New Year's and Macau

Unfortunately, for most of our days in Hong Kong it was near-record low temperatures. This meant that our would-be mild New Year's Eve was actually pretty chilly. There were messages all over the place advising people to take precautions and bundle up. The paper reported several weather-related deaths. It would have been no big deal for us Wisconsin kids, except we failed to pack anything warmer than fleeces. At least we were fairly warm when we were all packed together waiting for the midnight countdown and fireworks. And we had the added advantage of being taller than the majority of the people there so we could see better than we might have been able to otherwise. The HK harbor truly is spectacular at night.

 On New Year's Day we took a fast ferry to Macau, another Chinese Special Administrative Region about 60 kilometers away. Macau's primary draw is that it's the only place you can legally gamble in China (except for horse racing which is allowed in HK). It was a Portuguese colony until the 90s when it was handed back to the Chinese. The central square was cute with narrow cobbled streets and Portugese-style pastel colored buildings. The casinos were a mish mosh of super elegant (the MGM Grand was especially amazing) and sorta sleazy.

Overall, it was nice to have seen it but I don't need to go back. We definitely plan to return to HK some day. There is a lot of good hiking that we didn't get a chance to do, both because of time and weather.