7PM Breakfast

We had a long night yesterday, and we had to do a few things in the morning.

All on an empty stomach.

We had a dinner plan already with a student’s family in Hong Kong. Finally it hit 7pm, and we were ready to chow down anything edible in our way.

A few peanuts to start our meals, and slowly the rest of the food came out.

There was lobster, fish, beef, rice, noodles, soup buns and tea.

I ate and ate and very happy to say “satisfied” after having some food in my system finally.

We got on the MTR and went to the shopping mall area walked around and picked up a few things for Tony, and as some of the stores were closing…we went to try a steak place in that neighbourhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was pretty good.

Time to go home and get some rest. Tomorrow i have a meeting with the Jackie Chan crew in his studio and we also have to see Tony’s mom off; she will be heading to Vancouver tomorrow as well.

 

Macau/Macao

Today was mission impossible.

We got up and quickly took a shower. However, until the shuttle bus arrived, we filmed a quick vending machine commercial. (stay tuned for the laughs in the video blog)…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyhow, once the shuttle bus dropped us off at the MTR, we rushed through the streets of Kowloon to get to the trains. Parkouring through slow people and fences, we finally got into the train.

We needed to get to the farthest station south west to meet up with our friend where she’d be waiting for us close to the central area to hop on the ferry.

Once we got there, it looked like a mix of a speed boat, a small cruise ship and a hover craft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s what we were going to be taking to watch a show where a friend’s friend had tickets waiting for us to see a great performance, very much like cirque de soleil but with water gimmicks.

Once we got out at the station, we hailed a cab and rushed to the hotel where the show was taking place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phew! We were there, but where was the friend???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We looked and looked and finally found out where he was. Got the tickets, and it seems like there’s some time to kill.

So we walked to a near by hotel. 7 stars. Absolutely phenomenal places here!!! Funny enough we walked in to use their washroom, and then walked through the hall that’s connected to food courts and many other places.

Our choice of food for the night: Mc Donald’s. Remember it was a mission for us to try all the familiar food joints we have in Toronto, here. This McD’s had pumpkin soup, red bean pie, and beef or chicken prosperous burger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which is what we got, and it wasn’t bad at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The prices were high though because it’s considered a touristy area. After our quick bite, we walked around for a bit and came across some great stores. They even had the drunken master wine barrels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we stopped to watch the mermaid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also came across this beautiful golden dragon near the dragon casino on the ceiling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was finally showtime. The show was great. A mix of waterworks, acrobatics, theatrics, storyline and great lighting and effects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the show was done, we wanted to venture some more, and go hotel and casino hoping.

Unfortunately, the weather was rainy, so we didn’t get to enjoy it as much outdoors, but that didn’t slow us down to venture through the hotels and casinos of Macau: dubbed as the “VEGAS of ASIA”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were tons of games, lights, pre-setups for the new year to come in a week or so, and a handful of performances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It reminded me of the set of Oceans 11-The Movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mall was indoors obviously, but the whole thing was designed to make you feel like you were by the narrow Italian water bodies with the small wooden romantic rowing boats, lamp posts and a ceiling which was all sky like. Yes it looked like it was outdoors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We later decided it was time to go and get some food in this beautiful mall, which was part of the hotel known as the Venitian-like Venice in Italy. The night came to an end and we were headed back to the ferry to go home. Tomorrow morning. We have an dinner planned with one of my student’s parents from Toronto.

Ferry Ride

Our day started off with a hugggggggge breakfast (which was really lunch) at Dan Ryan’s.

An East Side Mario’s type of restaurant by the harbour front, but with better food.

We were all starving and ordered a plate of onion rings, nachos, i got a huge Chicken burger, Tony got a burger with bacon on the side, and Mary got a salad with sliced steak on top. As well as  a round of soups and garlic bread that came with our meals.

