Scribbles Abroad

We had such a great time in the Philippines it was hard to leave, but it was time to begin the next leg of our journey.  Our next stop was Hong Kong where we would spend a few nights before making our way to Vietnam.

The hotels in Hong Kong were quite expensive, so we used couchsurfing.com again and searched for a couch to surf during our stay.  The host we chose was Sid whose house was conveniently located a few blocks from the MTR (mass transit rail).  We arrived in Hong Kong quite late and had to catch a bus to our host’s house.  Our host, Sid, gave us directions to his place but we got a little lost.  After wondering around for 30 minutes we caught a taxi to his house.  We had walked right past it!  Upon arrival we trusted the directions to just open the lockbox and head upstairs.  The lockbox worked, the door upstairs opened up, and we walked to our guest bedroom.  Seamless.

Kahi and I spent the next day riding around on the MRT and exploring the city.  The MRT made it easy to get around the city, plus it was cheap.

Hong Kong street at night

More Hong Kong madness

Later that night we met up with Sid at a local sports center.  Every Friday he meets up with his buddies for a friendly game of unicycle hockey.  He let us give his unicycle a go, which didn’t go very far.  It’s much harder than it looks.

These guys and gals were playing a game of unicycle hockey and we were pretty impressed with their skills.

After the game we headed out to get some food and stumbled upon a yummy dim sum place.  Best dim sum I’ve had yet!

We heard through a friend of Kahi’s that there was a place to surf in Hong Kong named China Beach and decided to go on a mission.  China Beach was rumored to have decent surf and we were determined to check it out.  We didn’t have a car and hiring a taxi would have cost us about $100 so we opted to get there via MRT which cost us about $16 bucks each.  We weren’t sure if they’d let us take the board on the MRT, but we though we’d give it a try.

Let the journey begin!

You should have seen all of the strange looks we got as we headed to the MRT

It was a pain in the butt to fit through the entrance gates of the MRT station.

Kahi on the MRT on his way to China Beach, Big Wave Bay in hope of surf

Only a short bus ride away

Almost there

China Beach, Big Wave Bay

So we traveled all that way and finally made it to China Beach.  We weren’t really impressed by the waves, small shore break with tons of people.  Almost everyone was in a wetsuit and all we had were are suits and rashguards.  Kahi went for a little surf, but it definitely was no Siargao.  It was really nice to lay around and relax at the beach though.

After Hong Kong we were headed to Hanoi in Vietnam.  Our original plan was to fly from Hong Kong to Hanoi, but that ended up being extremely expensive so we had to find an alternative.  Kahi figured a way for us to avoid the high expense by catching a ferry to Macau, flying from there to Bangkok, and then on to Hanoi.  All and all it ended up saving us a couple hundred dollars but cost us time, but when you’re traveling like us, time is something we have.

The next day we caught the fast ferry to Macau.  A bus took us into town and dropped us off near an inexpensive hotel.  The street our hotel was on was lined with many little restaurants and just walking down it made your mouth water.

Ferry to Macau

View of Hong Kong from the ferry

This noodle shop looked tasty so we gave it a try.  This lady whipped up our grub in less than 2 minutes.  I loved the snappy service!

Beef noodle soup and garlic bak choy

After walking around for an hour we got hungry again.  I was craving dim sum from Hong Kong so we found a shop.  It was good but nothing like Hong Kong.

Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia and being there Kahi though it appropriate to spend some time in the casinos.  It turned out to be a little more difficult to gamble than we thought.
(casinos)
Macau casino lights

Kahi wasn’t wearing shoes so we got rejected from the casinos.  It was hilarious!  We tried about 4 different casinos and when Kahi would get within 10 feet of the entrance the security guard would approach him wagging their finger at his slippers, telling him no slipper and that he needed shoes.  We took it as a sign that maybe it wasn’t met for us to gamble.

We had a great time in Hong Kong and probably could have spent more time shopping at the amazing night markets.  Next time we’ll remember to bring shoes and more money so we can really experience Macau.

The next day we caught our flight to Bangkok and ended up having some time to kill in the airport.  It was a blessing in disguise because we had forgotten to print out our visas on arrival.  I had arranged for us to get approved for a visa once we got to Vietnam.  I did it online but it was kind of sketchy.  We got approved paid 20 bucks each for a letter we were supposed to just hand to the customs officer.  So in Bangkok we printed out he letters and had some unreal HOT HOT HOT food.  Even the Thai food in the airport is ridiculous.  We took it as a warning for when we get there later on our trip.  We caught our flight to Hanoi and were excited to check out more of South East Asia.  The best part was we were going to meet up with my old college roommate, Liz.  Off to Vietnam!