Hong Kong and Macau (Part 3)

And I'm back. Let the recounting resume.

After a packed Wednesday and a good night's sleep, it was time to check out Macau on Thursday. Before I thought about visiting Hong Kong, I had this idea that Hong Kong and Macau were too far away from each other. When I found out that it was possible (and apparently common) to see both in one trip, I figured that I might as well venture over. Jesse and Annavelyn wanted to go too, so we decided to meet up and go together.

The day got off to a clumsy start. Have you ever met one of those people that advises others to make sure they remember to bring something before an outing, and then the person who gives the counsel is the person who forgets to bring that really important thing? 

Yeah, that was me.

We started walking toward the ferry and got to talking about visas, and I realized that I'd forgotten my passport back at the hostel. Erps. Jesse and Annavelyn were awesome and waited for me as I retrieved it, which took about 45 minutes...at least they were able to wait in a cool park, if it's any consolation.

Thanks for keeping the park classy, flamingos.

After I returned, Annavelyn, Jesse, and I went to the ferry terminal building to buy tickets to Macau. Like the previous day, I figured that we'd be able to grab a ticket and walk onto the ferry a few minutes later...after all, it wasn't a weekend or a holiday.

Like the previous day, I was wrong.

It was about 10:30am by the time we got to the ticket counter. We were told that the earliest ferry available was at 11:30am...well, that was until the ticket agent realized that we were a group of three, then he said the earliest ferry that had three available seats was at noon. So we bought the tickets and waited.

There were pros to this situation. For one thing, I found this nifty backpack for a bargain.

At 11:15am, it was time to get ready to board. Even though Hong Kong and Macau are both part of China, they have their own currencies and immigration processes. You can learn more here. What it meant for me was that I had to go through immigration when leaving Hong Kong and entering Macau. Just like Hong Kong, Macau isn't so hip on the whole stamping-the-passport thing, but I do have this nifty piece of paper (plus a bunch of pictures) to prove that I was there.

Interesting note: Macau is referred to as the "Vegas of the Far East." The tiny little territory relies a lot on revenue from gamblers.

Another interesting note: As I was waiting for the ferry, I heard a PSA warning about the dangers of gambling.

The ferry terminal is similar to an airport terminal; just switch the tarmac for water, and they're pretty much the same place. The ferry ride itself was comfy and uneventful. I was asleep for most of the ride, which was about an hour.

After we arrived, we went through immigration and were approached by a man who insisted on giving us a taxi ride everywhere. We assured him we'd be fine, and off we went with a surety of where we were going wandered, aimlessly. The area around the port wasn't bad to walk around.

After strolling around the lake in the picture above, we figured that it was time to figure out where we were going; after all, we had to be back at the ferry terminal at 5:45 to catch the 6:30pm ferry. 

Thankfully, we found a guy who spoke English, and he was able to direct us to where we should go. For all Macau-bound visitors, the info he gave was useful. Most, if not all, of the casinos in Macau provide free shuttles from the ferry terminal to their establishments. The casinos are in the heart of Macau, and most of the attractions are fairly close.

I wish I could remember the guy's name. He was from Brazil and had lived in Nigeria. He now lives in Macau with his father, who is a university professor. I appreciate the helpful stranger, and hopefully I'll be able to recall his name at some point.

As directed, we went back to the terminal and found a shuttle to the Grand Lisboa, one of the casinos. About ten minutes later, we arrived and saw this:

Gamble? Moi? Never.

Our main goal in Macau? To get to the tower. After some walking around (seriously, it's a huge tower...you'd think we'd be able to see it from anywhere). we found it.

Then we walked, rested, took some pictures, and walked some more.

We soon got to the tower. Apparently, the tower is the site of the tallest bungee jump in the world. Did I consider doing it? You bet I did. Was I willing to pay the $300+ to do it? Nope. BUT...I did take this picture of the ground from the top of the tower, which is kind of like bungee jumping, I think.

Of course, there were some pretty cool views to be seen from the tower.

Eventually, it was time to eat. After reaching the bottom, going to a tunnel which we thought was part of the subway (it wasn't), getting on a crowded bus, and tumbling off said bus, we headed back to the Grand Lisboa to eat.

Turns out that casinos in Macau are similar to those in Vegas in that the food is pretty cheap. I was pretty happy with it, and the service was much better than that which we'd gotten from the crank at the Victoria Peak restaurant.

