Hong Kong: Day 1 + Macau

I am head over heels in love with this city.

We are staying in a hostel in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. It's by far the most we've paid for a hostel yet- but the location is incredible. Causeway Bay is nicknamed 'the Olympic Games of shopping' and rightfully so. We are surrounded by stores, and malls, and more stores. I think I could live in Shanghai one day, but I know I could live in Hong Kong. I absolutely love it here, I feel like I have been in a state of shock since we arrived.

The street our hostel is on.

The view of the bay from the hostel.

The city, water, and mountains make for the most beautiful scenery. We went to Victoria's Peak and got incredible pictures of the whole city. We rode the tram to the top and then enjoyed the view for a while. It was breathtaking. After that, we went to City Plaza which is a famous mall. It was so large, but we had limited time there so Kat and I power shopped through a few stores.

Victoria's Peak did not disappoint.

I have to add a sidenote. At Victoria's Peak there are a ton of restaurants, shops, etc. at the top. Guess what I found?

No joke.

And now I can now say I have visited two countries in one weekend. We were rushing at City Plaza because we had to get on a ferry ride over to Macau. Now that I think about it, I can't believe we visited another country just for fun and didn't even stay the night. We left on the 7:30 ferry and came back at 2:30 in the morning. The ferry boat ride was an hour long. I have never been to Vegas, but it was exactly how I imagined Vegas would be. I got into three different casinos without being IDed, but at the first one (the Venetian) a couple of kids in our group got stopped and so we couldn't go in. We then went to Rio, which was really high-end and had some pretty hard-core gambling going on. I already knew I was not going to try and gamble at all, but some of the boys wanted to play Texas Hold 'Em and Blackjack. After Rio, we went to Sands. Sands was what I imagined a casino would look like. AND I played slots! I lost 80 Macau dollars, which is about $11, so I guess I'm not too upset. It was fun, but I don't think I will ever worry about getting addicted to gambling.

The outside of the Venetian.

When we got to the Venetian, there was a Starbucks in the hotel lobby. I could not resist buying a collector's "Macau" mug. So, I did. And that was a pretty big commitment because I was then forced to carry it around the whole night. Worth it. Haha.

Lobby of the Venetian.

No casino lobby is complete without a T-Rex.

Anyway, Hong Kong has been incredible thus far. I'm not sure if I love it so much because it's a spectacular city, or if I've been in China for a while and it's nice to be somewhere where communication is easier and everything makes a little more sense...I'm sure it's a little bit of both.