Hong Kong & Macau in Five Days

I had been to Hong Kong twice before the 2008 trip, but it was in 2008 that I was going with my two girls, Allianza and Patricia. I'd finished packing for three a day before we left for Hong Kong via Macau. I decided to use our huge black suitcase so all our stuff were just in one bag. We were up at 4 a.m. on May 12, a Saturday. I had envisioned this kind of scenario since we were traveling with my panicky and overly time-conscious parents. My husband drove us to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 5:00 a.m. We arrived at the airport before 6 a.m. Our flight was at past 9 a.m. When we got there, only a few lines were open for check-in. Air Macau opened its line for check-in two hours after we arrived. We had coffee and bread at a restaurant at the pre-departure area. It was boarding soon after. Kids were enormously excited to see Disneyland and can't wait to get off the plane just as soon as we stepped inside. But it took quite a while before we took off and a couple of hours of smooth ride before we touched down on Macau International Airport.

Macau airport was nothing grand at all. After going through immigration, which was really quick, I readily found our tour guide who will take us by tour bus to Hong Kong. There were 25 of us in the tour group consisting of 3 families (1 family of 13, another family of 6, and our family of 5) and one married woman traveling alone who wanted her passport stamped before migrating somewhere. After a headcount we all proceeded to our bus all but anxious to get to Hong Kong to shop. It was almost 12 noon. The tour guide was a cheerful dude in his 50s who talked of casinos and Russian babes in Macau. I ignored him and took some pictures of the pleasant view outside. After about 20 minutes, we stopped at a basement parking for buses, and the tour guide began explaining that we will be crossing the border so we would have to get off the bus with all our belongings and go through another immigration. We headed towards an escalator and walked some feet to the immigration area. There was a long line of mostly vociferous Chinese tourists and merchants.

After passing through our second immigration, we were escorted by our tour guide towards another long line a few feet away where we were handed with another set of cards to fill up. I remember we declared that we were not sick of colds nor had any virus and we did not have any bird species among our luggage. I had mild colds then, but no one else had to know in Communist China. It was a long walk from there. We crossed one establishment after another all lined up with stores in Chinese characters. Not one word of English. Once in Zhuhai we went through another immigration area where the line was really long and snail-paced, and the comfort rooms were insufferable. The girls needed to pee but wouldn't use the washroom once they saw it. After that unbearably long line at immigration in Zhuhai, we went out to meet another tour guide named LengLeng. We waited for everyone else to pass through immigration before we started walking again, about half a kilometer, to our bus. It was really hot and I was glad I wore shorts. I was also glad I made the girls wear long-sleeved cotton shirts for sun protection. Once settled in the bus, LengLeng asked if we preferred to have lunch there in Zhuhai or in Shenzhen, which was two hours drive away. Naturally, while we were all anxious to get to Hong Kong to shop, we all agreed to have lunch in Zhuhai since it was already 2 in the afternoon. Lunch was okay for my parents who love Chinese food but not for me and the kids who are not so fond of it. There is that distinct smell of Chinese restaurants that you either love or hate; no in-between. The comfort room was relatively clean but it was the same one in most, if not all, of China - the one where you had to squat to pee or poop.

Zhuhai, according to Lengleng, is a new city; only 27 years old. But it is developing real quickly. As in most Chinese cities, one sees a lot of bike commuters, but this Chinese culture is slowly being replaced by the West's idea of faster movement, hence, the motorized vehicles. After lunch, we got back to our bus for the two-hour ride to Shenzhen. It was an uneventful ride. The bus was old and the air-conditioning sucked, but I always loved traveling by bus and absorbing countryside view. There were no squatters in all of the cities we passed. The Chinese government provides condo-type housing for those who couldn't afford a house.

Once in Shenzhen, we were brought to this jewelry store where the salesgirls were well-trained to trick you into buying their pearls and diamonds. My Allianza was very enamored with the "jewels," and also paid much appreciation of Chinese sculpture and art. Like LengLeng, the salesgirls at the jewelry store spoke a lot of Tagalog, which indicated that a lot of Filipino tourists visit China. A few in our group bought jewelries; most of us bought tea. Shenzhen, like Zhuhai, is also a new city, almost the same age, but Shenzhen is more developed. More and more Chinese professionals go to Shenzhen to work although they live somewhere else. There are no old people in Shenzhen. Most establishments prefer young professionals and workers. The enterprising Chinese that she was, LengLeng endeavored to sell us a pocket watch while traveling from Zhuhai to Shenzhen. Despite our exhaustion we swore we heard her say "pu-ke" watch. Over and over. My dad, amused throughout the ad speech, raised his hand and yelled: "Me! I'm going to buy one "pu-ke" watch!" He got his "pu-ke" watch indeed for 80HK$. Pu-ke in Filipino means the female genetalia.

