Zhuhai/Hong Kong/Macau -- November 2014

I've known KJ since I moved to the same street as her in Ilderton when I was in Grade 5. Despite following very different paths in life we've always remained close friends. Shortly after college she left North America to travel and to live in Spain, Taiwan and finally Zhuhai, China. When I heard she was planning to leave China in 2015 I realized I had never visited her there and so I must do that while I still could.

So I decided to exploit the two free holidays from my first US Thanksgiving and spend a week visiting KJ in Zhuhai. I also had the chance to visit the nearby cities of Macau and Hong Kong. Despite their proximity, the three cities are all very different, yet interesting in their own right.

• November 22
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• November 28
• November 29
• November 30

My flight from San Francisco was extremely long (almost sixteen hours) but otherwise uneventful. I lucked out with an aisle seat and no one in the middle seat beside me so I had a bit of extra space to get comfortable. It was a big plane (747-400) but with no seat-back entertainment and no power outlets for charging devices. So I read, watched a few of the main screen movies and spent a bit of time just staring into space. The plane did have WiFi, which was interesting. You could pay for Internet access ($12 for the flight) and it also had a free Netflix-like streaming service. If I could plug in my phone it would have been awesome. It definitely feels like WiFi+services might be the future for planes as it is a lot easier to maintain than individual screens and many people have their own devices now.

Customs in Hong Kong was pretty easy and then it was absolutely trivial to get downtown from the airport. The transit situation in Hong Kong is pretty close to perfect. From the train station downtown it was a short walk to my hotel. My plan is to visit KJ in Zhuhai for the first half of the trip and then explore Hong Kong for the second half. My flight arrived too late this evening to catch a ferry to Zhuhai so I will be on the first one tomorrow morning.

My original plan was to explore Hong Kong a bit this evening after getting settled at my hotel but as I write this I know I'm definitely going to just go to sleep. I'm really tired. However, from what I've seen so far on my short walk to the hotel Hong Kong is amazing. A world-class city, my favourite kind of place.

The hotel I'm staying at, the "ibis Hong Kong Central and Sheung Wan," is pretty great. Clean and nice and close to everything. Because of the protests happening lately I was able to get a room for 60% off! I'm paying about $100/night which is pretty amazing for this level of accomodation in a major world city. I'll be staying here again when I return from Zhuhai.

Walking to my hotel

View from my hotel window (a bit rainy)

Due to the wonders of jet-lag, my sleep last night mostly consisted of lying still in bed with my eyes wide open. But it lasted seven hours which was helpful after the long day yesterday. I awoke to incredible views of the city and harbour.

First thing this morning I swapped SIM cards in my phone to one I had purchased for about $13 at the airport. It gives me seven days of unlimited 4G data plus enough pay-as-you-go credit for any local talking/texting I'll need to do while I'm here. Countries with easy mobile phones are great. Of course it won't work in Zhuhai, but KJ will be helping me there so I shouldn't need it.

I checked out of the hotel, walked to the Hong Kong-Macau ferry terminal and easily found my gate. I had pre-purchased a ticket online but it wasn't very busy and I could have easily bought it this morning. There is English everywhere, and I suspect most service people here in Hong Kong understand enough to handle normal requests. I figured out thank-you in Cantonese before leaving home, but that is about as far as I got.

For about $40 my first class ferry ticket gave me a comfy seat in the upper cabin and food served by a flight-attendant type person. Seemed like a good deal. KJ said I was supposed to get fancy "ferry" oranges but there were none today. Apparently they are the best mandarin oranges ever and all the ex-pats in Zhuhai talk about them a lot. Hopefully I get to try one on the way back to Hong Kong.

The ferry takes about 75 minutes and gives incredible views of the city and harbour. The number of residential high-rises in the city is staggering and only matched by the number of huge shipping boats in the water. I've never been in such a busy waterway before.

About halfway through the ride, when the boat was way out in the channel between Hong Kong and the mainland, a man-made structure appeared in the distance. I couldn't figure out what it was for a while, but as we approached it became clear it was a bridge in the process of being built. There were floating cranes all around the growing structure and service boats darting everywhere. Given that we were miles from land in all directions this seemed super crazy to me. KJ later told me that the bridge will be Y-shaped and connect Macau, Zhuhai and Hong Kong greatly reducing travel time between the three. Parts of the bridge will actually be tunnels to allow large ships to pass easily and once complete it will break all sorts of records. The cost is some tens of billions of dollars but the hope is that the benefits to the region will make it worth it.

Being in first class meant I got to exit the ferry before everyone down in steerage so I was able to pass Chinese customs pretty quick. There was no problem with my Visa and on the other side KJ met me with a cup of tea. We drove over to the beach for a walk and to chat a bit and then headed back to her house to drop off my bags and pick up her kids to join us for lunch.

Qi'ao Island is a part of Zhuhai which is protected from further development and much of it is a national park. KJ's son Byron is lucky enough to attend school on the island and we drove past the school while we were there. For lunch we went to a place in a tiny fishing village on the coast of the island. We were joined by one of KJ's friends, Claire, and her children. The restaurant had no English menu, or a menu of any kind really and none of the staff spoke English. Fortunately both KJ and Claire speak Mandarin pretty fluently so they handled ordering the food.

The restaurant focuses on seafood, all of it caught fresh and much of it caught right there. From the dining area on a platform over the water we saw men lowering nets into the ocean and bringing up fish which were then brought into the restaurant area. It was very much an open-air place with an outdoor kitchen featuring a wood stove. It also had a tall brick-line smoker in which they did ribs and whole chickens. All the seafood is alive in tanks or on ice when you order it and they weigh what you ask for and charge accordingly. Then they cook it up. It was delicious and awesome and would have been totally impossible without at least a little knowledge of Mandarin.

