Hong Kong. Macau!

This is month old post lying in drafts. :| Totally unfair for it to be there. All I had to was edit , add and hit publish.

Pre-trip , I would have ideally exaggerated ( atleast NOW I will use this word ) about how this trip could be something I would trade anything in the world for.
And then when it happened..when it really did..despite all of my nightmares - it doesn't feel complete.  Like you know that feeling of euphoria or post-travel post-good-times zeal. That's missing.Its just not there.
Ok there were some fights involved. Arguments. But eventually we had fun. We enjoyed. And I was with the best people of my life. And yet..it was incomplete..?

I guess this is a different kind of travel hangover. :|  If I would be saying this to my friends  , they'd probably say " Han han Different toh rahega hi..tu apne desh se jo wapas aayi hai " :D

Confused ? Well.. In all the planning and packing , I forgot to scribble a post about all these Chini jokes made on me before we took off to Hong Kong.
China is considered to be my motherland by one and all.
My friends asked me to make sure that I find my real parents :D Because my Indian parents are so Indian and am soooo Chinese :D
I always disagree about looking Chinese which people claim only due to the fact that  I have small eyes ( how unfair! ) But I certainly have doubts about the possibility of being adopted for some family genes are just not running into me! :P
Some others jokes went about ..
" Tu apne purvajo k desh ja rahi hai "
" Don't get lost ok. Your parents will probabaly bring someone else back thinking its you!!"
" Click pictures with Chinese people. Then we'll play find 6 differences" 
lol this one's  a personal favorite :D


Post-trip post. The travelogue :

Macau

If you ever plan to go to Macau. You HAVE to stay at the Venetian Macau Hotel. Its so huge and beautiful comprising of the hotel , a mall and ofcouse-  the biggest casino! All suite rooms with king size beds and huge bathrooms fully adorned with mirrors.

Magnificent Hotel Lobby!

The hotel is so huge ..it actually took us two days to learn to move about it.

The casino was awesome. We lost everything we put in :D :| except dad who won 36 times on roulette ;)

The entire Venice theme is  alluring. ( This is the shopping zone ! )

The hotel has an Indian restaurant named Golden Peacock which serves Indian VEG food at affordable price. So thankfully we didn't face much issue with food. Moreover if you stay at the hotel - you get vouchers which you can redeem & make use of at the restaurant , buy goodies and some listed stuff , go for the Gondola ride which otherwise costs more than 100 Hk $ per person. :\
Mac D is a waste for veggies. It smells awful :| Plus its expensive.

The Italian Gondola Ride.

Our Gondolier was Lia from Italy who  impressed us with her Hindi speaking skills. Greeting us with Namaste and calling us all 'sundari' :D .She knocked us off when she sang 'Chin ta ta' while also doing its signature step ! In return we sang Senorita for her :D Lia made the Gondola ride a lot more fun and there is no doubt about the fact that Indians are loud - so yeah we got a lot of audience :D

Macau Tower.

A view of Macau from the tower.

 You can experience one of the highest bungee jumps in the world from the Macau Tower. ( 233 meters!)  We watched 4 people bungee jump. It hardly takes few seconds for the fall and its quite thrilling to watch let alone do it. ( Of course I couldn't convince my parents enough :P ) 

It costs around 3000 HK $ ; approx 24000 INR. 

Macau is a small place and a 2 day stay is more than sufficient. 

Hong Kong :

It takes about 45 mins to reach HK from Macau after you board a ferry.
We stayed for 4 days. Hong Kong is like an extension of Mumbai with wider and clean roads. Old HK looks exactly like Mumbai except for the Chinese signs and billboard. 

Day 1 : We strolled around TST ( Tsim Tsa Tsui )  which is in Kowloon ( old HK). If you wanna book a hotel , this is the ideal place to lodge at. The subway is close. And the entire shopping area in in TST. It has a lot of major brands. 
There are a couple of Indian restaurants as well. 
Note : Finding vegetarian food in HK is a tough task. There are top end Indian restaurants which are of-course expensive. The Woodland Hotel at TST is a very good option.

Ocean Park

Day 2 : Ocean Park!  I found this one hyped. I mean , yes it must have been pretty famous 2 decades back. Dolphin show must be quite a thing that time.But essentially its a place for kids to enjoy seeing penguins , polar bears and sea lion. Thankfully some of the adventure rides came as a respite for us adults. The weather sucked. It was blazing hot!! 
The light show at night was a beautiful thing to watch.
 
Day 3  : We took a day off which was a very wise decision as the entire day at ocean park combined with the scorching sun had us totally drained out. 
We went to Mong Kow which is close to TST and famous for shopping. I couldn't get what the entire hyper around it is for! We did bargain but eventually  had to pay a high price for clothes and bags. So no! HK isn't a shopping destination ( with ref to bragain-shopping) unless you want to splurge on expensive branded stuff.

Took the metro ride to Central HK. All the stunning corporate buildings welcome you to the main HK. We were too late to catch the tram ride , hence missed going to Victoria Peak! :(
The Times Square and Stanley Street are in main HK ( for extravagent shopping :D )

Day 4  : Disneyland! 
I would rate out visiting Disneyland as the 10/10 sole reason to visit HK :P Who on earth wouldn't enjoy this beguiling place! Every damn thing about this place shouts richness. The park has been so nicely designed , you feel like you've entered an  entirely different world! Each and every ride & restaurant is chockablock with fairytale elements. 
The cartoon characters take you back to your childhood. How we miss Misckey , Uncle Scrooge , Aladdin & Mermaid !
The Lion King Show ( Live by theater artists) is spectacular. 
And the best ride was Mystic Manor. Its just superb!

  
Disneyland bewitches you at night - specially with the fire-show. 

I made this trip with my family AND my two most loving sisters.So this was the first trip of its kind. I had nightmares about its success since two such planned trips previously never happened!

And even as Prats gave a goodbye speech when we departed for India about how our fights didn't matter and lets just enjoy this moment because its the first and could be the last trip together..

I whined silentely.. Why last? Why the hell it should be the last ?! Just because I was stupid and annoying ? How could you do this to me? Why last?!!

To say she read my mind and replied - "who knows what happens in the coming days and where life takes us all."

Damn. That pinches!

She made me feel so guilty about being such a jackass. 

I wanted her to scream at me. 

To scold me for being immature and whatever the hell I was being :/

But the time's gone.

And all am left with are memories..  A LOT of them..about this amazing vacation to cherish about.

Things I'd never like to forget. Things that bring instant happiness to me :)

Those Chinese conversations. 

Public embarrassment missions.

Emptying our pockets out at casino!

 Photograph-obsession.

 The day wen we missed to go to Victoria Peak & all the jokes about the same :D 

Disneyland !! 

We've resolved to go back to Macau to jump off the Tower :D

* All pictures posted here have been clicked by me :P There is some jinx attached with me and cameras. My (new) camera started acting weird.Add to it - I lost the charger!! So had to save the battery for disneyland .Sadly it was so hot even on the day we visited disneyland - that none of us had much energy or enthusiasm to click ! Talk about obsessing for clicking pictures :P