Hong Kong and Macau

After much debate in Hanoi about whether we would end the trip and head straight to Korea or instead extend for another week, we settled on going to Hong Kong for 4 days together, after which time Jeeheon would head back to Korea and I would head to Macau for 3 days to make my fortune and never have to work again. Well, I'm now sitting here contemplating potential job opportunities, so I guess the latter plan didn't work out exactly as intended, though it wasn't all bad.

Hong Kong has a stunning setting, with countless highrise office and residential buildings set around the harbor:

A couple of street shots:

We did manage to get out to the horse races for the third time this trip (the other times being in Buenos Aires and Nairobi). Hong Kong's Happy Valley Racecourse is right smack-dab in the middle of the city, surrounded on one side by the seven story grandstands with a backdrop of more highrise buildings:

Me, trying to discern which of those 12 horses is going to fatten my wallet. Oh, by the way, I finally did manage to hit a longshot in the final race of the evening:

A sad moment as Jeeheon heads home from Hong Kong:

I continued on to Macau, a short 1 hour ferry ride from Hong Kong, and China's version of Vegas. The landmark Grand Lisboa, run by local gaming legend Stanley Ho, is the most famous casino in the city:

But, the Vegas operators have recently come in to compete:

No, this isn't an old picture of me standing in a quaint European square. Rather, it's me standing in the fake quaint European square at the MGM Grand casino hotel (like I said, it's a lot like Vegas):

As I mentioned above, it wasn't all bad in Macau, and I actually left with a little bit more money than I started with. It's been a long long time since that's happened, so it was nice to end the trip on a positive note. Of course, me winning also involved me staying up all night gambling with our friends Mark and Irem the night before I left. Maybe it was that, or perhaps just a subconscious desire to avoid the trip coming to an end, but I managed to oversleep and miss my flight the next day. I couldn't believe I missed the last flight of the trip, but after some scrambling, I managed to race back to Hong Kng and catch the night flight out, so it wasn't too bad, but I did have to laugh at myself for the entire plane ride home. I guess it's back to adulthood now.

Vietnam - Hanoi

We were in Hanoi for five days and took a taxi at least three times a day - we got over charged almost every time! One taxi actually had a weird meter that jumped up faster, but most cab drivers drove around a bit before dropping us off at our destination.

Other than that, Hanoi was a nice city to visit - interesting French-Vietnamese architecture, and it was foggy the whole time we were there, adding a faraway-land feel to the place.

Hoan Kiem Lake:

West Lake:

My favorite restaurant in Saigon was called 'Quan An Ngon', and on one of our 'detours' in the taxi, I saw that it had a branch in Hanoi! The restaurant has all sort of Vietnamese food, and each food is made in its special stall, like so:

I ate a lot there:

Vietnamese graffiti:

We also went to a shopping mall - I am convinced that going to the mall anywhere is the most authentic, non-touristy thing one can do. We watched Beowulf (why didn't anyone tell us it was animation) and went to the video game arcade: