Hong Kong no Phooey TR (Apr 2012)! The Yee's have it....TR finish #1101, 07/09

[PrincessInOz]

“One Country, Two Systems”…..Macau



Macau sits at the mouth of the Pearl River downstream from Guangzhou (Canton). During ancient times port city was part of the Silk Road with ships loading here with silk for Rome.

In the early 1550s the Portuguese reached Ou Mun, which the locals also called A Ma Gao, "place of A Ma", in honour of the Goddess of Seafarers, whose temple stood at the entrance to the sheltered Inner Harbour. The Portuguese adopted the name, which gradually changes into the name Macau, and with the permission of Guangdong's mandarins, established a city that within a short time had become a major center for trade between China, Japan, India and Europe.

Portugal's golden age in Asia faded as rivals like the Dutch and British took over their trade. However the Chinese chose to continue to do business through the Portuguese in Macau, so companies like the British East Indies Company continued to maintain a presence in Macau. Following the Opium War in 1841, Hong Kong was established by Britain and most of the foreign merchants left Macau, which became a quaint, quiet backwater. In recent years, Macau has developed to become a tourism hub and is known as the Las Vegas of the East.

Today Macau is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, and, like Hong Kong, benefits from the principle of "one country, two systems".
Its been quite a few years since Hong Kong and Macau were handed back and from the outside, it would appear that China has lived up to its promise. I’m interested to see how this works and I suspect that being in Hong Kong and Macau will provide me with a little perspective.



By all accounts, the architecture in Macau is meant to be very European (Portuguese) in nature. I am, of course, talking about the historic architecture rather than the glitzy hotel casinos that Macau is also known for.

You can get to Macau on by sea (ferry or turbojet) from Hong Kong. It takes roughly an hour and you travel in this general direction. I’m planning to spend a day exploring Macau.






Macau’s currency is the pataca and is pegged to the HK Dollar. Thankfully, it would seem that the HK Dollar is readily accepted in Macau. I suspect that one of the things that I’ll be doing is making sure that I get some pataca currency to bring back with me as a souvenir.

I’ve already covered off the Visa requirements for Macau in an earlier post. So, let’s take a look at the city….


I’ve checked out Frommer’s and the Lonely Planet for Macau. I’ll put a link here for Frommer’s, only because they list two walks that seem eminently doable.



The first walk covers these sites:





The second walk includes:





I’m hoping to be able to combine both walks and see most of the historic sites in Macau.



On the foodie front, Macau’s cuisine will have Portuguese influences. Local specialties include the dry and salted cod fish (bacalhau), the pork chop bun, Portuguese-styled chicken. I’m expecting to be enjoying snacks like almond cookies and egg tarts. It’s the Portuguese egg tarts that I’m looking forward to the most.






As I understand it, Lord Stowe and Margaret’s Café e Nata offer some of the best egg tarts in town. My other option is to purchase the tarts from street food spots, some of which are found around the ruins of St Paul. We need to look for the Pastelaria Ko Kei , if possible. At around 7 Pataca each, that’s roughly AU$1 per morsel.

Margaret’s Cafe e Nata is located at Gum Loi Building, on a small patio off Rua Comandante Mata e Oliveira : A small street that connects Avenida de D. Joao IV and Avenida da Praia Grande. Apparently near the Hotel Sintra.

Lord Stow is located on Coloane Island, 1 Rua do Tassara about 20 minutes bus ride from Macau Peninsula. I'm hoping to take the bus ride out; but it will depend on how we feel on the day.

Alternatively, there’s a Lord Stow outlet in the Macau Venetian Casino. Looks like I might need to take a walk inside this casino to sample one! I don’t think I’ll have any problems with getting my parents to agree to visit the casino……DH…..well….that is another story!


Margaret is the ex-wife of Lord Stow so a comparison might be fun. Certainly puts a different spin on “One Country, Two Systems”!

[usnuzuloose]

Interesting, are you going to Macau? Chris is interested in different money. Is it worth anything?

[queenie82]

Have no interest in Macau tbh...
OTHER than the tarts.

I looked at the 'stuff' to see but the architecture is poorly preserved and they are often literally JUST a facade held up with scaffolding.

Their attention to looking 'after' things is worse than that Italians.... [where a wall in Pompeii just tumbled over a few months back...]



Do enjoy though....

[zanzibar138]

I'll be interested to see what adventures you have in Macau. I'd never really heard of it until the amazing race lol!

[dgbg100106]

I watched Anthony Bourdaine (sp?) Show no reservations when he was in Macau and the food looked to be a mix of cultures and showed a different side.

[franandaj]

Macau sounds interesting to me, however, as I said on Brandi's TR, I'm always interested in how HA foreign countries are. I realize there is no ADA outside the US. That's why we like going to Disney so much! We know what we are getting into. I will enjoy seeing all your photos of the interesting sites regardless of their state of disrepair.

[TheColtonsMom]

Well your TR pretty much covered most of our Sunday. My DH (who really needs to get a name of his own for the DIS) saw on my PTR that you had a PTR going and didn't even wait for me to wake up before he read it all. He is a big fan of your style. A bit later on I got a chance to enjoy your planning and your little side trips, as usual you make me smile then laugh. Colton joined in when he heard about the zoo so we went back and went through the report again. Now all is quiet here and I just wanted to let you know how much enjoyment we got out of this PTR today Thanks!

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by usnuzuloose

Interesting, are you going to Macau? Chris is interested in different money. Is it worth anything?

One Aussie dollar is currently exchanging around the 7.5 Hong Kong Dollar mark. The US dollar should get you 7.5 Hong Kong Dollars as well.

Originally Posted by queenie82

Have no interest in Macau tbh...
OTHER than the tarts.

I looked at the 'stuff' to see but the architecture is poorly preserved and they are often literally JUST a facade held up with scaffolding.

Their attention to looking 'after' things is worse than that Italians.... [where a wall in Pompeii just tumbled over a few months back...]



Do enjoy though....

May I refer you back to the Willie Wonka quote (post 36)? "So much time, so little to do"


Seriously, I love looking at old buildings, facade or otherwise.

Originally Posted by zanzibar138

I'll be interested to see what adventures you have in Macau. I'd never really heard of it until the amazing race lol!

I can guarantee you that I will NOT be climbing up the Macau Tower for any roadblock clues.

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

I watched Anthony Bourdaine (sp?) Show no reservations when he was in Macau and the food looked to be a mix of cultures and showed a different side.

I'm looking forward to the food.

Originally Posted by franandaj

Macau sounds interesting to me, however, as I said on Brandi's TR, I'm always interested in how HA foreign countries are. I realize there is no ADA outside the US. That's why we like going to Disney so much! We know what we are getting into. I will enjoy seeing all your photos of the interesting sites regardless of their state of disrepair.

Hopefully, I'll have interesting photos when I return.

Originally Posted by TheColtonsMom

Well your TR pretty much covered most of our Sunday. My DH (who really needs to get a name of his own for the DIS) saw on my PTR that you had a PTR going and didn't even wait for me to wake up before he read it all. He is a big fan of your style. A bit later on I got a chance to enjoy your planning and your little side trips, as usual you make me smile then laugh. Colton joined in when he heard about the zoo so we went back and went through the report again. Now all is quiet here and I just wanted to let you know how much enjoyment we got out of this PTR today Thanks!

Sherri! Nice to see you back on the Boards. And I didn't know your DH was a lurker. Time for TheColtonsDad to get his own profile on the Dis.


Glad y'all enjoyed the PTR so far.

[PrincessInOz]

OT - Chinese New Year week


The Year of the (water) Dragon officially started on 23 January 2012. Life has been one hectic round of running around, sorting out gifts and preparation for the in-coming year.

I started out late this year....very late. I left it to 22 Jan (New Year's Eve) to run around to shop for gifts. In my defence, it is food and fruit that I give away, so there's no point getting these early. I do normally make jam...but it's been an expensive year for fruit so I declined on the jam making this year.

The good thing was that the suburb that I went to for shopping was celebrating the New Year early. They had a street festival on the 22nd Jan. If I had realised that, I would have left the boys at home and gone by myself. As it was, they came with me and I only had 30 minutes to try to grab some shots....er....enjoy the festival.