It was about 5:30 when we finished dinner, which meant it was time to skedaddle. We found the line for the shuttle bus and waited. And waited. Here's the thing: The lines weren't that long, but the buses didn't come that frequently. This caused some momentary worry, but we were able to get on at about 5:50.

We high-tailed it into the terminal, went through immigration, and boarded the ferry without incident. After getting to Hong Kong, we decided to go to a night market. After getting directions, we went to Temple Street, where there was much negotiating and browsing.

After spending some time and (believe it or not) money, it was time to call it a day. I said goodbye to Jesse and Annavelyn. I'm sure glad they were willing to let me tag along with them for a couple days.

Alright, before signing off for tonight, here are a few more pictures.

Cantonese
English
Portuguese

Working out with the master

Grand Lisboa

Inside the Grand Lisboa

Oh hey, Circle K. It's been a long time...like, 20 years.

Gate to the Temple Street Market

Jesse and Annavelyn - these guys are awesome.

Stay tuned for...

Hong Kong and Macau: The Conclusion

Hong Kong and Macau (Part 2)

I didn't mention this in my first HK/Macau post (mostly because I didn't think about it till the end of the post), but I decided to talk about my trip in installments. Sometimes my posts can go on and on. After I finish a long post, I tend to think (please imagine me breathing hard), "Oh...my...gosh...I...never...want...to...type...again..." because marathon posts tend to wear me out. I think this may be why I've left past blogs un-updated for so long. Hopefully writing in chunks will keep the posts a bit more fresh.

Alright, blog confessional over.

Anyway, I woke up in my hostel bed with a plan to go to the LDS temple and then make my plan from there. Of course, before I made the morning trip, I had to start out with some genuine Hong Kong breakfast:

I then headed to the subway station. The subway in Hong Kong is fairly easy to use if you're used to public transit in big cities. That said, even if you're only visiting for a few days, I'd recommend getting an Octopus Card so you can reload fare. You can get it at any information booth in a subway station, and I'd imagine that you could get one at a convenience store like 7 Eleven. I suggest this because paper fare cards can't be reloaded and are generally a pain (at least I found them to be).

Back to the subway...it reminds me of the subway in Seoul, except it there are no doors between the cars, so you can easily walk from car to car. It was pretty trippy to see the cars turn as the train rounded a corner!

After about 30 minutes, I got to my destined subway stop, Kowloon Tong. I walked a short distance and saw the temple in a neighborhood.

Please forgive an aside at this point: Mormon peeps, I totally thought this building was a bluish-white color before I saw it. It ain't. It's light brown. Thank goodness for the angel Moroni on the top, or I may have walked past it. Alright, aside over.

I noticed this couple taking pictures in front of the temple. We chatted, and it turned out that they were married. He was from Idaho, and she was from the Philippines. Awesome couple! He had been to several countries, and her first trip abroad was this trip. It turned out that the guy and I, at different points in our lives, both lived by the same family. This family, the Longhursts, moved from Ogden up to southern Idaho. World, you've been accused of this many times, but you are small.

His wife took this picture so we could send it to the Longhursts. Don't worry, I got a picture of both of them.

We joined forces, thenceforth, and started the band Two Giants and a Filipina became travel compadres. We went to a mall and found a food court. There was a McDonalds there, but I was NOT about to have Mickey Ds twice in a row on this trip, so I got some katsu udon (breaded chicken and noodles) instead. We also found THIS:

I don't know how much AC/wizardry was used to allow this ice sheet to exist, but note that it was inside.

Post-lunch, we were determined to change out of our church clothes and head to Victoria Peak, which has spectacular views of the Hong Kong skyline. By the time we left the food court it was about 3pm. I figured that if I got back to my hostel, changed, and left for Victoria Peak (only 3 subway stops away...I was in an awesome location), I could get to the top to see the city at sunset before the lights all come on.

I mean, it's a Wednesday night. How many people could there be?

Lolsies.

You know the feeling of waiting for a ride at a theme park? You're standing and inching forward. For a long time. I waited for about an hour before getting onto the tram.

The tram is one of the few ways to get up the mountain. The other ways were by bus (I didn't know the bus system well enough to risk it) and by taxi (way expensive). It was an experience! The tram was full to capacity, and it was standing room only by the time I got on. The tram was pulled up the mountain via ground cables, and there were times that I felt like I was going to slide on the poor Asian tourists behind me. Thankfully for everyone, I kept my footing.

After a sojourn up 300 (or seven, it's all one and the same to me) escalators, I made it to the viewing platform. Though it was well into the night at this point, the view was awesome.

