East Asia 2017

Had a bit of a broken night's sleep on account of not being able to breathe.

At 6:20 the alarm went off to wake up.

Arrival in Incheon was pretty boring. I missed coming under the bridge, but then we docked at a new terminal area in the middle of nowhere (they haven't even built the terminal yet). Downloaded the GPS log since Busan.

Had some breakfast at Kings Court around 8:00.

At 8:45 we went into the Royal Court Theatre to check in to our tour. Where we then had to wait and wait and wait. This time the Korean immigrations had setup laptops in the Queens Room to process everyone. So we had to collect our passports, walk past the temperature sensor, then get our passports stamped. Then we dropped off our passports and got a shore card. They had a truck setup outside with a portable gangway, but it was *very* steep getting up it. We could have really just gone straight off the ship onto the wharf, rather than up and over, but apparently the tides change quite a lot and they were going to have to rearrange things during the day. It was after 10:00 before our coach left the wharf.

So then it was the really long drive into Seoul.

Our first stop was the National Museum. We lasted about five minutes with the crowds and our tour guide before we went off and wandered the place on our own. Sure we probably missed out on hearing about some things in more detail, but we did get a nice long look at all the celadon (a green glazed ceramic), and an amazing exhibition of items recovered in 1975 from a shipwreck.

Entrance of the National Museum of Korea

Gold Crown and Girdle, National Treasure #191 and #192

Gold Crown Ornament, National Treasure #630

Ten Story Pagoda, National Treasure #86

Dragon shaped ewer celadon, National Treasure #61

Ewer celadon

Celadon plate

Objects from the Sinan shipwreck

Objects from the Sinan shipwreck

Coins from the Sinan shipwreck

Then it was off to lunch at a place in the city. There was about fifteen different courses!! It was pretty insane. And I was having fun until I was eating all the green vegetables in a cold "porridge" when I got a huge slice of raw green chili. My mouth exploded. I should have spat it out, but I was on a table full of strangers. So that was super painful (I was in tears) and kinda ruined the rest of the meal. And our tour guide didn't seem to understand that people need to use the bathroom, and so we had to try and find it ourselves when we should have been going out to get back on the coach.

Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara

Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara.  That green chili sunk in with the rest of the vegetables and my mouth exploded when I ate it :(

Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara

After lunch it started raining. Yay. We went to Bukchon village next, a line of houses built in the 1930s by a dude who wanted to preserve houses built in traditional Korean style. But it's a residential street and I think the people that live there hate the fact that it's a huge tourist destination.

Sungnyemun Gate

Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon Hanok Village

Traditional dress store

Girls in traditional dress

Still raining. We drove past the presidential "blue house" and got one or two photos through foggy and rain-smeared windows.

The Blue House

Then into the royal palace next door. Still raining on and off. Had a decent wander around there which was pretty cool.

Gwanghwamun Gate

Heungnyemun Gate

Geunjeongjeon hall

Inside Geunjeongjeon hall

Courtyard of Geunjeongjeon hall and Bukhansan Mountain

Gargoyle at Geunjeongjeon hall

Covered walkway on west side of Geunjeongjeon hall

Covered walkway on west side of Geunjeongjeon hall

Gyeonghoeru pavilion

Bukhansan Mountain

Locals in traditional dress

Decorative roof at Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gangnyeongjeon hall

Inside Gangnyeongjeon hall

Locals in traditional dress

Looking towards Gwanghwamun Gate from Heungnyemun Gate

Gargoyle at Gyeongbokgung Palace

Asian women need instructions on how to use the toilets

Girls toilets at Gyeongbokgung Palace

So a reasonably decent tour. Shame about the weather.

Finally a very long drive back to the ship.

Banghwa Bridge

Queen Mary 2 docked at Incheon Port International Passenger Terminal

Queen Mary 2 docked at Incheon Port International Passenger Terminal

Incheon Bridge, connecting Yeongjong Island and the mainland of Incheon

Sunset aboard the Queen Mary 2

Queen Mary 2 bell

19:30 the usual pub for drinks/music/trivia (we got 16/20 this time - would have gotten a couple more if we'd joined with the table that marked ours - they knew two that we didn't heh). Really must join ranks with some English people as the questions do tend to be a bit British-centric.

When we got to dinner we found two new people on our table (Bruce and Maria from Sydney). They'd been on board since Sydney and were going all the way to Southampton. But they kept on being at a table by themselves and asked to join someone else. We'd had two seats free since Virginia and Bob got off in Shanghai so that was quite nice. Stu had chicken consomme, Korean chicken and chocolate volcano cake. I had smoked duck, penne, and wasn't going to have dessert because I was so full, but got tempted by the key lime pie heh.

I really feel like we don't belong on this cruise. Bruce and David spent most of the evening talking about travelling business class and comparing airlines, and the sizes of their apartments. Bruce and Maria live in one of the toasters in Circular Quay, and at one point I think I overheard it was 192 square metres (although only heard a snatch of that conversation I could be wrong). Various British couples we've met have summer homes in Europe. We're too young and not rich enough to belong on this cruise...

Woke up at 05:00 but mostly got back to sleep til around 06:00. Got up and spent ages getting caught up with blogging and photos.

