Trip to Hong Kong and Macau Pt 2 - Macau

So after my Hong Kong experience, I hopped (literally) onto a ferryboat, which took me over the short strait to Macau. Like its neighbour, Hong Kong, it is an "autonomous region" within the People's Republic of China, allowing it to set its own immigration policy and laws. Lucky for me, since I didnt need a visa to visit, and lucky for all the entrepreneurial types who have leapt upon the region's unusually lax gambling laws to make Macau the Las Vegas of the East. What used to be a quiet Portuguese colony island, has been inundated with glitzy casinos and hotels, and there's more and bigger ones on the way.

I met up with Angela and her folks at the Venetian Hotel, possibly currently the most famous on the island. It was my first experience of 5 star accommodation, and although luxuriously comfortable, we all agreed it was predictably tacky in the extreme. It's Venice themed, as the name suggests, from an exterior modelled on Piazza San Marco, to a surreal interior canal, complete with singing gondoliers and a fake sky, set to a perpetual watercolour dawn. The rest of the (huge) building was shops, a huge casino, and more shops. It was really more of a casino-mall with a posh hotel tacked on, than a hotel itself.

So we luxuriated in the big bath and soft bed, and even had room service breakfast. Its not like we're going to be doing this again in a hurry, so why not, eh?

Unfortunately, while the original plan was to stay only one night in Macau, get my visa the next day and leave that evening together, it turned out that the next day was a holiday and the Taiwan Trade and Cultural Office (nearest thing they're allowed to an embassy) was shut. Luckily the Hong's have an old school friend who works there, Mr Chang, and he very kindly put me up for the night and helped sort out my visa smoothly the next day.

Behind the lights and glitz of the casino boom lies remnants of the old colonial Macau, and in many places it seemed more like we were walking around a European city, just with lots of Chinese tourists. Pretty much the whole Portuguese population has left though, or been refused re-entry, since China took the place over, so only the buildings remain.

Can you see your two intrepid correspondents somewhere in this picture?

That night Mr Chang took me out to see the bright lights, to pontificate on the failings of the harbour-front development, explain the Feng-Shui behind the design of casino lobbies, and dish the dirt on the heated feud between the big boss of Macau casinos (he owns the Grand Lisboa) and his namesake, the departed mayor of Macau. Looking at the sea of neon lights, huge building projects, and glassy-eyed gamblers it hardly needed explaining that the casino interests won. Now around half the population work in the casinos or associated hotels..

The next day was much more relaxing. Once I put in my visa documents, I had all day to wander round the old town. Everything in Macau city is pretty much within walking distance, if you dont mind the heat. Went to see the ruins of the Catedral de Sau Paulo, complete with reliquary stacked full of genuine martyrs bones.

and found myself on top of the old colonial fort, wishing for one last cannonball and a bucket of black powder...

DEAD WALK THE STREETS OF XIMENDING!

If you go out to Ximen late in the evening, you never know what you might find. ...
On this particular night, the dead walked the streets!
Turned out to be one of the coolest school projects Ive heard of. For a marketing course, they create, promote and perform a Haunted House show in several rooms of the school. Damn, I wish my teachers had such fun ideas. But the east does take the biscuit in terms of creepy horror movies, so it makes sense.
And they've done a grand job of it by what we could see. Heres some pics of their street haunting. For more info (Chinese only, but theres photos and video) go to http://blog.yam.com/qipan

Trip to Hong Kong and Macau (pt 1)

Left Taiwan briefly on another visa-run, this time to Hong-Kong and Macau. I hung out in HK while Angela and her folks went to a Wedding in Shanghai, and then met up with them in Macau, which is a short ferry ride from HK (pt2). Hong Kong city was predictably bustling, but also surprisingly multicultural, but perhaps thats just in contrast to Taipei, where white folk and (gasp) Africans still frighten small children with their rarity. The area in HK (actually Kowloon, across the bay) where I was staying is full of Indians, Pakistanis and Africans hawking suits, knock off watches, curry, hashish, massage, "massage", electronics etc etc. Needless to say I indulged greatly in the curry...:P

I stayed in the (in)famous ChungKing Mansions which consists of several floors of small shops selling luggage, clothes, internet access, electronics and (more) curry, with layers of packed cheap accommodation above. The room I got was about as small as you could get without being a capsule hotel, but it was clean enough, and I had my own shower. The view from the stairwell is uniquely Hong Kong I think, along with the smell (if only I could photograph that) and microclimate (always raining).