Our feast consisted of: spicy pickled cucumber salad, peanuts, a pile of ribs, a whole chicken, several large crabs, a big plate of prawns, bok choi, fried rice, fried bread and some Tsingtao beer. There may have been more but in my jet-lag and hunger I didn't record it all at the time and have forgotten. In addition to the great food, it was a delight to watch KJ's children Byron and Lilo (ages five and three), eat. They ate large quantities of everything and Lilo had to be physically restrained from diving on the table to claim all the prawn when that dish was brought out. She had this look in her eyes like she would cut anyone who denied her as much prawn as she could eat. All the kids also loved the ribs which were cut huge and looked hilarious in their tiny hands. It was so interesting to see how being raised in a different culture affected how the children approached food. I can't imagine myself as a child eating anything that was on the table other than the peanuts.

After lunch we went for a nice walk in the Qi'ao Mangrove Wetland Ecological Park which was full of cool plants and thousands of tiny little crabs. It was also surrounded by some mountains and had lots of old fishing huts. The park is criss-crossed by boardwalks making it really easy to explore. A walk after a big meal is always a delight. Sunscreen and mosquito repellent were required though as it was quite hot and sunny and there were bugs. In southern China there is a problem right now with Dengue Fever so it's important to be careful. The mosquitoes are also different than in North America. KJ described them as "ninjas." You don't see them until they bite you and they are very fast and almost impossible to catch.

After the walk we stopped in at the Baishi Street fishing village to look about at some old style buildings and see some traditional fish preservation techniques. It was really cool although tourists (from other parts of mainland China) kept trying to take pictures of KJ's children even though she asked them in Mandarin not too. Eventually we had to leave.

Back at KJ's house we had a brief rest (hard to tell if it was more for the kids or for me) and then went out to dinner at a place in town called "The Factory," an American-style pub which most of the ex-pats in Zhuhai go to for Sunday night dinner. KJ knew most of the people there and it was fun to meet and chat with such a varied group. We had a big salad with feta cheese and some pizza for dinner and once again Lilo needed to be restrained from leaping on to the table to devour all of the feta cheese. She knows what she likes!

After dinner we had some tea and chatted for a bit before going to bed around 9pm. What a great first day!

View from my hotel in the morning

On the ferry, looking ahead

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge under construction

At the restaurant for lunch

Near the restaurant, fishing net and coastline

Kitchen area with wood stove at lunch restaurant

Guy fishing beside the lunch restaurant

Choose your crabs

Choose your everything else

Walking at Qi'ao Mangroves

Walking at Qi'ao Mangroves

Walking at Qi'ao Mangroves

Walking at Qi'ao Mangroves, one of the many little crabs!

Walking at Qi'ao Mangroves

Walking at Qi'ao Mangroves

Fish drying in the Baishi Street area

Alley in the Baishi Street area

Road in the Baishi Street area

Window in the Baishi Street area

Alley in the Baishi Street area

Random old building in the Baishi Street area

Fish drying in the Baishi Street area

This morning I woke at 3am and then laid in bed until 5:30am when the rest of the house started stirring. I'm staying in Byron's room and he's staying with his parents. I had a small breakfast with the kids and KJ's husband Lars before leaving with KJ to drop off Lilo at kindergarten.

KJ gave me a tour of Lilo's school and it was a place that defies description. It is a dedicated facility for children between the ages of two and six and has an an enrolment of 800. The vast majority of the children are Chinese with Lilo being one of the few western kids. Each classroom is gorgeous with loads of play areas, books, toys and other educational paraphernalia. Each room also has a separate nap area with beds for each child. In addition to the classrooms there are specialty rooms the kids can visit for music, art and science. The science labs looked better equipped than any I had in high school and the art room was literally the most inspiring place I've ever been in. The outdoor areas are equally amazing with endless green spaces, trees, playgrounds, sports fields and out-buildings like the Pottery Castle (a castle kids can do pottery in) or the Woodworking Treehouse. I wasn't expecting anything when KJ asked if I wanted to look around, but I left completely astounded. The place was amazing.

After the tour (which took quite a while due to the sprawling campus), we drove to a spot to get Muslim Knife Cut Noodle for second breakfast. The dish is a broth with noodles, meat and onions and the noodles are made fresh by hand in front of you. The cook makes and works the dough and then forms it into a large ball. Then he quickly chops noodles off the ball directly into a pot of boiling water. The result is rough and very non-uniform and completely delicious. The other thing the restaurant made was lamian, which are long thin noodles that just appear out of a ball of dough through repeated stretching. It was amazing to see the cook take a ball of dough and work it quickly until he had a handful of thin, spaghetti like noodles using no tools at all.

After food we went to a huge antique/furniture market. KJ is on the lookout for unique things to bring to their new home in Germany to help decorate and remember her time in China and she thought I'd enjoy seeing the market. It was massive and I had a great time seeing all the art and pottery and cool wood furniture. Niether of us bought anything but it was a lot of fun.

After the market we went to explore KJ's old neighbourhood, Xiangzhou. She lived and taught English there before moving to her current house with Lars. It is a much more active and urban area than where she lives now. There is lots of shopping, a wet market and a mall. I saw a few billboards near KJ's old school with KJ on them. That was a bit surreal. The wet market was even stranger though. Normally I love going to markets in new cities but this one was a bit frightening. The seafood was the best part. Like at the restaurant yesterday, it is all kept alive until sale so it is as fresh as can be. The meat however is not kept cold and just lies around all day (and it gets awfully hot in southern China). The fluids that leak off the meat tables and puddle on the ground are concerning, but more concerning is that the meat is kept right by all the produce. Also, there are stray dogs and cats everywhere and KJ warned me to keep my distance as China still has a big problem with rabies. KJ does not shop at the markets and when walking by she has to be careful with her kids to keep them away from the animals and to try to keep them from walking in the many suspect liquids. She regularly warned them not to touch the bottom of their shoes as the things you can step in here are a bit frightening.

