Hong Kong and Macau - Unexpected awaits

Picasa and facebook albums for pictures from Hong Kong and Macau! Pictures from the Bungee Jump in Picasa and facebook albums!

It has already been over three weeks since the trip to Hong Kong and Macau. While writing this I'm traveling back to Singapore from Penang, Malaysia where we enjoyed a weekend with friends. Actually I'm already back in Singapore, chilling in our apartments common area lying on the sofa while listening some Finnish reggae.

...

ja vaikka ootkin kaukana sielä

kuule 

me tavataan vielä

...

and even though you're faraway there

listen

we'll meet again

...

And so we landed on Hong Kong international airport after four hours of airtime. Most of the time was spent on sleeping but after three hours I decided it's time to focus on a bit about where we would spend our nights. I used the last hour of the flight wading through Lonely Planets on my laptop. We found several places for our budget in TST, Tsim Sha Tsui. Actually TST is a major tourist hub with various restaurants and shops to cater tourists. Previously it was known about its food courts and hawker centers whom had already vanished a long time ago.

We shared a taxi with another backpacker and headed towards the TST. He had already booked his accommodation. The ride from the airport was beautiful, the road twisted through harbors, shipyard cranes, high-raisers and graceful bridges while everything lighted up beautifully. We arrived at TST around 11pm and realized that most of the hostels and hotels close for the night at that time. We walked around for almost an hour without any luck, although we checked out some apartment but they were a bit too expensive compared to the price we had read about.

We were already about to head back to one of the more expensive ones but then luckily, in a corner of the road, some indian guy shouted that do we need a room and yes, we did. He offered to show the room for us first before we had to pay anything etc. He took us to a narrow dark road between big high-raisers just capped by horizon, supposedly was to be a shortcut. I remember looking my friend into his eyes and seeing the same dubious gaze that was overwhelming me too. We were going to be mugged, we thought. The man saw our distress and insisted us to follow him by convincing that it was a real shortcut to the hostel. Ok, we followed and actually everything went well, we got our nice enough room with air-con and wifi for a reasonable price. The room was really small but big enough to sleep, we weren't planning on staying in the room, rather walking all day around.

People living and playing in cardboard box houses
above the busiest street of Central Hong Kong

We had agreed to meet with the guy we shared a cap with to look around the TST over the first night. We were 10min late from our meeting place so we lost him, but it didn't stop us. On the first night we started checking around the bars and clubs around the TST area. At third club we met some weird group. They started to talk to us by asking if I'm a rugby player etc. one of the guys was 34year old CEO from Canada for his own company going to Finland for a business meeting to meet the Rovio brothers to talk about the rise of Angry Birds, how they found and used the market... and in the end we got back to our apartment around 5am. I had my laptop with me and decided to check´a bit what to do the next day, but luckily I found a friend in skype from Finland to keep me company and suddenly the sun was already rising. I went to bed after 7am.

Unexpected awaits

Over the second day we had arranged to meet with my Finnish friend in the Central, Hong Kong. Actually he is working in Zurich but was on a business trip in Hong Kong. So we met in the Central and headed for dinner at Soho area located in the Hollywood road area. The whole area consists of pavement and open street escalators just for pedestrians. We took the escalators the whole way up and started heading back down visiting various pubs and sightseeing the area. Around 7-8pm we decided to head back home to change into proper clothes for late supper and clubbing. By the time my friend was rather interested about my work and educational situation which we talked quite a lot, we also talked about his international job and what he has been doing over the past years. The company he works for has offices in Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt and Espoo and now he was in Hong Kong for a month long marketing project trip - sounded pretty nice!

Lightshow of Hong Kong harbor front buildings

Around 9pm we arrived back to Central to meet my friend and guess what... his CEO for dinner. Actually my friend had spoken about me to his CEO previously. So we had a nice dinner, from where we continued in to a bar, second, third, fourth... Long story short, at some point between the conversation I was asked to apply for a master thesis position and workplace in a year or two in Zurich during the week. We had some cigars to shake hands and continued into a A-list night club to celebrate the Hong Kong night life. From there we left around 5.30am towards the MTR (you read it right, Mass Transit Railway compared to MRT, Mass Rapid Transport of Singapore). The first MTR train to TST left at 6.06am and the gates were opened, around 7am we got back to our apartment to catch shuteye.

