hong kong - a quick stop on the way to new zealand

in order to break a 34 hour long airplane trip in half, we stopped in hong kong for three days

i'd heard lots about it from a friend who'd stayed there for about two weeks and would not come back after all the pampering he got over there 

so we checked the internet, lonely planet + other trip advisors and ended up staying in kowloon, right across from the central area

to be more precise, in the salisbury hotel on salisbury street, right next to the famous (and several times more expensive) penninsula

however, due to lonely planet's tips, we managed to get a room with a partial view to victoria peak

and the waterfront promenade where hordes of chinese people would come to take pictures of their favorite film stars' hand imprints in concrete

or just themselves with the hong kong skyline as a background

so, we crossed the canal 

and found a pretty accurate copy of new york

after all, this is the place famous for faking designer bags, watches and any other fashion accessory in existence

they had some pretty nifty improvements like a skywalk running for a few miles above the streets connecting some of the most important central areas

but like all chinese copies, once we stepped off the fancy skywalk and turned a corner we ran into this

 

which i guess it means it gets really hot. but then again, it's not like they didn't know that when they built the apartments

still, some took their time to improve the look or their facade to a certain degree

however, the big number of ac units didn't seem to be a problem to anyone else but me

where ac units could not fit, a number of fans would be on stand by

plumbing work in plain view seemed to be a big plus

we kept walking and ran into a bazar like area selling pretty much anything

the best part of it being the open food market with fish

meats

veggies

and fruit

where you pay with funny money. 

there are in circulation 4 kinds of bills of the same value printed by various banks: hsbc, bank of china, standard chartered and they kinda look the same, but not quite

all of the hong kong bills work in macau, but only some of the macau ones work in hong kong

speaking of which, we went to macau for half a day and found the mixture of old portuguese buildings with chinese stuff interesting, intriguing, puzzling and laidback at the same time. the fact that chinese taxi drivers would speak portuguese was a bonus

they were careful about the needs of animals, in particular dogs, showing the exact location where dogs should take a dump

and they were very blunt about their real thoughts on casinos, the old cannons from the fort being aimed at the biggest casino

they would hold nazi meetings in places that looked like regular tea houses

the give away wasn't so much the nazi cross sign in front of the building, as the orderly fashion in which they would park their scooters

but macau was dressed for christmas, which seemed somewhat strange, since on pretty much every corner there'd be a small buddhist temple like place where people would light up stuff and make various offerings

however, these seem to coexist in peace and harmony with the christmas decorations which in turn seemed to feel better mix up with local cartoon characters

while smiling snowmen, penguins and santas would great us all the way up to the ruins of st paul's cathedral

but the best christmas decoration ever had to be back in hong kong: a santa so marry that he would carry a big bottle of booze, spreading the holiday spirit

and when we got hungry, given the fact that there's water pretty much everywhere, we thought we'd go for fresh sea food. and since lonely planet recommended a small island 20 minutes away from hong kong, lamma, we went to the pier to hop on the next boat

waiting for the boat we noticed someone fishing right off the pier with only a piece of string and a hook

she'd manage to catch a small something once in a while, which was definitely fresh sea food, however, the polluted waters around the pier should have been a warning

it didn't take long and we got to the island

which is rather small with no roads or cars on it. back to nature eco stuff with just a few pathways on which you'd simply walk. 

at first it all seemed great, with restaurants right in the small harbor and on floating docks next to some crab/fish farms

but as we walked further and got to the top of the island we noticed a big draining pipe going right in

plus several ships waiting to go in the main hong kong port which meant a rather polluted place

given the fact that it's a tiny island, after about a 45 minute walk we got to the other harbor where we stopped looking for pollution and focused more on the water tanks holding all kinds of crustacea, fish and shells

we were supposed to point our finger at a tank and show the waiter what we fancied to be tossed in the frying pan, and most of the creatures in the tanks seemed willing to be eaten by us

except for this guy who didn't seem quite keen on ending in our plate. so we ordered straight from the menu and had a couple of big really cold tsingtao beer bottles to forget its face

in the evening we went back to observe our tourist duty of taking pictures of the central area from victoria peak 

when we got down from the peak, we found this street closed from traffic packed with people. then we realized that there were women only. it looked like some kind of a picnic with all of them joyful and talkative, but we couldn't find out what was going on and why they were there. but nobody seemed to mind it

then we crossed the canal to take pictures from the waterfront promenade

after that, on our way to the hotel we passed by this interesting building 

and than it was the modern art museum with a crab like creature in front of it dipping its feet in a shallow pool

close to our hotel we ran into someone who gave us foot massages. which was a blessing since we'd been walking for such a long time

it felt really good, and we realized that's what we should have done first thing when we landed to get rid of being jet legged

speaking of which, next was the airport, as we had to leave for new zealand. but in 15 more hours we'd be in christchurch, new zealand

although somewhat rushed, the three days had been enough. 

we had to leave with this picture in mind as in new zealand we'd have to drive on the other side of the road

at the airport two helium balloons waved good by from the top of the ceiling