I ditched my stuff and headed out of town, to discover the strangely paradoxical thing about HK - its about the most densely populated place on the planet, but its really easy to escape the city and be in wild hills with roaming water-buffalo. The city just stops when the hills start (see panorama). So I went and explored the boulders in the nearby Twen Wan area. Very nice coarse granite on a hilltop with a pleasant breeze to take the worst of the heat. Lovely.

In the evening me and some whisky went for a donder down the Kowloon waterfront, from where you can enjoy the famous view of central Hong Kong at night.




Spent the next couple of days wandering the town staring at unfeasibly tall buildings, almost dying of heat stroke hiking round the "Monkey Mountain" area (sadly lacking in monkeys apart from by the road, and they're all feral rhesus and long-tail macaques, the indigenous population having been previously hunted to extinction), eating more curry (I recommend the "Khyber Pass Mess Club" in Chung King. Says its private, but just go in - its just a licensing dodge), and twisting my ankle descending from more bouldering (doh).

Finally, while I hobbled round the streets of downtown HK on friday night, weaving through the crowds of partygoers and soaring glass towers, I came across this scene, which I think illustrates the divide between bustling affluence and abject poverty that often sadly characterises economic hotspots like HK.

As usual, you can click on any picture to see a full-size version...

(kind of) new bed

Toph and I made this bed about a month ago and I've been meaning to upload the pictures ever since. The first little while after we moved in we were sleeping on a sofa bed that isn't long enough for Toph to stretch out on, so this is a definite improvement.

We went and got the materials from B&Q and did the dirty work out on the balcony on a sunny day. While we were hammering and sanding away a neighbour (presumably, as I don't know who he actually is) stopped outside the gate and called out "What are you so busy with?" and I told him we were making furniture. He declined my invitation to stop in for a cup of tea. I generally get the feeling that we're quite entertaining to the locals.

The bed now has a few extra legs (stability and to stop it creaking), the shelf next to bed (which Toph also made) has been painted white, and the bed has a mosquito net. What else could one ask for?

Everything is getting more and more homely all the time. We even had a little bonfire at home with a few friends to celebrate Beltane. But we are leaving so soon! If only we could go and live in different places in the world, but take the house (and garden) with us. Instead of travelling by plane, we could fly the house (and garden).

Baosheng Cultural Festival

Went to check out this event at the Baoan Temple in Taipei, 19th April.

Its one of the highlights of the celebrations of the the birth of the Baosheng Emperor, the main deity worshipped at this Taoist Temple. Other days included firewalking, opera competitions (!) and street theater seminars.

Saturdays events included performances from some of Taiwans most highly regarded street performance troupes, including Songjiang Formation, Flower Drum Formation and the excellently titled Twelve Grannies Formation. Needless to say I had no clue which of these crews did what performances as there was a constant procession of groups waiting for their turn in front of the main shrine. What I did see was some quality pole-top lion dancing, giant carnivalesque puppets, a 20m long dragon, LOTS of firecrackers (see pictures).

The culmination of the day was the fire-lion, which was about the most up-close firework display Ive ever experienced (as a punter). An interesting contrast to health and safety standards in the UK, it centered around a paper lion stuffed annd surrounded by tiers of fireworks. Audience members in the know brought hats and umbrellas to protect their heads from debris and downward-pointed fountains. After the first few seconds, I could see very little except smoke and glimpses of 'technicians' scurrying about with firebrands lighting the next giant cake. The aftermath could have been a bomb-site if not for the children still excitely running around in the ash and debris. I may still be a little deaf...

An Uninvited Guest

And such bad manners too, eating the residents...

Found this beastie the other evening, busy devouring one of our biggest resident hunting spiders. The spider was about 5 inches across, so it must have been quite a tussle. Its a Taiwanese House Centipede, similar to the species found commonly across the US, but considerably bigger. I hear that they eat cockroaches too, though, so its not all bad..

Money for the Earth God

We burned money for Tu Di Gong. Its a regular part of offerings at shrines here, just like food and incense, but especially at significant times of year like new year.
Theres a special little fire-house next to the shrine itself for this purpose.
Its not real cash, of course, but specially printed symbolic shrine-money. There's shops that sell pretty much nothing but paper money by the bag, incense and candles for offerings.

Once again, click on the slide-show to go to a full size gallery.

Pics

Click on the image to go to bigger versions.