I even drew out an outline on the place mat they had under the plates, as to the ideal size of my burger, and the measurements it should be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First we looked like this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shortly after, we looked like this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we decided we were going to go check out some more places on the Hong Kong Island side, including the 101st apple store in Asia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As i mentioned before, there’s many ways of going there…including helicopter, ferry, driving, or MTR. Today, it was the ferry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was an amazing chance to sit back and watch the beautiful skyline as we approached the pier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ferry slowly unloaded the passengers and we were out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to one of the biggest shopping centres there and stopped by a few huge sky scraper buildings. ICC & IFC. We even stopped by one of the gym’s placed near the rooftop of one of them. The view is crazyyyy!!!! 3 of the personal trainers were also capoeiristas.

Our next stop was a venture through LKF, where all the clubs and night life happens. One of the clubs was called Tazmania!!!!!! I can’t wait to see what that club is like, especially if they I.D. me. hahaha.
On our way back to our hood, we stopped by an area called ‘Jordan’ and walked over to “hollywood street”. It started drizzling a bit, and we still ventured to our next destination, “man street”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A street filled with gadgets, computers, cameras, adapters, clothing, food and massage places.

We came across a few amazing camera stores with all the add-ons you can possibly think of, but we planned to pick up some stuff another day on “man street”.

In the meantime, all this walking and exploring has got us hungry…our next stop Mong Kok (another shopping area with lots of restaurants).

Our choice pizza hut.

Tony and I of course, the monsters we are…ordered a Large stuffed crust pizza each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m starting to think we are part ninja turtle. They loved pizza right?!

Our night came to an end after taking a short cut through a street very much like “the red line district” in Holland.

Goodnight everyone.

 

 

Shanghai Noodle place

After picking up Tony’s niece from class…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we head off to a mini Dave ‘n’ Buster in a mall.

After parking the car, i had to hop on one of those…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and once we reached the games…we played PLENTY of games…basketball, table hockey, coin drop and the list goes on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended up getting plenty of tickets and hopefully she’ll be able to redeem them in the near future for something more than a notepad. Haha.

We head off to a restaurant, but something caught our eye on the way up the escalator. It was a musical instrument store…packed with drums, pianos and tambourines. We surely stopped by and played for a bit…the prices are amazing compared to Canadian prices.

Anyhow…our rumbling tummies, ended our musical hunger and time for some real food.

On the way out of the mall to cross over to the restaurant on street level, i saw a beautiful FULL SIZE ship!

It’s a mall, with many restaurants inside as well. It’s there as a mark, to remind the people of what that area used to be back then.

Anyways, I didn’t have my camera on me, and told Tony to take a photo using his phone. Searching his pockets, a panic look…we froze in our steps and went to look for it immediately by back tracking our steps.

Luckily, we found the phone, camouflaged on one of the games we played. We went back up. street level. Took the photo, and crossed over to the restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whampao, Hung Hom.

A Shanghai Noodle place which was very special. Started off as a matchbox size location, with a bench and a cook, is now a huge restaurant with a waiting list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The noodles are specially hand made, and very delicious. You are allowed only ONE bowl per person, due to it’s high demand. Here’s mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we slurped down our food, we prepared ourselves for a game of snooker. Winner laughs. Loser does push ups. Great times!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great night.

 

 

 

 

 

7 Star Hotel

Today we were in for a special treat…

First we got ourselves a quick breakfast and went over to Tony’s niece’s sports day to film it and take photos. Once we were done, we were off for an early lunch at a 7 star hotel called “W Hotel”

Taking the elevator up to the high rise restaurant the elevator floor greeted us, and it changed depending on the time of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked in and it was a fairly big restaurant, we had different options including open buffet and a la carte.

Open buffet was our choice. I must say, the food, the layout, the options were great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view was ocean side, and we were high up in the building…so we had a great panoramic window view.

I started off with thinly sliced roast beef and freshly made pasta side with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and freshly diced tomatoes topped with emerald green spinach and a touch of mozzarella cheese on top, which melted from the heat of the freshly prepared dish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the side i had a mango drink, while my friend had a smaller starter plate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went for a few reloads and finally dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outcome…one hell of a lunch!

We hung out in the mall which was connected via a tunnel to the hotel, and watch some ice skating and walked around a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we went to the washroom…it was bigger, better and cleaner than some of the hotel’s washrooms in Toronto.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shortly after we went to the park with Tony’s niece and taught her parkour, capoeira and we raced through the swings and children’s play area for an hour or so…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we also saw a handful of beautiful buildings surrounding the hotel’s area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to pick up her dad from work.

