Monthly Archives: February 2014

08 February 2014 Hong Kong

Today I bought a SIM card with unlimited data on it from my hostel. I was amazed at how truly fast mobile internet access  is in Hong Kong.  I have never experienced  such amazingly fast mobile internet access. It was advertised as nearly 1 MB per second, and I was just blown away at how fast it is. I got a sim card with a company called One2Free. I didn’t really do any touristy things today. I went to the Hong Kong Central library, and worked on the internet for several hours.  Later, Peter and I went to the Mongkok Computer Centre. I still believe that Hong Kong is one of the best places in the world to buy electronics due to Hong Kong being a bit of a capital paradise, and having very low taxes in Hong Kong.. In the evening, I went to a Korean fast food restaurant close to the Hong Kong Central Library for dinner, which I really enjoyed. As a side note, I still find it quite interesting that in Hong Kong, McDonald’s is usually cheaper than local Chinese food. It is usually the opposite in China. I don’t understand how this happens, but like it nevertheless. In this post, I have also put a picture of Qoo, my favourite drink from Singapore. There is a similar Qoo drink in Hong Kong, which I also really like.

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07 February 2014 Shenzhen and Coming to Hong Kong

Today is the day I finally came to Hong Kong again. Peter and I ate dinner at a fast food restaurant called 真功夫 (zhen gong fu or genuine kung fu), which I thought was quite good. Going across the border was easy and efficient. I have been to Hong Kong many times, but always find it interesting that once you get to the Hong Kong checkpoint there are signs all over talking about not taking to much milk out of Hong Kong. Bringing too much milk can land you in prison for 2 years. I never thought of milk as potential contraband. I have been to Hong Kong many times. Recently, though, the Hong Kong government has criminalised taking too much milk out of Hong Kong probably mostly for crossing the border into China. I have heard that this is due to Mainland Chinese people buying up much of the milk in Hong  Kong a while back, and local Hong Kong mothers not having enough milk for their babies. So, the Hong Kong government has severely limited the amount of milk that you can take out of the country.  Upon arrival into Hong Kong, we took the MTR to get to our hostel in Mongkok. We stayed at a hostel called Dragon Hostel Hong Kong, which I really liked. Afterwards, we wandered around the neighbourhood in our area, ate dinner, and then went to bed.

06 February 2014 Shenzhen. Shenzhen Science Museum and more.

Today, Maydolly (our host), Peter, and I all did many things today. We initially had the goal of going to the Shenzhen Science Museum. I thought the Shenzhen Science Museum was quite nice. First, we saw a laser show in the dark in the Shenzhen Science Musuem, and then went into the actually exhibit part of the museum. The museum had many things you could interact with, and use to demonstrate certain scientific principles or ideas. The Shenzhen Science Museum was one of the nicest science museums that I have been to in a long time. Afterwards, we shopped at a local Aeon (previously known as Jusco). I had some very delicious bread in a bakery inside of Aeon. We wandered around more places in the local area after wandering around Aeon. For dinner,we ate some delicious noodles for only 6 RMB for each serving at a very small restaurant, and then ate some street food. We ate fried tofu and fried potatoes, and then ate some pineapple slices. Afterwards, we went shopping in very large market called 人人乐, and then went back to Maydolly’s apartment.

Macau Trip Part IV 05 February 2014 and Zhuhai and Shenzhen

Today is the day that I left Macau. I was a bit tired due to doing an all-nighter in casinos. We left Galaxy Casino a little after 9 am. We took a shuttle bus from the casino to the border gate with China. Going across the border was easy and quick. Entering Zhuhai was interesting. After some time of walking around, we found a local restaurant, and ate lunch. Afterwards, we took a taxi to Jiuzhou 九洲 port. We took a ferry from Zhuhai to Macau. It took almost exactly 1 hour to get to Shenzhen by the ferry. Upon arriving in Shenzhen, and took the metro to our friend’s apartment who hosted us. We later all ate dinner together at a local Inner Mongolian-style barbecue restaurant.

Macau Trip Part III 04 February 2014

Today was another fun sightseeing and casino visiting day. The main attractions that Peter and I wanted to see were The Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Monte Fort. The Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral and Monte Fort are right next to each other. We first went to Monte Fort. We stayed only for a short while in Monte Fort, but enjoyed looking around there, and taking many photos. We then walked down, and I got some photos with a statue of Matteo Ricci, a personal hero of mine. Ricci was a fascinating man who I think was kind of a super genius. He was a Jesuit priest who was an extremely well educated man and came to Macau, and later to China. He later became a true expert of the Chinese language. He was apparently able to recite Chinese Classics forwards and backwards, amazing Chinese people, and was also supposedly the first foreigner allowed to be buried in Beijing. We later went to The Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and they were quite nice. Although this was the probably the third time I saw them, I still think they are just as exciting as the first time that I saw them. The Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral are right in the historic center of Macau, and as a result, it was very crowed. After doing sightseeing, Peter and I decided to go spend the rest of the day going to various casinos, and wandering around the main part of Macau called Macau Peninsula. My friend Peter ended up winning more today making his total winnings in Macau around $150 HKD, and so I was quite happy for him. We decided to not get any get an accommodation tonight in order to save money, and in order to visit many different casinos. So staying up all night was quite an adventure, but fun.