I’ve decided to move everything off wordpress.com to my own server. Here’s the link:
yay!
Category: HK Travel Blog
Everything American in Asia is high class. Pizza hut is a nice restaurant, and KFC is also a sit-down place that delivers to every corner of Hong Kong, even right to my dorm. Nima and I ordered HK$173 worth of chicken, rice, spaghetti, egg tart, and crisscut fries. Yes, KFC sells Chinese and Italian food.
KFC feast in the lounge
It’s not just Original Recipe for their chickens. They also have Hot&Spicy, Flava Roast and Flava Crava.
Finally a day with nothing major. Vinny and I spent most parts of our day making sure our trip to Shanghai is completely booked. We tried so many ways to payment, but finally bit the bullet and shelled over my Credit Card and 6% surcharge.
Dinner today was at HKUST’s LG1 canteen. Even though I’ve never had dinner there before, I ordered what I always get – Boiled Chicken with Rice (白切雞飯), a tasty and cheap alternative to LG5 food. During dinner, Chanrith challenged Carson to arm wrestling. Carson, being the big strong man he was, was annihilated by the unforgiving Chanrith.
Carson and Chanrith arm wrestling. Look how hard Carson was trying.
Today the crew hit up some travel agencies in Central in search of good travel packages to Shanghai and Taiwan. The last firm we visited recommended a nice local Chinese restaurant a few blocks down the street called Treasure Lake. We walked through the drizzle, past the central market, and came to this decorated restaurant. It looked pretty classy, and from the menu, it didn’t look expensive.
We ordered a few dishes and Peking Duck. Plowing through a sizable amount of ribs and veggies, we were delighted at the sight of a whole roasted duck. The crispy brown-red skin allured our every taste buds. Although Beijing probably has better Peking Duck, this is probably as real as it gets in HK.
Oh, we also found Hong Kong’s next top model -
Hong Kong's Next Top Model
Still recovering from losing my voice in Macau, I played some basketball next to the ocean after lunch with Carson. Hot weather makes a perfect excuse to take off my shirt. In the night, the crew planned trips to Shanghai and Taiwan.
Southern part of HKUST
My health hit its all-semester-low when I woke up between Stephan and Chanrith, or Chanrith and Carson… I don’t remember. Breakfast/lunch came in little cages of delight from a dimsum restaurant down the street. The weather turned against us during our meal, so making our way back to the hotel was almost lethal. I hid under Bell’s tiny laced umbrella, protecting our cameras while drenching in rain and tire splash. It sucks to having no umbrella.
Our 14-person group occupied pretty much an entire shuttle to the City of Dreams. Again, we were greeted by the friendly mermaid, topless this time. Resisting my urge to lose more money, I went to Flame Bar adjacent to the Poker lounge. I ordered a “White Zombie”, not knowing what it was other than that it included “Rum More, Rum Mango, Pineapple, Cream, and Black Magic”. That last part sounded so sick.
Flaming alcoholic drink known as "White Zombie"
The bartender made the drink in front of me, mixing in Captain Morgan, Barcardi Gold, Barcardi 151, Jose Cuervo, and a bunch of other mixers and freshly-cut fruits. She then poured the drink over rocks in a volcano bowl, and did a little “voila” gesture while putting in two straws. I guess that was the black magic part. Look how big that thing was! White Zombie tasted nothing like its ingredients. I am pretty sure at least 40% of it was alcohol, yet it tasted only 10% alcoholic. The fruits probably countered the smell and taste. Nevertheless, I was drunk off my mind after finish drinking; it definitely cured my hangover, though.
Oh yeah, the volcano is flaming. I had to keep my hair from getting burned while drinking even with a straw. Sick. They don’t call this Flame Bar for no reason.
First day of our Macau trip, we landed on Taipa island, one of the three pieces of land that comprises Macau. Rain continued sparsely throughout our day, but we managed to stay relatively dry. Since we couldn’t check in until 2PM, we hopped onto the first shuttle we found, to City of Dreams. Walking past the wall-sized digital Mermaid, we had a nice buffet lunch inside the casino. A few of us wanted to bungee jump off Macau Tower, while the rest preferred to relax, explore, and gamble. Nima and I both tried our luck at the Blackjack table, to horrendous results.
Our second stop was The Venetian Hotel and Casino, whose lobby is astonishing.
Inside The Venetian
A few ooo’s and ahh’s later, we taxi’ed to our hotel, and managed to cram 14 people in 2 rooms comfortably, with the exception of the four guys on one of the queen-sized beds. The afternoon tour around Macau’s old town, Portuguese-Chinese dinner, fireworks display, and pre-gaming in the hotel led up nicely to our late night clubbing adventure, which only needs one sentence to describe. Clubbing at Club D2 with Americans and Europeans was the highlight of my trip, while the hangover and massive pain the next day wasn’t.
Carson wanted to buy some prime lens for himself today after school, and wanted to show Vinny and me this great dessert place called Honeymoon Dessert at Mong Kok. Since his camera ran out of power, I played around with his new Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II prime lens.
@ Honeymoon Dessert. Shot with Canon EF f/1.8 II
I ordered what seemed to be a mango smoothie, a sour and fruity drink with pieces of mango fruit. While it was good, I didn’t think too highly of it. Carson hated durians, so naturally he didn’t enjoy his durian-green tea ice cream very much. Vinny liked his dessert, though.
The mall, Langham Place, glistered in soft colored lights and decorations. I recommend stopping there for dinner to enjoy the mall.
I finally bought some pants today, the asian kind that falls between your knee and your foot. My mom’s friend Susan took us around Kowloon Tong shopping mall, and got us ice creams and mooncakes! Horray for parents’ connections! The pants, paired with my black “I <3 HK” shirt, totally camouflage my tourist aura. Also, we can now resume our weekly streetball games because Nima bought a basketball.
Mooncakes!
Nima, Chanrith, and Michael went clubbing later in the night at LKF, and didn’t get back till 5am in the pouring rain.
While going back to the dorms after a film society event, I noticed a group of people gathering at the balcony of the atrium. The glass top of the atrium was flashing white rapidly, each trailed by screams and yells of students. I walked over to the balcony, and saw a huge dark cloud slowly making its way towards us; a giant storms seemed imminent. Red lightning covered the horizon. I hung around for a while, filming parts of it on my ELPH. Seeing that I might still have time to run back to my dorm room, grab my camera, and come back before the storm hits, I went for it.
Red lightning
Minutes later, Nima and I, both wearing waterproof jacket and equipped with cameras, once again looked across the horizon, waiting for the storm. It took the giant mass another 40 minutes to reach us. By that time, it was about 11:30 PM. The sky was unusually dark, the water unusually calm. I could not see the clouds anymore with my bare eyes, but the low-light sensor on my DSLR and the crescendo of the wind hinted that they just hit the shore. Suddenly, i felt a drop of rain on my shoulder. The next thing I knew, I was screaming, “Nima, toss me my jacket!” while trying desperately to keep my camera dry and putting on my lens hood. The storm came faster than I had anticipated.
The events following can be more accurately described by a video Nima took:
It was exactly what it looks like: I covered up my camera with my coat, and made my way into the storm. The rain was too hard and the fog/cloud was too dense for me to capture the lightning on film, but here’s a sample.
HKUST during a lighting storm
The white flash is caused by a giant lightning bursting in the sky, illuminating all of UST. The dark spot at the top right is a piece of my flaring coat.
