Not necessarily a road trip, per se ...
Oct. 28th, 2005 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veronica_richThis entry, I fear, will not be as exciting as my last road-trip photo essay, but there may be some enjoyment within anyway.
Nearly five years ago, I quit an unrewarding, unsatisfying job - and put my career essentially on hold - to go to Hong Kong on a scholarship. I spent more than a month there, staying in a Macau hotel at first, and then living with a Chinese family in HK.
It's a great sculpture in the middle of Macau, perhaps the most densely populated city on Earth - 500,000 people packed into about 17 square miles, if I recall my facts correctly. Here's the long shot of the same sculpture:
I believe it was built before China took over from the Portugese in 1999, one of many last-ditch efforts to spend money before the transfer of power.
One of the market areas in Macau, not too far from the Post Office plaza - otherwise known as Where Harvest Gold Went to Die. The tiling, the stonework ... The best things about this market area were some of the vendor booths, which sold everything from plucked ducks for dinner, to high-end clothes and shoes (no Spasmoticas, sorry). This one booth sold deep-fried vegetable/meat dumplings served straight from the wok for only 12 cents each, hot on a towel and soaking through as you tried to nibble them down.
Here, a couple of boys look out over the market area:
Also near Macau, on the island of Coloane, was the world-famous Westin Resort, with about a mile of beach between it and the row of 16 "wedding cake" houses below (the twisting of white to the right in the background, not the foreground buildings - those are government offices):
Our host for the day, Jim (an English expatriate Irishman from NYC - figure that out), explained the developer had the houses built, which cost about $16 million HK, or $2 million USD, each. He could not sell them, but wouldn't lower his asking price simply to unload them because it would mean a loss of face in the business community.
Kids do what kids do, pretty much everywhere, it seems ... These students were relaxing after surfing and swimming on the beach not far from the wedding cake houses. The beachfront was littered with booths boasting such local snack fare as fried and raw seafood, cocktails (excellent sangria), odd Chinese sodas and beer, and a few sweets. (Chinese culture is not big on sweets - one day, I actually had a pastry shaped and *looking* like a doughnut, which had as its center filling black bean curd paste instead of chocolate. But I will say this: Chinese chefs can work with tofu in ways you cannot imagine, make it look like shrimp, taste like shrimp, and you'd never know differently unless you have a seafood allergy or someone tells you.)
A Chinese junk cruises the bay outside Macau, near the bridge leading to Coloane. Below is a statue of A-Ma (I know at least one person on my friendslist who will correct me if I'm wrong; I may be confusing it with the very tall white statue of A-Ma on the adjoining island) atop the city's Ecumenical Center, a sort of religious museum:
We also attended a Lenten service while in Macau, complete with the 14 stations of the Cross (I'm not Catholic or even Christian, anymore, so someone with more knowledge than me will have to explain more about this, if they wish to, in the Comments). The children participating were local orphans and foster children from abusive or otherwise questionable backgrounds. I'm no great fan of children, but these were well-behaved kids, and to see how young some of them were, without permanent homes, would really bother any but the hardest of spirit.
(Our next stop will be Hong Kong itself, so I don't overload your capability to download in one LJ entry, for those using dial-up.)
Nearly five years ago, I quit an unrewarding, unsatisfying job - and put my career essentially on hold - to go to Hong Kong on a scholarship. I spent more than a month there, staying in a Macau hotel at first, and then living with a Chinese family in HK.
It's a great sculpture in the middle of Macau, perhaps the most densely populated city on Earth - 500,000 people packed into about 17 square miles, if I recall my facts correctly. Here's the long shot of the same sculpture:
I believe it was built before China took over from the Portugese in 1999, one of many last-ditch efforts to spend money before the transfer of power.
One of the market areas in Macau, not too far from the Post Office plaza - otherwise known as Where Harvest Gold Went to Die. The tiling, the stonework ... The best things about this market area were some of the vendor booths, which sold everything from plucked ducks for dinner, to high-end clothes and shoes (no Spasmoticas, sorry). This one booth sold deep-fried vegetable/meat dumplings served straight from the wok for only 12 cents each, hot on a towel and soaking through as you tried to nibble them down.
Here, a couple of boys look out over the market area:
Also near Macau, on the island of Coloane, was the world-famous Westin Resort, with about a mile of beach between it and the row of 16 "wedding cake" houses below (the twisting of white to the right in the background, not the foreground buildings - those are government offices):
Our host for the day, Jim (an English expatriate Irishman from NYC - figure that out), explained the developer had the houses built, which cost about $16 million HK, or $2 million USD, each. He could not sell them, but wouldn't lower his asking price simply to unload them because it would mean a loss of face in the business community.
Kids do what kids do, pretty much everywhere, it seems ... These students were relaxing after surfing and swimming on the beach not far from the wedding cake houses. The beachfront was littered with booths boasting such local snack fare as fried and raw seafood, cocktails (excellent sangria), odd Chinese sodas and beer, and a few sweets. (Chinese culture is not big on sweets - one day, I actually had a pastry shaped and *looking* like a doughnut, which had as its center filling black bean curd paste instead of chocolate. But I will say this: Chinese chefs can work with tofu in ways you cannot imagine, make it look like shrimp, taste like shrimp, and you'd never know differently unless you have a seafood allergy or someone tells you.)
A Chinese junk cruises the bay outside Macau, near the bridge leading to Coloane. Below is a statue of A-Ma (I know at least one person on my friendslist who will correct me if I'm wrong; I may be confusing it with the very tall white statue of A-Ma on the adjoining island) atop the city's Ecumenical Center, a sort of religious museum:
We also attended a Lenten service while in Macau, complete with the 14 stations of the Cross (I'm not Catholic or even Christian, anymore, so someone with more knowledge than me will have to explain more about this, if they wish to, in the Comments). The children participating were local orphans and foster children from abusive or otherwise questionable backgrounds. I'm no great fan of children, but these were well-behaved kids, and to see how young some of them were, without permanent homes, would really bother any but the hardest of spirit.
(Our next stop will be Hong Kong itself, so I don't overload your capability to download in one LJ entry, for those using dial-up.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 06:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-30 04:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-30 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-31 07:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-31 03:12 pm (UTC)I sometimes wonder how much would be different if I were to go back now, in both Macau and Hong Kong. Not that I have a great basis for comparison - I only stayed for a month a few years ago - but if someone pointed to something new and said "do you remember the XXX that used to be there" there's a possibility I might.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-31 04:35 pm (UTC)