On February 4th I flew from Bangkok to Macau, China and arrived at 2am on February 5th, just in time for the first day of Chinese New Year. Macau is like the Vegas of Asia, complete with a Wynn, MGM Grand, Venetian, and Parisian hotel/casinos. The architecture is a mix of Chinese and Portuguese influence in a modern context, coming together to form alleys reminiscent of old Europe and a skyline of bright lights. 2019 is the year of the pig, my lucky year (1995 baby), so I thought it’d be fitting to ring in the lunar year where the holiday originated. Plus, I wanted to meet up with Ryan, one of the Filipinos I’d met in Vang Vieng. Although I was in China I spent most of my time in the company of Filipinos, eating Filipino foods, singing karaoke at the apartment, and beginning to learn Tagalog (the language of the Philippines). The only Chinese food I had was a sizzling hot plate (literally a sizzling iron plate) of rice and chicken. It was juicy, flavorful, heavily peppered and was, without a doubt, the best shopping mall meal of my life. The night I arrived Ryan and I wandered through the cobblestone streets, under red lanterns and string lights and pig decorations, to the ruins of St. Paul’s, an old Catholic Church. Another day we went up the Eiffel Tower of the Parisian Hotel with his brother and sister in law. And on another night we drank beers with friends and family by the waterfront and watched the fireworks in the distance. I tried balut that night, which is a hard boiled egg that contains a fertilized duck embryo…surprisingly it wasn’t so bad but one time was enough for me!
Ryan and I spent 1 day/night in Hong Kong. We took an hour and a half long bus ride there that crossed the new bridge connecting Macau to Hong Kong. It was built in 2018 and is the longest bridge over the sea. Once we got to HK we hunted for a place to sleep and lucked out with a $40 room (everything was booked out and prices were inflated for the new year. Most of the cheapest places were at least $120 a night).
What we did in HK:
Shopped at the “ladies market”
Accidentally missed the huge firework show at the waterfront (the need for food prevailed). I could hear the fireworks going off while munching on gyros, fried tofu, and shrimp sumai.
Went to the waterfront anyways and got a good view of the colorful panorama.
Stood in the queue for the sky tram for 3 hours until we gave up. The lines were so long they snaked around the block. Walked over to the public park next door and visited the aviary that housed a wide variety of exotic birds.
Walked through Central and stumbled across what seemed like all the Filipinos in HK sitting on cardboard on the sidewalks and in the street, drinking and dancing and enjoying their day off of work. We got jollibee (popular Filipino fast food chain featuring burgers, burger steaks with gravy, fried chicken, and sweet spaghetti bolognese). We ate it curbside.
Witnessed a lion dance happen in the Chanel store. That’s the only proper Chinese New Year traditional celebration I saw while in China, but the energy of being in that region at that time was an irreplaceable experience.
My photos from Macau are sparse…so here’s one picture with the Parisian hotel’s Eiffel Tower
and the rest are from Hong Kong:
Bridge Over Distance 
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