Still, it was really interesting to see this part of town, which felt much more real than the area where KJ lives (a gated community of condo-style towers). We bought some oranges from a trusted fruit vendor and then headed to a huge Japanese supermarket called JUSCO. It was pretty amazing with goods from all over the world and a very high level of cleanliness and organization. I like to think I could adapt and live anywhere if I had to, but the presence of that grocery store made me sure that I could live in Zhuhai if necessary.

Next we went for Dim Sum at KJ's favourite Cantonese restaurant in Zhuhai. Steamed pork buns, spicy turnip cake, shrimp balls, meat balls, lotus leaf stuffed with tasty rice, short ribs and soup dumplings made for a large and delicious meal. I especially liked the turnip cake. The tap water in mainland China is not safe to drink, most people boil it first or drink bottled water. We only drank water at lunch and so they brought it to us boiled in chalice-style glasses. This was problematic because the water was fresh boiled and so it was impossible to pick up the glasses because they were too hot. I guess we should have had tea. Anyway lunch was amazing and may have ruined me for Dim Sum in the future (which is too bad since it was the first time I'd ever had it).

After lunch we wandered around the Gongbei section of the city which was a bit edgier but totally safe in the daytime. Prostitutes wandered here and there and there were lots of shops. KJ took me into her favourite pirate DVD store (the only kind of DVD store) and we also went to a huge underground shopping mall with shops selling absolutely and totally legitimate purses and shoes. It reminded me a lot of Pacific Mall in Toronto and was tons of fun. At one end of the mall is the Macau border and there were dozens of stands selling SIM cards as a front for real businesses that help people move large quantities of money across the border for the purposes of gambling. They weren't even hiding it, fistfuls of cash were visible everywhere.

We popped back to KJ's house for a bit before dinner and then I went for a couple beers with Lars while KJ got the kids ready. Dinner tonight was back at the same Cantonese restaurant with a couple of KJ's ex-pat friends. We had Peking Duck, apparently the best in Zhuhai. The duck is dried, glazed and then roasted until the skin turns shiny brown. Then the finished duck is brought to the table and carved, with a focus on getting all of the skin. We ate the skin and meat with spring onions and sauce wrapped in steamed thin pancakes. The remainder of the duck meat was carved and stir-fried with more veggies and then eaten as a second course. We also had prawns, ribs, crispy pork belly, fresh orange juice, fruit and some weird cakes (I always find Chinese desserts a bit strange).

After dinner we went back to KJ's house to chat a while before bed. I saw and ate so many cool things today! It was great!

Dropping Lilo off at school

View from KJ's balcony

Knife cut noodles

Antique market

KJ on billboards advertising her old school

Awesome fruit market

Fish at the wet market

Whatever these were (small things in front of the geoduck) they were alive and moving

Candy section at JUSCO

The Zhuhai Fisher Girl, a civic icon

After dropping Lilo at school this morning KJ and I headed out to Macau via the ferry. Macau is connected to Zhuhai by land at several points but the ferry is the least busy border crossing. It was very short and simple.

Macau is a most unusual place. It was a Portuguese colony for hundreds of years until it was handed back to China in 1999 (like how Hong Kong was British and handed back in 1997). The recent development of high-end casinos has made it one of the world's richest regions with the highest GDP per-capita and the second highest life-expectancy in the world. So much money is brought in by the gambling and tourism industries that the tax rate for residents is effectively negative. All signs are in Chinese and Portuguese and the old town feels very much like Europe with cobblestones and cathedrals. There are Portuguese bakeries selling delicious desserts and cured meats everywhere. The section with casinos is ultra-modern and fancy with the highest-end shopping imaginable and the fanciest hotels I've ever seen.

We started out the day exploring the old town and having a second breakfast at a random road-side stand. We got some turnip cake and dumplings along with fresh homemade soy milk. I don't normally like soy milk but this was delicious. Next we wandered over to the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral and saw the relics in the museum below. After the church we caught a taxi to the peak of Guia Hill to see the Guia Fortress and Lighthouse. There is a chapel at the top that was built in the early 1600s and contains the remains of some original frescoes. The lighthouse had a really neat explanation of the typhoon warning system that is still used in the area. And finally the views were amazing, despite the smog. To get back down we took a gondola and then grabbed a taxi to head over to the part of town with the casinos.

For lunch we went to a restaurant located in the City of Dreams casino-hotel. KJ had pre-ordered more Peking Duck for us and we also had some awesome beans, dan-dan noodles and a bottomless pot of excellent yellow tea. The noodles were the highlight, made with a mix of spices that left your mouth tingling. We ate slowly and had an excellent time. Another great meal!

After lunch we wandered the various casino complexes and the levels of opulence and excess were staggering. Some of the grand halls were like things out of movies. Things that you're sure can't possibly exist in real life. It was bizarre.

While wandering we went to the Fook Ming Tong tea shop, a Hong Kong based chain dedicated to the promotion of fine Chinese tea. I picked up some excellent stuff for myself and a few other things for presents. We also grabbed some Lord Stow Egg Tarts. Being a Portuguese colony the classic custard tart is a staple in Macau. Lord Stow apparently makes the best and they were quite good. Perfect pastry and the filling was less sweet than the tarts I'm used to from the Portuguese shops on St. Clair West in Toronto.

After getting our fill of the casinos we took a taxi to a quieter area on the coast. There was a really nice beach where we hung out for a while and then we went to a "Macanese" restaurant for dinner. This is Macau-style Portuguese food and we had a big plate of crisp suckling pig with salad. It was delicious and the scenery at the restaurant was great. We ate in a garden with views of the ocean and it was blissfully quiet after a noisy busy day.