Finally, we were brought to the train station. LengLeng warned us that we would have to go up a flight of stairs, and then down another flight of stairs, and up again. There were no escalators. Once we got to the first flight of stairs up, I realized there was not even a portion where you slide up and down a wheeled luggage. There was no area for wheeled commuters, too. My older daughter, Patricia, helped me with our huge black suitcase, which was probably 30 kilos. Or more. I caught my breath after that. It was like 20-30 small steps up. I did not mind carrying the huge luggage. I was more concerned that it would accidentally drop and really terribly hurt someone. So I succumbed to the help of the porters, whom LengLeng warned us of possibly running away with our luggage or purse. I was confident though that the Chinaman would not have been capable of running away with our enormous luggage. By this time, the family of 13 who was with our tour group was having a wild time. They had one couple in their group who were elderly (the husband was 72 and the wife was in her 60s). There were also two Belgian siblings in their 60s who were overweight and unfit for the kind of walking that we did, and which our respective travel agents did not warn us about. Somehow we all got by unscathed in the crowded, chaotic train station and proceeded to yet another line at another immigration area before we were piled up into the train station for our ride to Hong Kong/Hong Hum. Our tour guide this time was Lee who spoke terrible English. Everyone in our tour group simply stared at him every time he said something. And yet he talked so much that it was agonizing.

It was already dark by the time we were on the train. Our stop was the second-to-the-last stop. It was around 9 p.m. when we finally reached the Hong Hum stop. Carrying our luggage with us, we proceeded to our bus, which was a lot better than the one in Zhuhai, and prayed that we get to our hotel soon. Our hotel accommodation in Hong Kong was at Accelerator Hotel in Nathan Road. Once there, we discovered that our very adventurous trip was not over till it's over. When Lee pointed to our hotel, we found it hard to believe that after all we've been through we still had to clamber up another flight of carpeted stairs before we got to the hotel lounge. The hotel had no escalator. For the nth time, I carried our enormous 30-kilo luggage up around 15 steps with my daughter's help. Finally, we reached our hotel room at the 14^th floor. Of course, from the hotel lounge we got to our rooms via an elevator, thank God for that.

Once in our hotel room, the kids checked out the TV for their favorite Disney channel, only to find out that every one of the 12 channels was in Chinese. I took a hot bath and changed into another comfortable outfit. Before long, mom and dad were knocking on our door. It was past 10 p.m. I can't even begin to imagine how hungry they both were, being accustomed to eating all three meals a day with snacks in between at the exact mealtime. Once we got out of the hotel, dad went straight towards the Chinese resto right next to our hotel. So much for walking around Hong Kong. The kids do not eat other forms of rice other than plain white rice, so they ate their fried rice with much caution. I had some yang chow rice, shrimp dimsum, and lots and lots of hot tea. I planned to walk the entire Nathan Road before going back to the hotel but I was too pooped to do that after our late dinner. Kids and I had oats and biscuits from Manila in the hotel room, while watching one channel that showed an English movie - Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Predator. All three of us slept so soundly that night.

Our tour guide Lee told us to be ready for pick-up at 8:00 a.m. the following day, May 13^th. We were at the lobby before 8 a.m. so we took some time to walk around Nathan Road. All the others in our tour group were just coming down from the hotel for breakfast at the nearby McDonald's anyway. Shortly afterwards, we were all chattering away in the lobby and greeting the moms. It was Mother's Day. Those in our tour group were an interesting bunch of people. Most of us had been to Hong Kong a couple of times or so. We all wanted to go straight to Disneyland and skip the other tourist areas for the day but Lee just won't budge. We figured the tour company really wanted us at the jewelry store, which was our second stop for the day. So off we went first to see the Bruce Lee sculpture and a view of Hong Kong at Bauhinia Square also in Kowloon Island just a few minutes ride from our hotel. We took some pictures, and the tour company photographer also took some of our pictures, which we all knew would end up in plates and would cost a fortune. The family of 6 in our tour group consisting of a mom and his teenaged sons, a nephew, and a niece moved rather too slowly. Two teenagers went to the comfort room and seemed to want to stay there for eternity until the boys concluded their CR rites, and we all went to the bus for our infamous next stop: the jewelry store. We all agreed to blindly go with the motions just to complete that part of the tour and get on to the next stop. The Chinaman who greeted and ushered us around the jewelry store asked first if we were all Filipinos and once we all said yes, he delivered his salesman speech in fluent Tagalog. Once again, my younger daughter was so charmed with the "jewels."