The street kinda looked like this....





Nice view, isn't it?


As it is the Year of the Dragon, the carnival prizes were loaded up....






....and even the Red packets or "ang pows" that we hand out to kids were depicting dragons on them (just ignore the marketing of a certain health fund provider).






On a serious note, there is a prayer said for the occassion....and the Buddhist marquee was full when I peeked in.






Don't ask me about what he's calligraphing on the red.....it's all Chinese to me!





I would have liked to have stayed for the street heralding in the New Year...we would have seen the Dragon procession. But the boys weren't keen to stay too long.





I'm consoling myself with the fact that I'm planning on hitting the city Chinatown celebrations on Sunday.

I had gotten there early; so most of the food stalls were still setting up and I think I missed all the decent food.

But I did get some curly fries....not cooked yet.





And some early frying of artery clogging Chinese pancakes.






Plus some Chinese concoction for a refreshing drink. Nuts, anyone?






By this stage, the boys were making noises and not in a good way. So, I packed the camera up and we headed home. I needed to get ready for CNY Eve dinner, anyway; and make sure I had my 'ang pow's done and the presents organised.


(Continued in Next Post)

[PrincessInOz]

OT - Chinese New Year Eve Dinner


It is a tradition on Chinese New Year's eve for anyone of chinese descent to head 'home' to the oldest family member's home for dinner. Usually, this means Mum's home and Mum's cooking.

I suspect that over the years, most Mum's of chinese descent have long worked out that cooking two big meals in a row (NY Eve and NY 1st night) is an absolute PITA and have, by sheer convenience, settled on the old favourite Steam Boat for the NY Eve dinner.
I don't know if all mum's do this...but certainly in my circle of Asian friends, 80% of them were heading home for a steam boat dinner of sorts.

You might also know steam boat as Chinese fondue or Shabu shabu or lok lok....most asian cultures will have a variation of this meal.

The beauty of a steam boat is that everyone cooks their own dinner. Mum just needs to provide the raw ingredients....most of which is available at Asian grocers as is...or is simple to assemble at home.

I ended up being the first one there; so that meant that I needed to help with the table organisation.






As you're cooking your own meal, you'll need appropriate fishing implements.





For convenience, we use the rice cooker as the steam boat. Just add stock and let it boil.





This is what my Mum put on the table for CNY Eve dinner.





The seafood selection...














Mum assembled these two...

Tofu puffs stuffed with fish paste.





Seafood wontons.





The pre-made stuff.

Fish balls...






...and tofu skin 'rolls' with fish paste.






Mum did offer some chicken and I don't think I saw this again till the end of the night. The kids just 'hogged' it all!





We normally like lots of vegetables and there were 5 kinds of vegetables on offer. The one that might not be so commonly available is the water spinach...pretty much a weed in Asia; but is an amazing peppery tasting veg.






We also had water cress..






...standard chinese spinach...







....and broccoli...chinese and conventional (not pictured).






When you're ready to eat, dump a whole heap of stuff into the rice cooker.






Close the lid, wait a while and when the pot is steaming.....start fishing!









Some of my bowls of food...
















At the end of the night, the broth would have completely 'sweetened' up from the cooking. I normally like to finish with some noodles at the bottom and poach an egg....and have lots and lots of broth!







Enjoy! I know I did.

[jenshell75]

Hi Hi Princess in OZ

HAPPY CNY

I just thought that I better ring the door bell and let you know that I am hear watching and waiting for your next update. I have been lurking for a few weeks now.

We just got back from WDW and the Disney Cruise and we are now planning on Hong Kong Disney for December 2013. It's a long way off but planning keeps the holiday blues away apparently.

In the mean time I am going to watch and learn so much about Hong Kong and Disney by spending my nights reading your posts. I am also craving some steamboat now after looking at your CNY dinner. It's just a good thing I ate lots today when we went to Chinatown Sydney for our dinner and to check out the CNY activities with my kids.

See ya round like a fish ball
Jen

[usnuzuloose]

Sorry you didnt get to stay long at the festival. Your CNY looks different, thats because we dont celebrate it. Thanks for sharing!