Jesse and Annavelyn (the couple I mentioned earlier), made it to the top a little less than an hour after I did. We enjoyed not only the view of the city, but also the reaction of the other people when the rain (oh, it was drizzling a bit, by the way) increased. The once-crowded viewing platform suddenly became deserted as people dashed back inside the building.

We eventually realized that we were hungry, and we wanted something semi-authentic. We found a noodle restaurant in the building - I think it was on the 4th (or 154th, it's all the same to me) floor - that was about to close. We started to turn away, but then they said we could come eat. Yes! Awesome! Then the host took us to our seats and said the following:

"Please order quickly. We're closing."

Alright, dude. We were actually not going to come here when the "closed" sign went up and your colleague invited us in. You just lost five customer service points.

In spite of that, the food I had, whatever it was, was good (and obviously memorable).

I learned one big lesson from this outing: Go to well-known sites early, or pre-order tickets online. That said, I'm glad I went.

And wow, was I exhausted.

Here are a few more pics from the first full day. Part 3 coming soon.

Hong Kong Island in the morning.

The calm before the Victoria Peak tram line.

E.T. phone Jackie Chan.

Pretty awesome!

Hong Kong and Macau (Part 1)

Every two months, I get a few days off from teaching. Sometimes this is a two day break in the middle of the week (my first break was Tuesday-Wednesday), and sometimes it's like this last one, which was a three day break (Wednesday-Friday) right by a weekend. In other words, a five day break. I wasn't interested in sticking around for that long, so I decided to check out Hong Kong.

I went to the airport way early just in case anything worth being paranoid about (check in issues, immigration issues, every other possible thing that could go wrong) happened. Nothing did, which meant that I was in my terminal about 2 hours before I needed to be. However, this turned out to be awesome. Apparently, Incheon International Airport has been voted the best airport in the world for the 9th year in a row, and it's easy to see why. I was able to find a comfy couch and lounge for a while till I needed to head to my gate. Not a bad way to start a vacation!

...Okay, maybe saying that a comfy couch is why an airport should be voted the best in the world is a stretch. But golly, the couch sure didn't hurt the quality rating in my book.

Anyhow.

I flew Cathay Pacific round trip. Not bad. Saw Transcendence on the flight. It was relief to realize that if zombies don't take over the world, technology will. I kid.

The flight was uneventful, and as I landed in Hong Kong, I saw an incredible thunderstorm in the distance. There were no pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination. When we meet, we'll have to compare notes and I'll let you know how close our descriptions match up. If they're close, it probably means that we have the same spirit animal.

After deplaning and grabbing my luggage, I made a tragic (and by tragic I mean insignificant-in-the-long-run-but-I-mean-come-on) discovery...Hong Kong doesn't put stamps in your passport! Instead, they give you this flimsiness:

Okay, so really not a big deal, but it is kind of weird, especially if you like the idea of collecting passport stamps.

It was about quarter to midnight when I got on the bus to get to my hostel. The airport is on a rural (especially when compared to Hong Kong) island, so we were riding in darkness for about 30 minutes when all of a sudden, BOOM. The city popped up. More pics of the city to come in a later post.

I got to my hostel, which was on the second floor of a building in the Causeway Bay neighborhood, completely exhausted. I noticed a lot of people still up in the lobby playing Jenga, and they seemed...young. "Is this what it feels like to get older?!" I thought. Mini-crisis aside, I checked in and got to my room on the 9th floor. Here's what my bed looked like (in daytime hours):

Bottom bunk is mine.

I shared this hostel room with eight other people, though people were in and out at various times.

Anyhow, I crashed, which is what I'm about to do now. To be continued...

Oh hey...

I have a perfectly good reason why you haven't heard from me in over a month:

This has been the story for the last few weeks days. Apologies on my end. More posts are coming soon!

Hongdae guitarist

There's an area of Seoul called Hongdae. It's close to Hongik University and is reportedly a really cool neighborhood. I was in the area last Friday and decided to wander around while I had a spare hour or two.

As I was walking, I heard a guitar playing. I listened to him play a song. Then I listened to another. Then another.

Time flies when you're having fun. Forty-five minutes flew by as I listened to this guy. This music completely made my weekend.

His name is Sunho Jung (장선호). Below are a few songs I heard from him (these videos were recorded on different days, but they sounded just as good, if not better, last Friday).

This first one is "Big Blue Ocean," originally written by Japanese musician Kotaro Oshiro:



This one is the theme song from "Mission Impossible." This was awesome!