After the pick up, we stopped by for dinner, and we got some great food at a place similar to East Side Mario’s.

I got a gigantic double decker “colossal burger” Tony got quesadillas, while the others got ribs and shakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We  said our goodbyes to dad and the niece as they had work and school the next day, and we went out to pick up some souvenirs from a street full of local street vendors…and surprise surprise, i saw a cafe with my brothers name on it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took the mini bus from a different route back home and it’s a night.

Horse Race

After a good morning out of discovering more streets, local attractions and markets.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat for lunch, and jumped on the subway to the island side of Hong Kong.

We met up with a few friends for dinner, and a friend suggested we go watch a race at the tracks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We might’ve thought it was cars first, but she was talking about horse racing…and sure enough…we were going to be betting on them too.

We took a tram over to the racetrack, and got in. Wow. The amount of lights, tourists, horses and people gambling…insane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It definitely put woodbine horse betting to shame.

Anyways, we lined up and placed our bets, on the so called “winning horse” that our friend said she got ‘tipped’ to bet on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first race came to an end…and the horse number we picked was the winner…only the race before the one we bet on…next was the big race. It started drizzling a bit, but we weren’t going to give our spot that easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Horses lined up and ready to go…on your marks, set…GO!

The horses raced past us, pure speed and muscle in action…we watched on the big screen as they took the turn on the other side…anddddddddddd….Our horse seemed to have been drinking, or ate a steak before the race…and we lost!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never listen to our friend again…haha! We got another quick bite, and head home….unlesssss….the pageant girls are still in town…we called them to wish em luck, and called it a night.

ELOW HOTEL

After taking the train back to HK, got changed and showered after our 45min ride from China.

We head out to meet up with our friends, the pageant girls as this would be their last night in town before they head out to Hai Nan. An island off Hong Kong, filled with parties, events, foreigners and very much like Ibiza, but the Chinese version.

We took the MTR (subway) to the last stop west on the map. Thinking it would be a 10-15minute walk. We walked, and walked…for at least 30mins, and the tunnel finally came to a crossroad. Go straight or turn. We decided to turn and ask for the hotel.

Now, the hotel is called. “L’hotel” Which in French is pronounced. “Lotel” We were talking about the Chinese pronunciation of the name while walking in the tunnel, and put the accents to the test and walked up to the mall customer service booth.

Tony: “we’re looking for L’hotel”
Rep: “L’hotel”
Tony: “yes. L’hotel”
Lady had a puzzled look. Where is that?
Tony and I: “LOL. We’re asking you”
Tony takes a moment and tries in a more Chinese sounding accent. “El Hotel.”
Rep: ” El hotel?”
Tony: “Yes.” he changes his accent even more. “Elo-ho-tel”
Rep: “ahh…it’s 25mins walking”

We head out and laugh it off, and figured it’d be too late if we walked. So we wave a taxi down.

Tony: “L’hotel please”
Driver: “L’hotel?”
Tony: “yes. ‘L’ HOTEL”
Driver: “where is that”
Tony starts changing his accents. “yes, el-hotel. Elow-hotel”
Driver: “ohhh ok ok”
The driver merges and calls a friend. “Hi, Elow hotel…where is that?”

Finally we were on track, Tony and i were dying of laughter…and everyone else we’ve told the story too.

We made it and we see the hotel!
We knocked on the girls doors, and said we were room service…it was a nice surprise for them.

The girls always have a blast with us around, and we seem to be a huge boost for their morale in this foreign place where they have no one but themselves and us for support. Of course families overseas and friends…but it’s just not the same when you’re not there in person.

Bags, outfits, shoes, packing and more packing…and one of the girls showed up with wig. I put that on and walked into one of the rooms where they didn’t know about me being there or the wig. Plenty of laughs and giggles. Stay tuned for the video part of this.

We called it ‘a night’ and head back home around 2am, and the girls had to be up and ready for make up before their early morning flight.

Mc Donalds in China

After we got out of the massage parlour, we didn’t eat there…but we were surely hungry.