We were woken up by our lost friend at 11am. We were supposed to meet him at his apartment around 10am but luckily he didn't wait and started to look for us. It was actually a weird coincidence that he founded his way back, it was the same guy that picked us from the street that waved for our friend too. None of the people he asked had heard about our hostel in Chungking Mansions on the 36-44 Nathan Road. Actually the building is well know as the most affordable accommodations in Hong Kong. The building is filled with independent low-budget hotels, hostels, shops and other services. I could say that it is a place worth visiting, it has been previously described in literature as a "post-modern Casablanca - all in one building".

The sunday was spent walking around the Hong Kong Central area, visiting The Peak also referred as Victorias Peak with the amazing view over the opening sky scraping landscape of Hong Kong. We also walked the whole three kilometers route around the Aberdeen Country Park mountain beside The Peak. While walking around the mountain you could see the view opening to every side, definitely recommend! From the top of the peak we took a taxi to visit the Aberdeen part of the Hong Kong on the other side of the island. It was beautiful with its dining boats and ferries light up in the darkening night. After dinner in  Aberdeen we took taxi back to Central and visited the ferry harbor to check where the ferry departs for Macau. We saw the light show of Hong Kong and visited one of the busiest Mac Stores in the world filled with mourning fans to give their condolences to late Steve Job and his life work building Apple. The rest of the day was spent walking around the TST to show it to our found friend. We called it a night around 5am.

Macau

Macau Tower

Actually the main reason behind the journey to Hong Kong was to visit at Macau just to jump the worlds highest bungee at AJ Hackett Macau Tower. The bungee is jumped from the platform standing at the height of 233meters. I had made the booking for me and two of my friends already over a month in advance.

We had the best breakfast in a while at the Pret A Manger close to the Macau ferry terminal. If you don't know about Pret a Manger, you really should check it out! The ferry ride from Hong Kong Central to Macau took around one hour which we spent watching the movie Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas to get us in the proper mood for casinos. Just to note, the amount of money spent in Macau casinos is already triple the amount that flows in Las Vegas.

We spent the day walking around the city, just gasping our breath over the expensive view of casinos more bigger than another. The day disappeared swiftly, suddenly it was already 6pm and our supposed jump was to happen at 7pm which was the latest time for jumping on week days. We started to head for taxis, tried and tried to get one, some stopped but most just drove past. None of the taxis wanted to take us to the Macau Tower and it was raining, we were all wet. Clock turned to 6.45pm, we were told to be at the tower at least 20min before jumping time. We were already late, this could not happen! How can we miss our only change for the jump just by the fact that taxis wont take us. We were thinking that it might be that they won't let us jump due to the strong storm wind and rain but not by the fact that we would be late...

We started running towards the tower, we remembered from the map that there was a big water gap between so we started to sprint around it towards the tower. We just run, we were all wet from the rain and sweat when we reached the tower. I had already changed to my best clothes for the casinos and now they were all wet... but that didn't matter, we reached the tower at 7pm. We run around to find the way to get up there and in the end were appointed downstairs towards the elevators reaching the top levels. At downstairs we found a guy who called upstairs and asked if there is time for us to jump, they told us to rush up quickly. After paying the tower entry fee and couple of minutes later we reached the 62floor, where we were approached by jumper coordinators. We were told that the weather conditions are really bad but they check the possibility for jumping, we paid the 2499HKD for the jump per each. Normally the paid jump is not reimbursable due to bad weather but in our situation they told that they would reimburse it which was nice. It took a while but we were allowed to jump around 7.30pm.

I was the first one to go! The free flow of over 6 seconds with speed reaching close to 200km per hour before starting to rebound back up within 30meters of the ground. One of our group had the most severe case of fear of heights, but I think the jump cured him a bit!

Guinnes World Records Bungy Certificate

We hereby certify that Harmanen Juhana has successfully jumped off the world's highest Bungy platform at 233 metres above ground here at the Macau Tower; and is officially entitled to ask the world "Do you have what it takes?"