This one ended up being my favorite one. It's called "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence."



장선호 감사합니다! Thank you, Sunho Jung!

What's up, doc?

WARNING: This post was written late at night by a man suffering from an ice cream hangover. (I'm pretty sure that's a thing.)

"Korean health care is AWESOME." - the average sentiment of many, many foreigners who live in South Korea and post their experiences on the interwebs.

Remembering this, I was overjoyed last month when I discovered a new development: An ingrown toenail. "JOY!" I thought, "it's high time to see what this Korean health care system is all about!" I then skipped to the hospital as if I were going down the yellow brick road to Oz, all the while singing, "I'm off to see the doctor."

Okay, maybe that's a slight dramatization.

Thankfully, there's a hospital less than a kilometer away from where I live.

Konkuk University Hospital, picture courtesy of skhealth.net.

Even better? There's an international clinic. This incredibly helpful man named Edward helped me through what would have otherwise been a very confusing process.

See, in order to see a specialist about my toe, I had to go to a clinic and get a referral. Edward took me across the street accompanied me to the clinic and told the receptionist what I needed. Soon, I was heading back to the hospital, Korean document in hand.

I went to the dermatology office. I spoke to a doctor, underwent a procedure to fix the toenail (it involved anesthesia and random nail trimming devices), had my toe bandaged, and left the hospital with two prescriptions (one for antibiotics, one for ointment).

This took about 2.5 hours, and the whole thing cost me less than $100 USD. In my experience, that is awesome. Of course, I was insured, so it could have cost quite a bit more. However, in the US, I've been charged quite a bit more than that amount for somewhat similar treatment (this toe has been an absolute diva over the past year, folks) in the US.

After a few follow-up visits, the bandage came off the toe, and everything's looking good.

Korean health care, you've won an admirer...well, that's what I would have said before today.

One of my students is a urologist. Each class, we spend at least 20 minutes (ideally) on conversation. Today's topic was physical appearance, and the topic of plastic surgery inevitably came up. This student said something that has been on mind all day. I should mention that his English is quite good.

Even though the student I mentioned is a urologist, he currently spends most of his time doing Botox injections and the like at a plastic surgeon's office. He does this to make ends meet. As a urologist, for every patient he sees, he should expect to earn about $10. Yep. The wages he should expect to earn from seeing a patient would allow him to buy a Big Mac combo meal and have some change left over.

I say "should expect" because of how insurance works here. It's universal, meaning that it's run by the government. Back to this in a moment...the patients that my student sees each pay him about $3 of the total $10 as a copay. He then has to request the remaining amount from insurance aka the government. The government should then pay him the remaining $7 per patient.

There's that "should" again.

The government can apparently be rather fickle when it comes to paying the remainder of this amount. From what I have heard, the insurance representative can search for (read: create) mistakes that the doctor made as he or she was treating the patient; the representative can then use that as a reason to not pay the full amount to the doctor.

...So much for the Big Mac meal. Perhaps I could interest the doctor in a McChicken?

Back to the government. The politicians are accountable to the citizens. The citizens have to have health insurance. The politicians have an incentive to drive down costs for citizens; in my mind, the incentive is reelection. They don't have that sort of obligation to the doctors, so it's a bit easier to nickel-and-dime them.

I realize that what I have written is one doctor's experience. Other doctors here may or may not feel the same way.

But I can't help thinking about a few things.

First off, apparently the Korean health care system is affordable for patients, but it doesn't appear to provide doctors with a strong incentive to stay in Korea.

Second off, how incredibly different is health care in Korea versus health care in the US? In the US, being a doctor tends to correlate with making a very comfortable living, but patients can expect to pay a significant amount for care, especially if they're uninsured (in which case the amount is absurdly high). If they're insured, they have to deal with ironing out details with their insurance providers. In Korea...well, see the previous paragraphs. Affordable for patients, but the doctors get stiffed and have to take on extra work, such as injecting Botox, to make ends meet.

Back to my student...he ended his thoughts by saying that he was learning English for one main purpose: To get out of Korea and practice medicine in a country that would allow him to make a living wage. I didn't know this until today. Not surprisingly, he is one of the most dedicated students I've seen.

This leads to my final (for now) thought: Health care in the US is undergoing big changes. Some people like the changes, others don't. Regardless, I hope that the changes don't push US health care providers to change professions as a result of an incentive decrease.

Alright, enough of this serious business. I'm off to bed.