The next stop was Repulse Bay and Convention Center in Hong Kong Island. I was amazed at this part of the tour the first time in 1994, but now I realized that the enterprising Chinese were merely just showcasing the squatters in Hong Kong who lived in boats. While the kids enjoyed the ride, they still kept bugging me where Disneyland was and how much longer were we going to finally get there. I urged them to be more patient. They were really behaved and wonderful tour companions the entire time. The tour photographer who got off the bus after Bauhinia Square now got in the bus again. He now had with him our pictures taken at Bauhinia Square all in plates that cost 100HK$ each. No one wanted to buy except my mom who bought two (one for her and one for me) at the discounted price of 80HK$ each.

Then we were off to Victoria Peak. I have a photograph at home which overlooks Hong Kong taken in 1994 with my sister who now resides in the US, and another photograph taken in 1998 when it was just me, my husband, and our first-born. I took the kids to that same spot and had our picture taken. Mom and I bought fancy watches at a stall nearby that sold for a hundred HK$ for 5 pieces. The conversion rate to peso is 6 to a dollar. We each got watches we fancied. From here it was an hour's travel to Luhai for the much-awaited Disneyland.

Allianza fell sound asleep during the ride to Disneyland so by the time we got to their much-anticipated part of the tour, she was really cranky. She wasn't smiling during the first pictures we had at Disney's entrance. The place was really huge. I remember it to be bigger than Disneyland in LA. It was a long walk before we got to the entrance and another long walk before we reached Main Street at Disneyland. My dad was also cranky at this point - he had an argument with Lee over the price of the picture plates and now he was again terribly hungry. It was past 12 when we got to Disneyland. The kids and I were not really hungry since we had hashbrowns and a tuna sandwich at Bauhinia Square, which was really good. But dad once again went straight to the first resto he saw after Main Street. Once inside I again smelled that distinct Chinese resto smell and swore off Chinese food for eternity. Only my parents ate heartily. Kids and I almost just stared at the both of them. Kids and I went ahead to TomorrowLand, the first stop we chose in Disneyland. We ran straight to the Buzz Lightyear space adventure and then headed next to the car ride. Patricia rode by herself since she passed the height requirement, and Allianza rode with me. From here we saw the grannies having ice cream and cooling off in the benches. Patricia took the roller coaster ride with my Dad, and Dad was dazed after that. The kids then went to have another space ride at TomorrowLand. Next they lined up in a chopper ride at FantasyLand only to be told that Allianza cannot go without adult companion. So the two of them with me in tow ran to the next theater which showed a spectacular 3D show. I thought my mom was just behind me but we searched for them all over and couldn't find them. By the time we got to Main Street and the Main Park, the Parade of the Stars was almost over. We missed it. We finally caught up with the two seniors having drinks and ice cream at one of the park benches. We all proceeded to AdventureLand and took the river ride. It was beautiful. It was longer and more amusing than the one dad and I took at Disneyland LA's AdventureLand. Next we climbed Tarzan's treehouse while mom stayed behind in the park benches. Then, the kids and I lined up for some games also at the AdventureLand and won some Disney stickers. We then lined up for a live theater show which was splended. Simba, Timone and Pumba looked just like the ones on TV and in the movies. There were Filipino performers who were spectacular. The costumes were stunning and the stage was technically advanced. After that we were ready to have dinner. Kids had chicken and fries and I had fishburger and fries at a western fast-food. Their coke, mineral water, and corn-on-a-cob tasted weird but the food was a lot better than my dad's choices of Chinese restos. We then headed to Main Street for the fantastic fireworks display. It was an amazing sight and I was sorry that I was recharging my celfone at the City Hall (Customer Service) so I failed to capture the sight on video. But then again, this daily evening affair would cause a lot of disruption in Hong Kong's animal life, if ever it still had one. After all, there were no more fireflies in Hong Kong.

We got back promptly at 8 p.m. at the bus station where our tour bus was already waiting for us. Mom and I earlier planned to visit Hong Kong's night market after the Disneyland tour but I figured she was totally worn-out by the time we got to the hotel. I readied our luggage for it will be Macau the following day.

Once again the grannies were up early for breakfast on May 14^th at McDonalds. Our tour guide for the day was a fashionable Hong Konger who brought us to the ferry station. Our trip schedule was at 9:30 a.m. Most of those heading for Macau were Chinese tourists and merchants who spoke little or no English who didn't want to wait in lines. I imagined the one-hour ferry ride to be just like the Cebu-Bohol 2-hour route which was fast and fun. From start to finish of the one-hour HK-Macau ferry ride, it was one hell of a woozy trip. It made almost everyone really sea-sick. A Chinese girl behind us was so queasy she threw up noisily. Kids slept to fight off the nausea and also so they couldn't hear the noisy barfing behind us. Once in Macau, we went through a clean and modern immigration area. While the immigration officers in Macau were the same unsmiling ones, Macau's ferry terminal had escalators and was friendly to wheeled tourists. We were greeted by a lively guy who introduced himself as our tourist guide. After a headcount we proceeded to an escalator that would bring us down towards the parking area where our tour bus was waiting. While we were waiting at the top of the escalator for our other companions, we heard a loud frightening scream. One of those in our tour group, the wife in her 60s, emerged, and in a shrill voice said: "My husband!!! Help him!!!" I thought someone just fell and had a stroke. The husband, 72, who wore shorts, shirt, and hearing aide on both ears soon came up from the escalator with blood on his left arm and white socks. We learned that he was trying to help another tourist with her luggage when he slipped and got caught by the escalator. It was fortunate that someone had quick thinking and turned off the escalator. The tour guide was horrified but was in control. After some phone calls by the tour guide, we dropped off the 72-year old husband together with his daughter and son-in-law to a hospital. The wife, who turned out to be strongly 'allergic' to blood, chose to remain in the bus with their other family members. The bill was to be shouldered by the tour company. The rest of us were brought to The Grand Lisboa Hotel.