After dinner we caught a taxi to one of the land borders with China. This particular border was a pretty disorganized place for crossing if you did not have a car (as we did not). There is no way to walk across, you have to take a shuttle and it doesn't come very often. When we arrived the shuttle line was huge. However there are semi-legal private shuttles that charge a small fee to drive you across. One of those showed up and KJ immediately ran into the mob of people trying to get on. She yelled at me to keep up and we were able to push our way through a dense mass of people and get on. The price was just a couple bucks each and it meant we got back to Zhuhai in time to do a few more things before going back to KJ's house. China is bad at queuing and it was awesome to have a real hands-on/elbows-on experience with that fact.

Back in Zhuhai we stopped in at the new Chimelong Hotel and Resort which is Zhuhai's version of all the crazy stuff in Macau, just without the gambling. The decorations and scale of everything was possibly even more ostentatious than in Macau. The hotel had its own flock of flamingos as well as the largest pool I've ever seen. It's part of a huge complex with a theme park and a zoo and some other stuff. I guess it's a destination for China's wealthy. A weird spot, but definitely worth seeing. Nearby we drove past the new Zhuhai Convention Centre which was possibly the bigget convention centre I've ever seen. The building rivals airport terminals in size.

To end the night we took a quick walk around Zhuhai's new western-style mall. It had most of the western-stores you might expect and seemed like a pretty nice place. KJ explained as we walked how crazy the pace of change has been in Zhuhai. When she arrived ten years ago it was totally different and almost impossible to get anything western. Now it's almost as easy as if she lived in Hong Kong. The rate of growth and construction has been phenomenal. She said it's likely that Zhuhai will become much more well-known to people outside of China in the future and that I got to visit "before it was cool."

Back at KJ's house we relaxed and chatted with Lars before bed. According to the health app on my phone I walked almost 30km today so I'm pretty tired. Not everything I saw today was good (the excesses of Macau made me uncomfortable), but it was all extremely interesting. My brain feels more tired than my feet from processing all the crazy. How do some of those places, like the casinos, exist?

Streets of old Macau

Streets of old Macau

Streets of old Macau

Second breakfast

Main square in old Macau

Streets of old Macau

Streets of old Macau

Streets of old Macau

Ruins of St. Paul's

Ruins of St. Paul's

Construction all over China, Hong Kong and Macau uses bamboo for scaffolding, it was pretty cool

Terror wasp (lens cap for scale)

View from Guia Hill

Chapel and lighthouse

Lighthouse with doves

Typhoon warning system

Man at a casino building a lifesize gingerbread house out of real gingerbread and icing

Lunch (dan-dan noodles not pictured as they were previously devoured)

The Venetian hotel and casino

View of part of the new casino area

Inside the Venetian with its miles of canals and shops

Inside the Venetian with a glimpse of the gaming floor (no photos allowed there)

Beach on the other side of Macau

Dinner view

Chimelong hotel in Zhuhai

New mall in Zhuhai

This morning I was up for breakfast with everyone again and then after saying goodbye to the kids I headed out with Lars to visit his factory in the Zhuhai Free Trade Zone. Lars and his brother took over their family business a number of years ago and have since expanded it greatly (including the factory here in Zhuhai). I won't speak of the details of the factory here, but Lars gave me a great tour and it was awesome to see everything he's accomplished. He's a brilliant and innovative man for sure. I also got to chat with one of his employees who makes visualizations of their products using Maya and that was pretty cool. I never know how Maya users will react to hearing I worked on it for eight years, but he was completely positive and excited to chat with me. Good times!

After the tour they dropped me off at the ferry terminal and I headed back to Hong Kong on my own. I was sad to say goodbye to Lilo and Lars, but I'll see KJ and Byron again later this week when they come into the city. I'm already making plans in my head to go to Germany to visit them when they're settled next year.

Back in Hong Kong I walked to the hotel and got checked in and then headed back out to explore. This afternoon I took the subway to Tung Chung by the airport so that I could grab the cable car to the Ngong Ping Plateau to see the Tian Tan Buddha, a huge bronze sitting Buddha located on top of a hill beside the Po Lin Monastery. The cable car ride was pretty amazing, 25 minutes long with amazing views of the South China Sea and the surrounding hills and valleys. My car had a glass floor which was pretty neat. I could see people below hiking up to the top instead of being lazy and taking the cable car.

I skipped all the touristy shops at the top of the cable car and went straight to the monastery. It was a weekday afternoon so the crowds were light which was nice. I decided to have lunch at the vegetarian restaurant located inside the temple and it was pretty awesome. For $15 I got a giant pile of delicious food that reminded me a bit of the food at the restaurant Buddha's in Toronto. There was even a mushroom dish that I enjoyed and I don't really like mushrooms. After the meal I relaxed a bit with tea and then left to explore the monastery.

As I wandered the grounds the monks began a ceremony with lots of chanting so although I could not go into the main building it meant I got to listen to the chanting while looking around outside. It was really nice and peaceful.

Once I finished with the monastery I headed up the 268 steps to see the Buddha. It was really big and the views of the surrounding hills were excellent. I wandered through the museum underneath the statue and then headed back down to catch the gondola. On my way I noticed a few cows just hanging out. I looked it up and Lantau (the section of Hong Kong with the Buddha) has wild cows. They used to be domestic but no one farms there much any more so the cows are on their own. They seemed to be doing fine.

I took the gondola back to the subway station and then took the subway to the Kowloon section of Hong Kong. I got off on Apliu Street which is a huge market street focusing on electronics of all kinds. I've heard it compared to the legendary Akihabara District in Tokyo but since I haven't been there I don't know how it stacks up. Anyway it was a fun place for me and I really enjoyed the Golden Shopping Arcade which was a huge mall devoted to computer hardware. The prices were amazing and I picked up a USB battery pack to use on the plane ride home so I could use my phone a bit more for entertainment. I looked it up and I paid less than half what I would in the US for the identical product.

My original plan for the day was to follow up Apliu Street with a walk down nearby Nathan Road. However I was getting hungry and had spent way more time at both the Buddha and on Apliu Street than I thought I would so I just hopped on the subway and headed back to my hotel. When I got to the hotel I flipped on the news and saw that it was a good thing I skipped Nathan Road. The Hong Kong "Umbrella" protests are in the process of being shut down and there was rioting and pepper spray on Nathan Road at the same time I would have been walking there. Crazy.

After freshening up I wandered over to Central to go to The Globe for dinner. It's a British-style pub with probably the best craft beer selection in Hong Kong. Central is a bit of a confusing place, but it's also a great area to wander in so I didn't mind that it took me 15 minutes to find the Globe. For dinner I had a fabulous scotch egg with salad and chutney and I also enjoyed two fine beers, one from a local Hong Kong brewery and the other from a Japanese brewery. Neither changed my life, but they were both enjoyable.

After dinner I wandered some more just looking around. I rode the Central-Mid-Levels escalators (longest outdoor escalator system in the world) and grabbed an ice cream from a 7-11 (everything else was closed). Hong Kong is an amazing city and it makes me smile just to walk around here. I can tell I will be back in the future.

This taxi in Zhuhai is not good at driving

On the ferry back to Hong Kong

Hong Kong subway (MTR)

Riding the cable car up to Ngong Ping

Riding the cable car up to Ngong Ping

Riding the cable car up to Ngong Ping

Riding the cable car up to Ngong Ping

Riding the cable car up to Ngong Ping

Gates to the Po Lin Monastery with the Tian Tan Buddha in the background

Tian Tan Buddha and stairs

Gates

In the monastery

In the monastery

A part of my lunch. Those hug mushrooms at the back? I ate them all. Me!

In the monastery

In the monastery

In the monastery

In the monastery

In the monastery

In the monastery

In the monastery

In the monastery

Headed up to the Buddha

Headed up to the Buddha

Statues making offerings to the Buddha

Tian Tan Buddha

Tian Tan Buddha

Walking down from the Buddha

Wild cows!

Returning trip on the cable car

Returning trip on the cable car

Apliu Street

Dinner!

Central-Mid-Levels escalators

I took it easy this morning, beginning with a small breakfast from the hotel (included with my room). After that, my first stop was to check out the local wet market near my hotel. I was interested to see if it would be like the market I saw in Zhuhai or more like western markets. Turns out it is more like the market in Zhuhai. The vendors were still setting up when I went in, but the meat area yielded many interesting floor fluids, close proximity to produce and no evidence of refrigeration. The highlight of my visit was having to squeeze against a wall in order to let past a man pushing a cart containing three whole pigs. Their organs and entrails were piled on top of the bodies and a length of intestine was dragging on the floor behind the cart. I'm all for whole-animal eating and I think it's important to understand the entire process of eating meat from raising the animal through to butchering. But this place still creeped me out due to the extensive cross-contamination and the lack of any sanitation or preservation equipment. Western bias, perhaps.

KJ came into Hong Kong around 11am this morning to show me some of her favourite spots so I spent the time before she arrived exploring the area near the hotel. I checked out the IFC Mall, a huge shopping centre with many high-end stores, and I also walked around Central a bunch. Mostly I just enjoyed strolling through a wonderful city.

Once KJ arrived I returned to the hotel to meet her and get changed for lunch. We had reservations at noon at Umberto Bombana's "8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana," the only Italian restaurant outside of Italy with three Michelin Stars. We walked to the restaurant from the hotel stopping at Lan Fong Yuen on the way to get Hong Kong-style milk tea (Lan Fong Yuen is considered one of the best places to get it). The drink is a strong mix of black teas with evaporated milk and sugar. It is filtered through a special bag that looks like a silk stocking which makes it very smooth and strong and delicious. It can be had hot or cold and we had ours hot. I loved it!

Most three-star restaurants require reservations up to a year in advance. But KJ was able to get ours with just one month notice by booking a table for lunch in the bar area. We still got the same food and service and we still sat at a table, it was just in the bar area and not the main dining room. Pretty sweet.

We both did the prix-fixe menu. I had a very lightly poached egg over house-made prosciutto; amberjack fish served with vegetables and delicious red sauce; and a selection of cheeses. KJ had a mushroom-chestnut soup; braised beef cheeks in a really nice sauce; and a platter of chocolate-based desserts. We shared it all and it was all incredible. The gorgonzola on my cheese plate was probably the best I've ever had, even KJ liked it and she is not a fan of blue cheese. The food overall was very simple but perfectly cooked and made of the finest ingredients. We spent a couple hours just enjoying it and chatting.

The restaurant was located in the Landmark building and so after lunch we wandered around there a bit looking at the fancy shops and the cool Christmas decorations. They had recreated a section of Paris in miniature and decorated it with Christmas trees and snow. It was pretty neat.

Next we walked outside in the rain up to the Peak Tramway, a funicular railway which carries people to the top levels of the city. The tram opened in the late 1800s and takes you to an area called The Peak where there are magnificent views of the city. Of course the rain and clouds obstructed our views a bit, but I could still see a lot and the weather provided a nice atmospheric effect.

After walking around The Peak we caught a taxi out to Stanley, a small beach town on the other side of the island. Although still part of Hong Kong it felt very different. It was quiet and peaceful with a nice boardwalk and a market full of arts and crafts and clothes. It wasn't very busy, but I could see it being packed on a nice sunny weekend day. We looked through a bunch of shops and walked along the waterfront before getting another taxi back to the city.

For our next adventure KJ took me to Cafe Gray located on the 49th floor of the super fancy JW Marriot hotel. The views were spectacular, especially from the bathrooms which had huge bay windows. I had a nice cocktail and KJ had tea and we chatted while snacking on complimentary taro chips. It was pretty amazing and so so fancy but it didn't really cost us that much money. However it wasn't easy to find the place and I probably wouldn't have without KJ. Travellling with a local is awesome.

After we had enough of the view from Cafe Gray we went downstairs to the attached Pacific Place mall, another super fancy shopping centre. The architecture and design of the common areas in the mall was outstanding and worth just walking around and looking at. Our real destination though was a supermarket called "Great" located in the basement of the mall. It is KJ's favourite grocery store in the world and I could see why. It had everything from all over the world and everything appeared to be of very high quality. I had a chat with some people at a dedicated Valrhona Chocolate booth and ended up buying some chocolate (of course). They gave us lots of free samples while we talked though so it seemed fair.

We had dinner reservations at a restaurant in Central that evening so we returned there after the grocery store. We were a bit early though so we wandered around some of the streets for a bit and looked in all the hipster shops. There were lots of very random things and it was fun to laugh at it all. However for hipster-vibe our restaurant for the evening could not be beat.

Ronin is located in an alley and is completely unmarked. The building is grey with an opaque grey sliding door and there is no number or sign. You just have to know where it is. Opening the door is a bit intimidating the first time because you have no idea if you're in the right place. The restaurant itself is one narrow hall with seats on each side, everyone facing either wall. I imagine it holds at most thirty people. The bathrooms are all mirror: floor, ceiling and walls, and each is lit with a single candle. This place was so hip/cool it literally hurt.

The food though, that was amazing. Ronin is a Japanese restaurant with an enormous selection of Japanese whisky. To eat we got the ten course tasting menu which was totally glorious. I didn't make careful notes, but some of the food included: soft roast pumpkin with nori, four types of sashimi with really amazing garnishes, mackerel salad with house-made taro chips, fish tempura, a really good stew of some sort, a whole quail very gently breaded and cooked, trigger fish with finely sliced crisp chestnuts, rice with eel and whole small soft-shell crabs. It was all spectacular and much of it was very new to me. The crabs were cool because you just ate each one whole: shell, claws, legs and all. They were bite-sized and lightly breaded and deep fried. The texture was crisp and light, like chips with air bubbles. Totally delicious.

To drink I sampled two Japanese whiskies after a long discussion with the owner on the topic. I had wanted to try the Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013 which was just crowned Jim Murray's whisky of the year. They actually had a bottle which was surprising, but they wanted $150 for a single serving and I just couldn't bear to spend that much. There's no way it's that good. Instead I tried some peatier offerings from more experimental distilleries. First up was the Hakushu 'Heavily Peated 2012' which was excellent. Reminded me a bit of Laphroig. My second was the Chichibu 'The Peated' 3 Year Old which was a little disappointing. In retrospect I should have switched styles for my second to something sweeter and smoother as Japan is really good at that style. In any case it is always fun to expand my whisky palette and it was awesome to chat so much with the owner. The service at Ronin was truly exceptional. To finish the meal we were brought some cacao nib sake. The owner poured three shots and we all drank together. Amazing.

After dinner KJ and I wandered back to the hotel extremely full and with much lighter wallets. But I'd say the meal was worth it. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

View of harbour from IFC Mall

Milk tea at Lan Fong Yuen

Christmas display at the Landmark building

Christmas display at the Landmark building

Peak Tram tracks

View from The Peak

View from The Peak

Crazy teddy bear made of balloons and contained in a giant balloon teddy bear

View from The Peak

At Stanley

Skyscrapers in Admiralty

View from Cafe Gray

View from Cafe Gray after dark

View from Cafe Gray after dark, you can see tents from the Umbrella protest movement

Tents from the Umbrella protest movement

Door to Ronin

Nom nom nom, crab

Impossibly hip

This morning I met KJ in the hotel lobby early and we went to a place called Caféine, an award-winning western-style breakfast place run by some Australians. We each had a bowl of berry and yogurt bircher muesli and we split a big bacon/egg/pesto wrap. The muesli was probably the best I've ever had anywhere and the wrap was excellent too. Good coffee as well.

We were up early this morning in order to do the Dragon's Back Hike before KJ had to return to Zhuhai. The hike is 8.5km and is considered one of the world's best urban walks. The weather was overcast which was nice as it would have been too hot otherwise. But it was not so overcast as to ruin the spectacular views from the to top of the trail at 284m above sea level. Although considered an "urban walk" it really was more of a hike and there was very little evidence of the bustling city until we reached the lookout points. Despite the feeling of isolation it only took us about thirty minutes using public transit to get to the start of the trail from Central Hong Kong. This city is amazing.

After the walk we went back to KJ's favourite grocery store so she could get a few things to bring back to Zhuhai and I took the opportunity to sample some awesome cheese and smoked salmon from Scotland.

Hong Kong has a ton of Michelin starred restaurants and one of them, Tim Ho Wan, is known as the cheapest in the world. It is a one-star Cantonese/Dim Sum restaurant and there is a branch located near Hong Kong Station/IFC Mall. In addition to sit-down dining they also do take-away so KJ brought me there, placed an order and then left me to collect it while she got her bags from the hotel. The place was a madhouse with huge lines outside and all tables completely full inside. Eventually our food came, three freshly made BBQ pork buns (cha siu bao) for just $19HKD (less than $3USD). I grabbed the buns and headed to the ferry terminal to meet KJ to split the food and see her off.

The buns were amazing, just epically good. I'd love to try some of their other dishes, but I suspect there will not be enough time on this trip. After we finished eating KJ boarded the ferry and I headed out to grab another Michelin Star dining experience.

"CIAK - In The Kitchen" is a one-star Italian restaurant headed up by Umberto Bombana of "8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana" and like Tim Ho Wan it also does take-away. Despite it being busy I was able to grab an excellent slice of pizza and the most amazing cup of pistachio gelato I've ever had. It wasn't quite as cheap as the Cantonese spot, but still less than $15 for extremely good food. Like Bombana's three star restaurant CIAK is also in the Landmark building so I ate my food at a table overlooking the Christmas display in the main lobby area.

Feeling nice and full I went to go check out the flagship store for "Shanghai Tang" which is a high-end clothing company founded in Hong Kong in the mid-nineties. Their clothes are modern but inspired by Chinese fashion of the 1920s and 1930s. I loved the Mandarin collars on the men's shirts, but decided they were a bit too expensive for now (about $300).

Next I walked up several long flights of very steep stairs to reach the Hong Kong Botanical gardens. I had a nice rest on some benches near a fountain and then slowly wandered around looking at all the plants. It's another example of how despite the intensity of Hong Kong it is super easy to find a peaceful quiet place. As I wandered I entered into an area with lots of caged birds and mammals. I didn't realize that the gardens were also zoological in nature before entering and may have chosen a different activity if I had. Zoos make me uncomfortable and this was no different. The orangutans looked especially sad. However I learned later that these gardens place a heavy emphasis on breeding programs for endangered animals so I guess that is something.

I exited the gardens from the back and found myself in a maze of footpaths, highway overpasses and jungle-sized trees. It was a really cool spot, but a bit confusing to get out of. I bumped into another tourist clearly dealing with the same issue and we followed each other out. I then passed by the Catholic Cathedral of Hong Kong which was much smaller than I was expecting. But perhaps that was because it was dwarfed by all the super tall buildings around it. After the cathedral I found myself in the mid-levels and so I wandered about a bit looking in shops and then headed back to the hotel for a short break.

For dinner I wanted to try to go the Brickhouse, one of the best rated Mexican restaurants in the city. So I hopped on a double-decker tram to give my feet a rest and rode back into Central. I had already walked about 25km at that point and the trams are super cool so it seemed like a good idea. Plus it cost less than a dollar so no big deal.

Brickhouse doesn't take reservations so I arrived right around opening to try to snag a spot at the bar. That didn't work unfortunately, it was super packed already when I got there. Rather than wait just to get a spot in the very noisy restaurant I decided to take the opportunity to eat some vegetables instead. I went back to the Great Supermarket and got a custom salad from their salad bar along with a bowl of fruit and a fancy smoothie drink. I then hopped on the subway to the north side of the harbour so I could eat on the water while watching the nightly light-show put on by all the buildings in Central. It was pretty spectacular!

After the show I wandered around the area a bit and saw some more super-high end stores before taking the famous Star Ferry (company founded in 1888) back to Central so I could return to the hotel and rest my feet (34km on the day with over 100 flights of stairs).

Walking on the Dragon's Back trail

Saw lots of these flowers

The trail along the ridge of the mountain

Excellent views

At Shek O Peak

The trail continues

Little beach village below

Walking down through the bamboo

Tim Ho Wan

In the botanical gardens

Typical super-narrow skyscraper

City all lit up

City all lit up

City all lit up

Cool fountain

Part of a huge Christmas display at a fancy shopping outdoor shopping mall

Part of a huge Christmas display at a fancy shopping outdoor shopping mall

Hong Kong Observation Wheel

Cool mosaic tile mural in a subway station

This morning I had a quick snack at the hotel breakfast buffet and then grabbed a tram back to the Landmark building to get a croissant and macaron for second breakfast from Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon. This is a café and take-out spot attached to L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, a three Michelin Star French restaurant headed up by the world famous eponymous chef. He operates twelve restaurants and has a total of twenty-eight Michelin Stars, more than any other chef in the world.

Needless to say the croissant was exquisite, rivalling any I've had in Paris (and I make a point to have good croissants when I'm there). The macaron was pistachio with cherry filling which was an excellent combination. I'm not a huge connoisseur of macarons so I don't know how this one compares to those from Pierre Hermé or Ladurée, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Would eat again.

Next I went to the Man Mo Temple which is a smallish temple near my hotel. It had a huge number of incense rings burning in the rafters and I took my time there to take some fun photos (after checking if that was ok).

After the temple I decided to continue with photo-taking by wandering around Central and the mid-levels in an aimless kind of way. I went back to Lan Fong Yuen and got an iced Yuan Yang which is a mixture of the classic milk tea with coffee. It was amazing, I liked it even more than the plain milk tea. Having it iced was nice too because the day was pretty warm.

I wandered a bit more after my drink, really just enjoying the city and attempting to fix it in my mind. Soon though it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready to meet KJ and Byron for another hike. They came in this morning on the ferry and ran some errands while I explored. I was to meet them at Pier 4 to catch a ferry to Lamma Island, but first I grabbed some lunch to-go from Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon. It was good enough to go back. I got a steak sandwich on a baguette with another macaron. The "baguette sandwich" thing is a pretty common to-go food in Paris but this was way way better than anything I've had there. The meat was thick, generous and juicy and it was topped with house made pickles, house made sun dried tomatoes, grainy mustard and avocado. The baguette was as good as any in France. A truly excellent sandwich. The coffee-flavoured macaron rounded out the meal nicely and to drink I had a bottle of elderflower pressé which is always delicious.

I ate my meal on a bench at the pier while watching people and boats. Eventually KJ and Byron showed up and we hopped on a ferry. Lamma Island is a smaller island that is still part of Hong Kong, but with a very different atmosphere. Cars are banned (except for emergency and construction vehicles) and buildings cannot be higher than three floors. There are lots of hiking trails and it's very quiet. The population is small, with a high proportion of ex-pats.

