Last February it was Carnival in Rio, this year it was Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. One of my friends from Houston now works in HK and has an amazing apartment in the heart of the city that was just too cool not to come visit before she moved on. There ended up being 3 of us that visited, myself and another guy from Doha, and a girl from London, all coworkers from Houston now on expat assignments. This is the view from The Peak, overlooking Hong Kong Island and the New Territories.

One of the days that we visited we went to Lantau Island where there is a very large bronze Buddha Statue. Unfortunately for us, we were there on a very cloudy day and it was hard to see well. The mist gave the whole visit a mysterious feeling as we walked between the different smaller statues and temples on the site.

We planned the trip to line up with the celebration of the Lunar New Year so that we could take part in the festivities as the Year of the Rat was ushered in. There were several different events throughout the week including a Flower Market, a parade, and a fireworks show over the harbor. The fireworks were great and it was fun to walk through the Flower Markets; however, the parade left a little something to be desired. Neither punctual nor that impressive, we decided that we could ditch it and went to eat sushi instead.
Saw this sign above a snack food vendor stall… Not sure what they serve but I think I will pass.


One of the days that we were in HK we decided to get on the high-speed ferry and jet over to Macau, the Las Vegas of Asia. We spent most of the day walking around the island and looking at monuments and relics from the island’s past as a Portuguese colony. After the sun went down it was time to hit the tables at the casinos. A few hours of blackjack and craps was enough to get the experience and tick the box. We got on the midnight ferry back to Hong Kong and counted our winnings (my friends) or losses (me). Fortunately, the Honk Kong Dollar is the currency of choice and at $8HK per $1US you feel like big deal when you’re playing $200+ hands of blackjack (ok, HK dollars)