One of our missions was to try anything that we had in Canada, but the Chinese version.

Mc Donalds being a local favourite, we stopped by in Hong Kong, Macau, and China, and each one has their own story.

Anyways…  we stopped by a smaller Mcd’s joint. The whole menu was in CHINESE! we figured walking into Mcd’s would be the simplest menu we’d have to look and choose from. KFC was the same. Sigh.

We saw a bigger one, and figured, FOR SURE the menu will have some English subtitles to it, right? WRONG. The menu seemed bigger with bigger photos of unknown combos to us, and the rest of the menu was in Chinese. Ahhhh!

I figured i’d take a chance, and pull a fear factor and try whatever i got…or i could order in Mandarin. We decided we’d try some of the new items.

We got one order which was a good spicy chicken, with a coke. The second order was a new mushroom grilled chicken sandwich with a coke. Only the chicken looked like beef, and the coke was in a coffee cup. It was some cranberry mix of some sort.

We finished eating finally, and hit some local malls. Very nice, and many options. Local stores and restaurants and the bigger stores like LV, Zara, Gucci etc. We even ran into a store named after my brother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We tried some local food while there…some street food, others at nearby cafes or restaurants. Just like anything…some of it was amazing, others were just regular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We even saw a man cooking to the beat. (stay tuned for the video blog and you will see this segment). We ventured into a path which led us to the next part of the mall where we saw the arcade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are SERIOUS about it. There was DDR (dance dance revolution) we’ll show you a bit more in the video once it’s up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we left the mall, we walked down a strip where i was looking for local kung fu schools and outfits. Boy…was i disappointed. Apparently kung fu schools are almost non existent here. The city we were in, but i intend on stopping by kung fu central (fo shun) which is the local city of kung fu schools and masters, where part of  IP MAN-the movie was filmed.

Disappointed, we walked away from the malls and local wholesalers, picked up a coffee..and on our way to the apartment building, we saw a teenager with a box. I stopped my friends, when i noticed the cutest puppies inside. We even considered buying one for my friends nephew…when suddenly…the teenager grabbed the dog that was outside the box which he was showcasing to people. Put him in the box super quick, and lunged into the subway station behind him, because he wouldn’t want to be charged doing Illegal sales. The security and police seconds later jumped the spot he was standing in with the box. The teen lunged into the subway station…and aimed for escalator. Luckily he made it away from the police. A BIG FINE & JAIL for the teen if caught, however, when he fled the scene, the teen landed from his lunge, missing the escalator, and he took the worst tumble ever and we heard him fall down and bang himself across the rail. The crowd gathered to see what happened to the teen and the dogs.
We could not see from the amount of people that gathered, and sadly walked away, wishing we hadn’t witnessed that.

Night time approached, we met with a friend for some food and were shortly packed and ready to go to the train station to head back to Hong Kong.

China – Massage Parlour

It’s almsot rush hour, and for some reason…we thought taking a cab would be faster than the subway.

I guess we were right…after we dealt with only 1/2 of the rush hour on the Hong Kong side before the tunnel.

Anyhooooow…

We arrived at the train station. Glad to say, there wasn’t that much traffic inside. We still had to move fast and fill up our documents that we’re leaving HK to China.

Done and done. We have our tickets and on board the train.

On the way there, my friends had warned me that it’d be a huge contrast and change between Hong Kong and China. Which i expected. They made it seem so much worse than what it really was.

I told them i lived in Asia, Africa, and other parts of the world, where i’ve almost seen everything. I even lived through 2 wars…so i’m sure China couldn’t be THAT bad. haha.

The moment we arrived, you could tell that getting into China; the deeper we went…the louder, noisier and busier it got.

My nose started picking up different wiffs. Local food, local body odor, local sewage, but again…which country doesn’t have that right?

The adventure continued and we met up with our contact in China that would be our host for the day or two we plan on staying.

We had to pit stop quickly to exchange some money, and jumped on a mini bus which was fairly packed to a nearby apartment building.

China reminded me of many countries i have lived in. There was something very simple yet beautiful about it. The hard working people, striving to make ends meet. The classy and rich with their high end cars, the good weather and language which i was familiar with (Mandarin) but let’s keep moving to our next stop. YES. You guessed it…FOOD!