When we arrived we first stopped at a restaurant to get a bit of food as KJ and Byron had not had lunch yet. They split a whole poached red snapper of which I had a few bites. It was quite tasty and once again I was impressed to see Byron dig right in. When I say a whole snapper, of course I mean the whole fish: head, tail, bones and all. This is pretty standard in most of the world but it would have freaked me out when I was five.

After food we hiked the 4km "family" trail from Yung Shue Wan to Sok Kwu Wan which are the two main ferry terminals on the island. There were many cool little shops at each end and the scenery in the middle was amazing. Byron did a great job on the hike and it was fun to chat with him and KJ as we walked. As we approached the end of the hike it became clear that a huge storm was coming in across the water. With return ferries only leaving every two hours a lot of people suddenly realized there might be a bit of competition to get on the next ferry in order to avoid getting stuck in a storm. We hustled down the last bit of the hike and then got in the line just in time to see it get huge behind us.

We managed to get a seat on the return ferry and then back in Central we quickly grabbed a taxi in order to get to the restaurant "Yardbird" before it was too late to get a spot. Yardbird is a Japanese restaurant specializing in yakitori and run by the same people who run Ronin. They pride themselves on using the whole chicken which is pretty cool. They don't take reservations and we were not in time to get a table, but we were able to get a standing spot and they pulled up a tall chair for Byron.

To eat we had yellowtail sashimi salad, sweet corn tempura (!!), grilled chicken oysters (the small bits of meat on either side of the bottom of the spine), chicken meatballs with soy sauce and raw egg for dipping, pork belly, chicken skin fried rice, grilled chicken liver, black garlic brussels sprouts and kimchi fried cauliflower. There was a pretty good Japanese whisky selection too (not as good as Ronin but still respectable) and so I had the Miyagikyo Single Malt Non Age which was a fine fruity whisky.

It was a huge and amazing meal which Byron enjoyed as much as KJ and I. In fact he was a bit miffed with me when he discovered I had eaten all of the chicken livers before he got to have a second helping of them. The staff were so impressed that they gave him a free Yardbird T-Shirt and a bunch of stickers. He was pretty thrilled.

As much as I enjoyed the meal, I started feeling unwell as it went on. I thought it was just all the over-eating of the trip catching up to me, but when we returned to the hotel after dinner it became clear it was more likely food poisoning. I did not sleep well and my stomach was a heaving void by the morning.

Waiting for the tram

Amazing second breakfast

Cool graffiti

Cool graffiti

Tall buildings

Man Mo Temple

Man Mo Temple

Man Mo Temple

Man Mo Temple

Man Mo Temple

Man Mo Temple

Cool graffiti

Cool graffiti

Not sure what this tree is rooted too

Cool graffiti

Looking up the Central-Mid-Levels escalators

Narrow market street

Back room of some random establishment

Hello Kitty construction

Cool graffiti

Amazing lunch

Yung Shue Wan harbour

Black Kite circling while we ate lunch

Lamma power station behind the hills

Hiking on Lamma Island

Hiking on Lamma Island

Hiking on Lamma Island

Hiking on Lamma Island

Hiking on Lamma Island, approaching Sok Kwu Wan

Sok Kwu Wan

Random bird

Sweet corn tempura (head explodes in amazement)

After a very rough night with little sleep I called KJ's room to let her know I would not be joining her and Byron for breakfast due to the food poisoning. I was feeling a bit better (or at least empty) but did not want to chance eating any more. KJ told me to wait in my room and soon showed up with Byron carrying supplies to help me get better. As awesome as the food can be, China and to a much lesser extent Hong Kong have problems with food poisoning. Even people who are used to the conditions will still suffer from time to time. So there is a whole industry built up around treating it.

KJ had brought me a little bottle of probiotic drink and two bottles of Pocari Sweat (a Japanese Gatorade like drink full of electrolytes). I had seen locals drinking the little probiotic drink everywhere in Zhuhai, Macau and Hong Kong but I didn't realize what it was or what it was for until KJ brought it to help me out. I had to fly in a few hours so we said our goodbyes in the doorway to my room (without hugging in case my food poisoning was actually the flu). Then I sat down on the bed and proceeded to slowly drink the probiotics and one bottle of Pocari Sweat. I didn't feel great, but it stayed down. I'm not sure what caused my distress as KJ and Byron were totally fine and we all ate the same food.

I slowly packed and checked out and then caught the hotel shuttle to the airport train station. It's pretty awesome and has check-in desks for all the major airlines. You can get your boarding pass and check your bag up to 12 hours in advance and then go explore the city some more before your flight. In my case I checked my bag, went straight to the airport, found my gate and laid down on some chairs to wait for my flight. I had wanted to get some macarons from the IFC Mall before heading to the airport and I also wanted to explore the airport a bit (it's huge and fantastic) but I was just not up to either activity. It was too bad, but much better than having this problem in the middle of the trip. The illness didn't ruin anything important.

The flight back wasn't my favourite experience ever, but my condition improved a bit and I was able to eat a little later in the flight. I indulged my tender body back in San Francisco by using Lyft to get home instead of transit.

Despite the food poisoning this trip was amazing. I don't think I could ask for much more given the time I had. KJ was a fantastic host and guide and I saw so much because of her. It's always great to visit new places with a local, but she went way above and beyond in showing me a good time. Most importantly it was awesome to catch up with one of my oldest friends.

As for the cities themselves, they were all very different places. I really feel like I saw three separate countries (which is kind of reinforced by all the border crossings that were required). I loved Hong Kong most of all, but I would certainly go back to Macau for more awesome Macanese food and to hang out more in the old section of the city. Zhuhai was neat and I'm curious where it will be in ten years.

I'd recommend all three places highly and I can't wait to go back to Hong Kong!