We all made our jumps and we are hooked! We received our AJ Hackett membership cards which will give us 20 percent discount at every AJ Hackett activity around the world and the next two jumps at Macau Tower for 888 HKD each and the fourth jump for free!

After the jump we walked back to our guesthouse to take a shower and ready ourselves for the upcoming casino night. We checked some casinos: Casino Lisboa and Grand Lisboa, Sands Macao, MGM Grand Macau, Wynn Macau and Galaxy Starworld etc. Of course we played... and lost some. This was the first night which we decided to call as night a bit earlier and we reached the guesthouse around 3am just 4hours before we had to depart for the airport.

Macau, hear me! Next time it will be at daytime with the jump video!

Destination Bali, Part II

Here is a link to my photos of the second part of the recess week trip to Bali on facebook II and picasa! These pictures cover the trip to Lovina through temples, waterfalls, hot springs etc. and back to Kuta and Kerobokan.

From Ubud we started heading to Lovina, a seaside town with various water activities to offer. We rented a charter for just two people for the whole day to drive us through the mountains to the northern side of the island. On the way there we visited numerous of attractions varying from lake temples to waterfalls and hot springs.

First on our route was Taman Ayun, the Royal Temple of Mengwi Empire in Bali. It's strategically located beside the major roadway between the two main cities in Bali, the Denpasar and Singaraja. The temple is set on a land surrounded by a big fish pond so it looks like drifting on the water like an island. Inside it has a beautiful temple building with multistoried roof and Balinese architecture. The beautiful landscape of the garden in front courtyard is very welcoming. Even though it's the Royal Temple it was the most un-touristic temple we had visited on our journeys in Bali with a most calming more natural like garden.

After the temple we continued our journey towards Lovina. When driving through the beautiful landscapes of rice terraces and high soaring mountains we stopped to admire a breathtaking view opening to every direction.

The next stop on our ride was a local food market called Candi Kuning Market. It's located in Bedugul. It provides fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, and such exotic flowers as delicate orchids and roses. The combination creates an array of wonderful colors. Spices include nutmeg, pepper, paprika and turmeric. A wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables can be found here, as well as jeruk bali (pomelo) and durian. From the food market we bought some local chips resembling snacks like dried vegetable slices, spinach leafs and flower pedals. We also bought some local strawberries they raise on the mountains all over the year due to suitable climate. The market was supposed to be only for locals but the increasing tourism had brought the small stalls with all you can imagine stuff to buy also there.

The ride continued only for 15minutes and we arrived to the lake temple of Ulun Danu Beratan. It's a Balinese Hindu Temple located at Candi Kuning countryside, Baturiti sub district and Tabanan regency. The distance from Denpasar town is about 50 km north from Denpasar towards Singaraja, so on our way. The temple is surrounded by a beautiful view of surrounding mountains on a lakeside of Beratan. It is situated in the plateau area with a cooler atmosphere. On the northern side of the temple is Pucak Sangkur mountain and in the east side there is the Beratan mountain which is also referred as Pucak Mangu or Pucak Pangelengan. On the southern side locates the Terate Bang mountain and in the westside there is the Tapak and Watukaru mountains. A part of the temple is located in the lake creating a mystical atmosphere especially on a foggy day.

From the temple we continued our way through the mountains to our next destination before Lovina. The Gitgit waterfall is a very beautiful tourist destination in north part of Bali. Gitgit waterfall is located in the plateau area with the height about 35 meters and it is surrounded by tropical tree and emits the constantly natural water debit during the year. There are some plantations protecting the rain forest around the waterfall and in this place we often met the wild monkey to get the water from this waterfall. The waterfall is free to visit. From the road it was nearly 20min walk downhill to the waterfall. When we got down and had taken some pictures we changed into our swimsuits and hopped in to the water. To be honest it was more of a scary sneaking through the slippery rocks to the pouring water. The water was coming down so hard that you were barely able to withstand it's force and balance in it to keep yourself standing. I had to hold my friends hand to get her to accompany me to the waterfall too.

From the waterfall we continued our ride through the city of Singaraja to check-in to our hotel in Lovina before continuing to hot springs. The driver took us to a quite nice looking complex of four buildings with four bungalow style apartments in each. You could always get a room for cheaper price but the room was nice enough and not too costly, in the end only 175 000 IDR for two people.