At first we had not noticed the grandeur of the hotel. We were busy talking to the family of 13 in our tour group. When we were assured that it was going to be alright and that the wife only panicked at the sight of blood, we went around and took pictures. The kids and I used the washroom. Once there, the door automatically opened. The toilet was also automatic. The faucet was automatic, and so were the soap, hand dryer, and hand-wipe machines. The grannies had coffee, tea for me, and milk for the kids at the Noite e Dia Caf© where we found a pretty and friendly Filipino server. My parents immediately made a reservation for a buffet dinner that night. It would not be called The Grand Lisboa for nothing, I suppose. At 11:30 a.m. we all met at the lobby and got back to our bus that took us to the St. Paul ruins. To get there, it was just a few steps up towards the remaining fa§ade of what used to be the St. Paul's Cathedral built by the Portuguese who used to occupy Macau, and who brought Catholicism there. From the church ruins, we walked down a few steps towards a row of small stores that sell egg tarts, almond bites, and walnut bites, which all turned out to be really succulent. There were a lot more local delicacies that smelled and looked good that it became rather difficult to choose which ones to buy as 'pasalubong' (gift) for those back home. Daddy was quick to find a sculpture of a female in a sexual position and urged me to take his picture with the art form. Allianza also found a sculpture of a female and a male in the middle of a well. She went there, threw a coin, and whispered a wish that she wouldn't divulge to me or Patricia. We then walked past rows of stores selling similar local delicacies and through many stores selling supposedly branded delights. I saw a store selling all Roxy items, Lacoste, Samsonite, Louis Vuitton several sports shops, beauty shops. The place was called the Centro. There was a Sto. Domingo Church that we visited that looked exactly like the Catholic churches we have in the Philippines. Then we crossed the Avenida Almeida Ribeiro where we had Portuguese cuisine at the Restaurante de Vida, a resto where you ring a bell before and after the hearty meal inside. It was lunch buffet that had wonderful-smelling bread, pasta and fish dishes. I loved Macau! And the kids did, too! Allianza got so many pieces of bread that everyone thought she wouldn't finish, but she did! She's more of a bread than a rice person, and hey, she starved for 2days in China so she deserved all the food she can lay her hands on.

Our accommodation in Macau was at The Master's Hotel just a few blocks away from the Centro. We walked towards the hotel after lunch past rows and rows of stores that sell the latest and most modern techie items. The Macau hotel was better than the one in Hong Kong. Before reaching the lobby we still had to go up a flight of stairs but the steps were fewer, not carpeted (so it was easier to drag our luggage), and we had a filling lunch so no one complained. After a quick shower and a change into a comfortable shopping outfit, mom and I walked back to the Centro, while the kids and dad were left behind. I was first looking around for a camera and kept computing the peso equivalent of the amount in pataka. Mom was looking around for jewelries. Then we went to the clothing and shoes area. I discovered some smaller streets where I found Adidas shirts at 30HK$, soccer jerseys and shorts at 35HK$ a pair, board shorts at 3 for 60HK$. Satisfied with my finds, I went ahead and bought a Sony Cybershot HD T20 for 2750HK$ which, as I found out later back home, was more than 10k cheaper than the one sold in Manila.

We got back to the hotel at a quarter past 7p.m. via a taxi for only 15HK$. The kids were enjoying a hot bath. We hurriedly changed for dinner and called a taxi to our dinner reservation at The Grand Lisboa. We quickly realized that Macau was dazzling at night. The Grand Lisboa Hotel was truly grandiose! We had our fill of the buffet that had Japanese, western, and Chinese food selection. It was well worth the two days that the kids and I agonized over Chinese food in Zhuhai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong.

I asked the kids if they had fun. Both said yes, they did, but Patricia claimed the Disneyland tour was not enough. Allianza was eager to go home. And I agreed. It was time to go home to Rust and Ridge, our two labradors, and big brother Jorje.