We stopped by a nearby restaurant and got plenty of food. Enough to feed an army. Ate outside on a patio, and enjoyed the energy from the streets and people.

One thing i can tell you though, is if you’re ever considering GETTING lung cancer…China could fast track that thought for you! LOL.

Sure enough…dinner was served, and finished…and it was time to check out the night life. It was somewhat alive, since it was a weekday…some areas don’t know sleep. After roaming around for a bit. We stopped by a starbucks, and relaxed for a bit…then the ultimate relaxation was next on the agenda. ”Heaven on earth” massage parlour.

Remember that scene from rush hour 2 with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, when they went to select their massage and pick out their masseuse. In China and Hong Kong. There are plenty of massage places.

Some for massages. Others for “extra” services.

Anyhow. We went for an actual massage.

Got in, got our locker and stripped down.

They provided us with towels, shampoo, body wash, razors, shaving cream, gel, slippers, pyjamas, underwear…almost everything you can possibly need for a shower. LOL.

After using all the equipment provided for the PERFECT shower. I hit up an exfoliating session. Basically, scrub off all the dead skin off me. Front and back. Once i was done, i stopped by the sauna, and steam bath…and relaxed in the pool, until my friend decided he’d try the exfoliating scrub.

That was hilarious. He felt very awkward being naked and scrubbed by a man. It was even funnier when i stopped by to ask him a question. The look on his face was priceless. He could hardly put a sentence together from the amount of laughter that happened. haha.

Finally, the showering and scrubbing came to an end…and we went out to the ‘common area’ Where people can lay down and watch tv, get foot massages, eat, drink, sleep or select a masseuse.

We sat down and watched tv, when suddenly…these two females dressed as hostesses or stewardesses come out and one of them makes eye contact with me. She smiles, and walks towards me and i notice her friend following.

I was hopping she’d talk to me, and her friend would talk to MY friend Tony…LOL since ‘my girl’ was cuter…hahaha.

Sure enough she sat down and asked me to look at a list of massages offered.

We finally made the choice, and we headed to the rooms where we’d be getting our massages. While leaving, my friend’s mom suggested all 3 of us get a massage in the same room, and we declined without hesitating. That’d just be weird…lol.

We lied down on the beds, and sure enough…it was the same girls we spoke to earlier that were going to be massaging us.

We thought they’d be taking the massage types and sending other masseuses to massage us, but i guess we thought wrong.

The massage session was hilarious and full of jokes. Whether it was my broken mandarin and my friend playing translator with his broken mandarin-cantonese mix, or between my masseuse hitting on me, or my friend turning his head away and avoiding any eye contact with his masseuse.

Simply hilarious!!!!!

The massage came to an end, and the girls left. We locked the door, and passed out and got up in the morning.

Showered, shaved, got dressed and left the massage spot.

Next stop Mc Donalds in China!

Ps. This blog was updated from Hong Kong, as Facebook is not allowed in China, and internet access and websites are either limited or restricted.

Hong Kong-Island. Train to China

Sun’s out and it’s time to rise and shine.

After getting ready we took the local shuttle bus (mini bus) which dropped us off at the MTR (subway) station to start the days journey.

There’s several mini buses. The main ones are Red and Green. Once we got to the MTR station, we crossed over to the island side of Hong Kong.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Hong Kong. There is Kowloon side, and Hong Kong side, where you can take a bus, ferry, car, helicopter or MTR to cross sides.

Once we crossed, we stopped by a Macau inspired restaurant and ate there.

Very Portuguese influenced cuisine, and we got on the tram (double decker street car) to meet a friend.

We saw some sort of  fire which required the emergency response units. I also saw amazing parkour opportunities out the tram and onto the street, or onto a sign, or perhaps into the tram infront of us. I will save that for a later time though. Just incase i get caught…haha.

 

 

 

 

 

We met up with our friend for a quick bite, and she made us try a weird burger like dish with egg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wasn’t bad at all actually. As you can see we survived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re gonna go and walk around for a bit.

Good times and good laughs, but then we had to say our farewells, and head to the train station to cross the border over to CHINA.