call Macau in China. Anyway, I think this kid was so terrified that we were talking to him that he didn’t process a thing we said because he just shook his head. Turns out the way we wanted to go was directly up the escalator that he was literally standing right in front of.

Upon exiting the escalator we saw two beautiful, yellow arches, connected, of course. Our stomachs knew before our brains that we had stumbled upon McDonalds. We hadn’t really eaten anything all day (by this time it was well past noon) and we were starving. One Big Mac Meal and one Spicy Chicken Meal later, we were off to find the border crossing. Little did we know this was also the intention of approximately three million other people.

The lines were immense. We had been anticipating this, because although Macau is technically China, it’s not mainland China. So we were leaving the China that is hard to get into and entering the China that is really really easy to get into. We waited in line for about 45 minutes and had no problems getting through. We were getting ready to celebrate when we saw more lines of even more people. Oh yes, the line-up for getting into Macau. Lovely! Thirty minutes later we were through this line and finally on the streets of Macau! Yay!

We had no idea how to get to our hotel, but we knew the area it is in so we decided to take a bus to the area and find our way from there. It wasn’t too difficult to find the right bus. There were actually some very helpful people that poked and prodded us in the right direction. Once we were on the bus, of course, we had no idea when to get off. We were heading to a part of the city called Taipa, but didn’t actually know the location of our hotel. Our bus driver couldn’t help us either, and just shook his head when I said anything.

The bus passed by the Macau airport and we knew our hotel was relatively close by, so we decided to taxi it the rest of the way. We had to get our hotel’s name translated for the taxi driver, but once we did we were at our hotel in no time! Good thing we stopped at the airport, actually, since we would have had no other way of explaining our hotel to a taxi driver!

Once we arrived at the hotel, a concierge came out to grab both our bags. Poor guy. He was definitely struggling with those behemoths. Anyway, turned out our room wasn’t ready so we decided to go change some of our Yuan to Pataca (a name that we find hilarious, by the way) and to buy some water, which we desperately needed. Unfortunately, when we returned, our room still wasn’t ready! We had to wait another 20 minutes. Thankfully, the lobby had wifi, so we distracted ourselves with that while we waited.

When we finally made it to our room (the same guy carried our bags up, of course, and we gave him a nice tip) it turned out to be pretty spacious and clean. Far more modern looking than our stay in Yangshuo, but lacking the character. Don’t get me wrong, though, it’s a very nice room, and would be a great room if we didn’t have to pay to get internet up here. That’s very bothersome to me.

We both decided to shower and change and look more presentable for our night on the town. We read that casinos here have a dress code, which is essentially that shorts are not allowed, so I had to toss my shorts for some jeans! Unfortunately, by this time it was pretty late in the day. We didn’t leave the hotel until about 6pm and decided to just head straight to dinner.

Unfortunately, we weren’t in the correct area of the city for the recommendation from our book that had caught our eye, so we inquired to the hotel staff how to get there by bus. Turned out that we only had to take one bus to its ending point. Easy enough. The walk to the bus stop was no more than 10 minutes, although there was some confusion regarding which side of the street to catch the bus from. Patty eventually grabbed a white-looking guy and asked, and it turned out he was a really polite Portuguese fellow. He was heading in the same direction as us, so he told us to follow him. He told us that his family had moved to Macau from Portugal when he was six years old and that he had been living in Asia ever since. Living in Macau, of course, he had to learn Cantonese, which is the main language spoken here. Portuguese is one of the official languages in Macau, but few people speak it. He offered to take us to what he deemed to be the best restaurant in all of Macau for sea food, but we declined, having already set our stomachs on a place called Restaurante Fernando.

After saying goodbye to this gentleman, it was only one or two stops before the end of the line. We hopped off the bus and directly in front of us was our destination. Very handy. It was a beachy looking place and there were quite a few people in there. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait for a seat and opened up the menu.

By this time we were starving and probably would have eaten anything. But this menu had some of the yummiest looking seafood we’d ever seen. We ended up asking for some advice on the dishes to pick, and went with three and, of course, a pitcher of sangria. It was going to be a good dinner! Here are some pics:

Here’s Patty preparing to eat the final shrimp. Just look at that focus:

I don’t know about you, but that looks like a good bite.

It was as good as it looks. Fantastic. We were giddy at the very thought of eating good food. We were giggling and soaking up all the broth from the dishes with the wonderful fresh bread they brought us. Oh man, I’m hungry just thinking about it.

I think we decided it was one of the best overall meal experiences we’ve ever had. We’d go back…I guess.

After this, we took the same bus back in the direction of our hotel, but this time we hopped out near the casinos. Macua is, after all, the Las Vegas of Asia. Our first stop was the Venetian and it was spectacular. In front of the hotel were canals with gondolas and replicas of the bridge Ponte Vecchio and that huge tower by the Doge’s palace, whatever it’s called! Oh, and it was all covered in this white snowy-looking stuff for Christmas. Surprisingly, none of it looked overdone. It was nice to feel the Christmas spirit! There’s none in mainland China, I can tell you that!

Here are some pics. The first is me with Gingy from Shrek and some miscellaneous princess. How could we resist?

We then wandered around inside the casino for a bit and tried our luck at some of the video terminals. Naturally, we didn’t win anything. Actually, we lost about $4. Stupid casino. It was very nice inside.

We decided that we’d walk back to our hotel from here and stop at any casinos along the way. It took about 10 minutes jus to walk around the Venetian, but once we finally had, we came to a casino called the Galaxy. Beautiful place!

And that was our night in Macau! It’s a place we’ll have to spend more time in another trip!