[dgbg100106]

everything looks so yummy, I am glad I have left overs for today... The poached egg looks so good right now.

[ehsmum]

Hi PIO! I haven't been on DIS for awhile because I was finding it depressing without a trip planned, but we are off to Hong Kong in April and of course will be visiting Disneyland so I popped on to re-read Queenie's TR and found your PTR! I can't believe we are going within weeks of each other! We'll be in HK 13th-20th April. Our plan is to stay in Kowloon for 4 nights (13th-17th), Macau 1 night (17th-18th) and Disneyland 2 nights (18th-20th).

I'm still in the early planning stages. All I've really booked is the flights so far. I'm trying to figure out Kowloon accomm first and I see that you had a problem with that too. I can't find anywhere that has a room big enough for 5 of us and 2 rooms is working out to be very pricey Once I have that figured then I'll start looking at Disney.

My must do list so far is:

Stanley Markets
Ocean Park
Symphony of Lights
mid-level escalators
Chungking mansions
Big Buddha
Open top bus tour
The Peak tram
Star Ferry
Disneyland (of course!!)

I look forward to reading more about your planning and getting some tips!

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by jenshell75

Hi Hi Princess in OZ

HAPPY CNY

I just thought that I better ring the door bell and let you know that I am hear watching and waiting for your next update. I have been lurking for a few weeks now.

We just got back from WDW and the Disney Cruise and we are now planning on Hong Kong Disney for December 2013. It's a long way off but planning keeps the holiday blues away apparently.

In the mean time I am going to watch and learn so much about Hong Kong and Disney by spending my nights reading your posts. I am also craving some steamboat now after looking at your CNY dinner. It's just a good thing I ate lots today when we went to Chinatown Sydney for our dinner and to check out the CNY activities with my kids.

See ya round like a fish ball
Jen

Hey Jen! Thanks for de-lurking and subbing in. I love hearing about other people's travel plans and it seems like there might be a few Anzacs heading towards Hong Kong.

How long are you planning to be in Hong Kong and is it a Disneyland holiday or a holiday to Hong Kong?

I still have a couple more updates on CNY to come. And depending on the weather, I'm hoping to head to the city on Sunday to see Chinatown Melbourne celebrations.


I'll see your fish balls (but I'm likely to eat them instead. )....hopefully more round often.

Originally Posted by usnuzuloose

Sorry you didnt get to stay long at the festival. Your CNY looks different, thats because we dont celebrate it. Thanks for sharing!

I'm hoping to make it out to the downtown celebrations this Sunday....and have more time there. So, I didn't mind leaving early.

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

everything looks so yummy, I am glad I have left overs for today... The poached egg looks so good right now.

I could do a poached egg now for breakfast!

Originally Posted by ehsmum

Hi PIO! I haven't been on DIS for awhile because I was finding it depressing without a trip planned, but we are off to Hong Kong in April and of course will be visiting Disneyland so I popped on to re-read Queenie's TR and found your PTR! I can't believe we are going within weeks of each other! We'll be in HK 13th-20th April. Our plan is to stay in Kowloon for 4 nights (13th-17th), Macau 1 night (17th-18th) and Disneyland 2 nights (18th-20th).

I'm still in the early planning stages. All I've really booked is the flights so far. I'm trying to figure out Kowloon accomm first and I see that you had a problem with that too. I can't find anywhere that has a room big enough for 5 of us and 2 rooms is working out to be very pricey Once I have that figured then I'll start looking at Disney.

My must do list so far is:

Stanley Markets
Ocean Park
Symphony of Lights
mid-level escalators
Chungking mansions
Big Buddha
Open top bus tour
The Peak tram
Star Ferry
Disneyland (of course!!)

I look forward to reading more about your planning and getting some tips!

Hey ehsmum! We miss each other by a day or so. I'll be leaving around the 11th April. I assuming you're coinciding with WA hols? I had to work around the Vic holidays.

Your list and my list are very similar. I have a few more markets on my list....Fish, Jade, Ladies etc.


Have you worked out accommodation yet? Where are you considering staying?