Eleven AM was Dark as Night

On 4/20/2012 (yesterday), I was working at my desk and I looked out my window. It was eleven in the MORNING and the sky was pitch black. I have never seen the sky so dark during the day- it lasted about twenty minutes.

ELEVEN AM
IPhone Photo taken by Jake Lansburgh

ELEVEN PM

Twelve hours later, I was on my friend's balcony, and the sky was cloudless, the air felt fresh and pure, and the visibility was the clearest I've ever experienced in Hong Kong.

Freaky-deaky weather, man. If you were celebrating on Friday- happy holiday.

Hong Kong: The Good

My stay in Hong Kong is almost over.
I have been here for 13 weeks and have lived in two different areas on the island.
Upon reflection, I realize I have mixed emotions about this city state and I thought I'd share my views for any future Hong Kong travelers. First, the good:

Convenience
Anything you need or want is easily accessible. The public transportation, which is cheap and efficient, will take you anywhere you need to go in one or two rides. You can choose from the underground subway, above ground trolleys, fancy double decker buses, not so fancy mini old school short buses, a water ferry, and of course a red taxi. This city runs on efficiency and anything remotely slow is quickly deemed inefficient.
This city is the land of shopping malls. On any given block, you can find two or three commercial buildings with high-end retail or mom and pop Chinese goods. There are 7/11s everywhere! On my street there are probably 6 or 7 (mostly 2 per block). The best 7/11 is in the bar area called Lan Kwai Fong where you can buy a cheap beer ($2 USD for a Corona) and drink on the streets while the other sucker ex-pats pay over $10 USD for their drinks. Would you rather have your 7/11 dispense Slurpees or Coronas?
Everyone speaks English. I have been here for 3 months and only know a few Cantonese words- my address, right here, hello, thank you. I have not been in a situation where my lack of language skills has hindered me from obtaining what I want.

Paper Offerings

I was walking back from the coffee shop this morning and passed three or four shops selling paper toys... I was fascinated, so I did a little more research.

Paper Offerings!

This past Wednesday was a Hong Kong holiday called Ching Ming. It's a day designated for families to clean their ancestor's grave sites and remember their past family. The burning of paper goods represents the objects a family wants their kin to have in the afterlife, such as:

Paper IPad, IPhone, IPod Shuffle

Paper McDonald's

Paper Gucci Handbags

Paper Button-downs

Delicious Paper Roasted Goose, Suckling Pig, and Roasted Duck with Duck Sauce

Paper House complete with Philippino Paper Maid and Driver

Most of these shots were posted on Instagram. IPhone and Android users- Follow me @raqalot

(and for Facebook users, since FB just bought Instagram for $1billion dollars, I'm sure you'll be able to follow me on FB soon)

Snapshots of Macau

I've been to Macau twice now. It's a Special Administrative Region of China (like Hong Kong) but was colonized by the Portuguese. It's basically a city-state that China sort of controls. It is relatively small- you can get to one side of the country to another within half an hour. Interesting to note: Macau has the world's second highest life expectancy in the world.

The growth of it's economy is highly dependent on it's tourism from Mainland China (just a short ferry ride away) and the constantly developing casinos. In fact, Macau brings in more revenue from gambling than Las Vegas.

A view of some of the casinos. Macau is much more open than the Vegas strip.

Some of the same casinos from Vegas can be found in Macau. The casinos are primarily owned between two groups. Stanley Ho and his family and Steven Wynn.

Casino Lisboa

Casino Lisboa (behind us) is one of the first casinos established by Stanley Ho. Prostitution is not legal in Macau, however, there's a hallway in this casino where beautiful Mainland Chinese girls literally parade back and forth for 8 hour shifts, trying to get the attention of the men watching. The hotel gets a cut of what the girls make in the hotel rooms upstairs.

Bungee Jumping!

Yesterday I went to Macau on a whim. It was my second time there and I thought it would be a good trip for the Easter holidays. We checked out the square, the ruins, and a few casinos.

Most importantly we went to the Macau Tower. After more than a few moments of indecisiveness, I decided to join my teammate on his quest to JUMP OFF 60+ STORIES. They say it's the world's tallest bungee jump!

Macau Tower.

We were one of the last people to make the jump that day. In fact, when we got to the top of the tower, there were no other people up there to jump. This actually kept me pretty calm- if I had seen someone leap off the ledge, I might have backed down.

They put on our harnesses and we went outside to get clicked on to the rope.

They actually used sturdier gear than just this... but you get the idea.

I was first.

Up until that moment I was not scared, but then they wrap your ankles together and you have to take TEENY TINY steps to the edge of the platform. They drop the rope over the side and you feel a weight tug at your feet and THAT'S when I started to have a minor breakdown. I peeked down at my toes and saw the tiny inflatable landing pad. 233 meters or 60-something stories is REALLY high up.

The staff started to yell a 5 second countdown. 5 - 4 - 3! 2! 1!!!

"NO NO NO NO NO!" I was shaking my head and hands back and forth. "I don't think I can do this!"

"The longer you wait, the harder it is. You're only making this harder on yourself." The staff was heartless.

Again, the countdown: 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1!!!!

Before I could change my mind, I leaped out into the abyss.

For those first few moments, it's exactly like you would have imagined it. Your stomach drops as your body tenses up at the anticipation of landing onto solid ground. It felt like I was curled up in the fetal position- helpless and vulnerable (I watched the video and I was actually nicely stretched out). I couldn't say a word- I don't think I was breathing.

But then a calmness washes over you and you realize you are flying (yes, headfirst into the ground) and there's this moment of zen.

The cable system started to retract and on the bounce up, I pulled a strap that righted myself up so I wasn't hanging upside down. I sat through a few bounces and then was lowered to the ground. My legs and hands were shaking (or maybe it was the unexpected bounciness of the launching pad) and the staff unclipped me and I walked away and waited for my teammate to come soaring down.

I don't have any pictures or videos, so I will have to rely on my memory (or this blog post) but it was one of the most frightening moments of my life- making the decision to fall off a skyscraper.

Afterwards, we went on an almost-as-scary walk around the outer rim of the tower:

I'm hovering over empty space. Easier said than done.