i met up with a friend in macau to explore the neat little island, and it's casinos and beaches. upon arriving we decided to check out a few budget options for a place to stay. the guidebook mentioned one that had character in spades, but lacked a few other qualities. it was also the cheapest. so we decided to check it out. it turned out to be in the now defunct red light district. up two flights of stairs we found the check-in, thought unmanned, and waited. for 10 minutes. i guess we wanted to stay there. finally, after faking bell rings and hollering for an attendant a little old woman came waddling up the stairs. we asked her to see a room, which is when we first noticed that the walls were not walls, but partitions. imagine your office, cubicles, just painted green. inside the room it looked like everything was 100 years old. it made me think of old havana, though i've never been there. we decided to take the room, for the experience. but we prayed there would be no 'work' going on. there wasn't and we both said it was one our best nights sleep in a while. that morning we awoke to the steady growth of voices pouring over the partitions. but it seemed natural, or pleasing. as the voices grew we rose and began out day. it was kind of like an alarm clock, just not so abrupt.
once in hong kong we decided to see the less intense side of the city; without flashing lights, 10 million people, and designer clothes everywhere. so we took the subway and 2 buses out to a little peninsula called sai kung. diving and beaches drew us. so, we jumped on a trail to hike out to the beach and to discover a hidden hostel on the way. we missed the hostel, but found a secluded beach. as we broke through the jungle to sand we could hear the roar of the waves for the first time. it was empty. all to ourselves and the whole afternoon to enjoy it. on our suits went and out into the freezing cold water we swam. brr it was cold. it was hard to imagine we were so close to hong kong. it felt too remote. later in the afternoon we set off to find a second beach, one with food and a place to stay. the food we found and the place to stay turned out to be the tent we brought along. as the sun faded so did it's warmth. neither of us had prepared to sleep in what was shaping up to be a cold night; during the day it was warm. our bad. about 8:30 our feeble little fire faded away and we hunkered down in the tent. we would not sleep more than an hour the entire night. it dropped to at least 40 degrees and all i was wearing was a a t-shirt and a long sleeve shirt. not enough. we tried everything we could imagine to stay warm, but nothing worked. we shivered, we shook, and we laid there wide eyed. the dawn could not come quick enough. hour after hour passed, but it felt like days. at first light we hurriedly pack up camp and began hiking out. as cold as we were we turned to admire the rising sun, how beautiful it was. and within 15 minutes both of us had broken a sweat and were pealing off whatever we had found to wrap around our bodies (for me a towel as scarf/cape and board shorts over jeans).
london and dublin will come tomorrow...
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