Our predefined final destination was the hot springs of Air Banjar located close to Lovina beach. The sacred hot springs "Air Panas" of Banjar are set in the midst of the jungle in a landscape of a beautiful tropical garden. It consists of three public and one private pool. The sulphuric water is of volcanic origin and has an warm temperature around 40 degrees Celcius. It's said to be ideal for people suffering from rheumatic diseases. The hot spring water gushes from the mouths of eight stone carved nagas which are mythical dragon-like creatures, into the oblong shaped upper pool.

From the upper pool the water overflows from the mouths of five more nagas into the largest of the three pools, which is square shaped and situated at a lower level from the depth of one to two meters. Adjacent to these pools is the third and smallest one from which the water pours down via three four meter high spouts, giving you a strong, reviving massage.

After the refreshing and replenishing bath we headed back to Lovina and the driver continued back to his home in Ubud. At that night we watched a beautiful sunset over the quiet seashore filled with sailboats arrived from all over the world. We had a nice dinner and a good chill night in a local club with live music. We didn't stay in the tourist filled beachside restaurant clubs but headed a bit further away. We also booked a dolphin watching ride on sunrise and morning snorkeling on the coral reefs of Lovina beach.

We woke up around 5.30am and headed towards the beach. We were picked up by a local guy with a balinese style boat and headed to the sea. There were at least 20 other boats too. We headed towards the city Singaraja while the sun was rising behind the receding island. We round a bit of circle with all the other boats trying to catch a climbs of dolphins in their morning swim in their natural habitat. We saw around 3-4 dolphins about 4-5 different times and told our driver head back to the beach. We were a bit hungry and wanted to have a breakfast before the snorkeling. 

The snorkeling was amazing, even though the corals weren't so colorful the fishes and the sea stars were. I have always been sceptic about snorkeling due to the mud ponds of Finland I have snorkeled in, but not anymore. I could recommend coral reef snorkeling to everyone! After the morning we booked a new charter to drive us back to Kuta for the rest of the week and weekend.

My friend wanted to stay at Kuta for her last days and I headed towards my friends villa in Kerobokan where I could live for free. Actually my friends from Singapore were also invited but only one took the offer beside me. Other exchange students from Singapore gathered to Kuta for the last days too, mainly because the close distance to the airport.

The Villa Onga was really nice, it consist of big green yard, swimming pool, fish pool, kitchen, living room, two story with 4 double bedrooms, outside chilling balcony etc. It was a home to my friend, five other finnish girls and two german guys. By that week the girls were on a boat trip so we were allowed to stay there for free in their apartments.

I spent my last to days there chilling, having fun, surfing, scootering around Kuta, Double Six, Old Man etc. We also visited the beautiful oceanside temple of Tanah Lot that could only been reached on low tide.

We had a lot of fun that weekend jumping to the pool with the Tarzan rope I plaited from three different ropes. Actually we had a minor accident too, I was the first one to test it... We had put a small wooden stick through the rope as a handle to hang on while swinging. I swung towards the pool, in the middle of the way the stick cracked and I fell on the poolside. I was lucky not to hit my head tough. My friend got terrified because it looked so bad, but I only got a minor head smoothie and back pain and a big bruise in my left calf. My back and head got ok over the day and weekend. But otherwise it was fun jumping to the pool.

After the trip while I was stretching in the gym I noticed a huge rip in my left calf inside the muscle, but from outside there was just big bruise the size of the whole calf. I should have gone to the doctor but you know me... At the moment the rip is getting smaller and I can't fit my whole finger inside of it anymore and also it's not that touch sensitive anymore, it doesn't hurt to walk or exercise. It's good, gooood!

On that weekend we also visited the bar and club complex of Double Six, the Sky Garden which consists of 5 story with total of 10 clubs and bars. There or after that my wallet got stolen, luckily I had only some money and my credit card there, nothing else important that I could have remembered or missed. For the last two days I had to borrow money from my friend to sleep, eat, surf, take a taxi to airport and get of the country with the airport service fee of 150 000 IDR per person.

In the end amazing trip and not feeling bad about losing the wallet.

Ps. I might be going back to Bali at some point to visit my friends again and to learn to surf properly!