9- Hong Kong & Macau: A pricey pit stop

In a weird way, we found that in order to get to New Zealand, the flights actually worked out cheaper to go via Hong Kong then to fly direct due to the time of year, supply & demand and all that jazz. We’re not one’s to pass up an opportunity to tick off another two countries so we had a little detour to Hong Kong and Macau for ourselves. Bonus!

We didn’t know much about the place before we got here besides it formerly being controlled by the British but had recently been passed over to China/ gained independence. So we were expecting a melting pot of ex-pats, Chinese and locals and that is pretty much what you get. Local food stalls around the corner from Western restaurants, very ordered areas where ex-pats hang out right next to some random Chinese weirdness going on. A lovely contrast!

As much as we’re fans of all things Asia we can’t help but comment on the lack of manners on the Chinese- it’s especially clear where they’re surrounded by so many Westerners- they’re one part hilarious, one part disgusting! They have no concept of queuing, no concept of other people and man can they spit! Enough spit to fill a bowl, indoors, outdoors, who cares just get it out! Having said all that- they are people watching heaven- You just never know what they’ll do next!

One of the things that we always think about when we visit places is “what would the postcard be”? Every area has postcards of their main sites on them so we try to figure out what you’d put on the postcards for a place so we can be sure we haven’t missed out on anything- Paris = the Eiffel Tower, Rio De Janeiro = Christ the Redeemer, Cairo = the Pyramids etc. I reckon the postcard of Hong Kong is definitely a picture of its skyline- especially at night it’s a site to behold. Every night they do a light show from the top of lots of the skyscrapers which is well worth a view

From a tourist point of view, we were kept very occupied for our few days there- Victoria Peak is a lovely walk and provides a great view over the city although you have to be lucky to not get too smoggy a day. We also had a great day out visiting the Big Buddha, a large statue of a Buddha located up the mountains outside Hong Kong. The highlight of that day trip was the cable car journey of 30-40 minutes up and down the mountain. Phenomenal views of the airport, the mountains and the sea all around you.

Given we’re on a budget (apparently!), Hong Kong is not an ideal place to be- some things like public transport are very cheap ($5 to get from the airport to the city) but the majority of things are very expensive, food and drink being the main thing- you could easily spend $40 on two sandwiches and two coffees. So given that our budget was been slammed, it seemed like the perfect time to go to a casino for a bit of gambling to refill the coffers! So onto a boat and off to Macau we go.

Known as the Las Vegas of the Orient, in the last few years Macau has passed Vegas for the amount of gambling revenue each year. No easy feat. But much to our pleasant surprise, Macau wasn’t just casinos, it’s actually filled with lovely old colonial buildings from when it was controlled by the Portuguese. It makes for a very unusual contrast with the enormous and flashy casinos dotted around the city. All of the old buildings are now protected as they were granted UNESCO world heritage status which means that even as more and more casinos get built (which they will), the city will at least preserve a lot of its old world charm.

As it turned out, these two poor backpackers were too intimidated to do any gambling, it’s much more fun (and free!) to walk around and marvel at the insanity of the buildings. They are cities in their own right- the Venetian Hotel & Casino is absolutely huge and that’s just one. The mind boggles as to how it runs, the number of rooms it has not to mention the number of staff it takes to operate- madness. Thankfully that’s not my day job anymore so I can just walk around and enjoy it for what it is!

So our stopover is complete, time to get back on track and head for New Zealand.

Click here to see a selection of photos from our Hong Kong & Macau trip

Our route: Fly to Hong Kong, return boat to Macau, fly Hong Kong to Auckland