Stu woke up sick :( Too many people in this part of the world and too many of them sick. It was inevitable I guess...

We thought we'd get Maccas for breakfast, on account of it should be a lot cheaper than the big buffet breakfast, and that Stu could then have it in the room without him needing to get up and ready first. So I went down to get some. Except I was running very low on cash so tried to pay on credit card. Except McDonalds in the Galaxy Macau do not take credit cards. What century is this guys???? So reluctantly I went and got another 500 MOP out at the ATM (minimum withdrawal at those ATMs is 500) and bought breakfast. And at 134 MOP it wasn't really any cheaper that the buffet *sigh*.

After we got ready we took one of the hotel shuttle buses over to the peninsula. Wandered up past the Lisboa up to Senado Square. Sat around there for a little while and had a guy from Seattle chat to us for a bit.

Macau across Nam Van Lake

Grand Lisboa Macau

Casino Lisboa

Mammoth tusk carving in the lobby of the Grand Lisboa, Macau

Mammoth tusk carving in the lobby of the Grand Lisboa, Macau

Lobby of the Grand Lisboa, Macau

Portuguese pavement of a flamingo

Historic buildings and fountain in Senado Square

Trees growing out of the side of buildings in Senado Square

Senado Square

Senado Square

Then wandered up the square past all the shoe shops and jerky shops, evenutally stopping at Starbucks for a pitstop.

St Dominic's Church

Interior of St Dominic's Church

Eventually made it up to the ruins of St Paul's.

Ruins of St Paul's Cathedral

View south from St Paul's Cathedral

Ruins of St Paul's Cathedral

Then continued up to the fortress. There's signs all around the place pointing where everything is, but they dried up at the bottom of the fortress and we ended up turning left instead of right and did a very long wander around the base of the fortress. Which was fine because it had a nice view and there wasn't many people and it was quiet. Oh yes, Stu got a migraine just as we were leaving the hotel so all the people and noises were a bit stressful.

Flowers in a tree next to the Macau fortress

Finally made it to the top of the fortress which was pretty cool.

View north-west from Macau fortress

View to Guia Lighthouse from the Macau fortress

South wall of the Macau fortress

Canon seemingly taking aim at the Grand Lisboa

Panorama view south and west from Macau fortress

Macau museum

Took the escalators down off the hill then wandered back down the way we'd come. We had seen a 26A on the way up, and thought there'd be a bus stop along Av de Almeida Ribeiro, but we never saw one.

Ended up down at Nam Van Lake so I left Stu to sit for a while and went on a pretty long walk to take photos of bridges and the Kun Iam Statue.

Hotel Lisboa

Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge

Macau Tower

Macau over Nam Van Lake

Tree roots along Av. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen

MGM Grand Macau

Lion outside the MGM Grand Macau

Kun Iam Statue

Went and collected the sweetie and headed back to the Star World Casino for a bus back to our hotel.

Sai Van Bridge

Galaxy Hotel

When we got back we went downstairs and had a swim in the heated pool. We didn't go in the rapids thingie because frankly it was just too far to walk (my feet were killing me). So we just stayed in the heated pool which was right downstairs from us and that was very nice.

Rooftop heated pool of the Galaxy Hotel

Next we thought we'd get dinner from the Tastes of Asia food court downstairs. But these guys, as well as not taking credit card, don't even take cash!!! You have to use one of their stoopid card systems. I did what any person who was so tired and hungry would do - I lost it. What sort of place doesn't even take cash?? Might be ok if you're local and have the cards they want, but it's really not very friendly for tourists. I had 250MOP in cash that I needed to spend before the next day. And I didn't want to go get a card because you always lose leftover money on those things (it's the principle of the thing). We looked at a couple of the nearby restaurants, but 250MOP might have gotten me a bottle of wine or one dish, but nothing else. And I really didn't feel like walking all the way over to Taipa. So we had KFC. Because they took my damned money and they were right there. But I could barely stomach it. It was all very upsetting.

After dinner I went (by myself, *sigh*) back to the peninsula to take photos of the casinos at night. The Lisboa is a bit insane.

Wynn's Casino by night

Hotel Lisboa by night

Wynn's Casino by night

Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge by night

Macau buildings by night

Grand Lisboa by night

Hotel Lisboa by night

Grand Lisboa by night

Casino Lisboa by night

Hotel Lisboa by night

The shuttle bus back from there dumps you right at the very southern end of the Galaxy resort, but I didn't want to walk through the shops again, and you can't walk over to the Parisian or the Venetian without walking All The Way Around the streets and front entrances (another couple of kilometre walk) so I didn't bother going to see them either. Oh well. Guess I'm never going to see those at night. Just walked around the outside of our hotel. At least it was peace and quiet. Collapsed into bed about 21:30.

The Parisian by night

After getting to bed at midnight local time, 03:00 our time, I woke up at 04:00 with hurty and that kept me awake for an hour. But got back to sleep and slept through til 08:00. The bed is very comfortable although the pillows are super squishy. On the desk there's a couple of multi-style power outlets which take all our devices without needing adapters. Stu has an outlet by his bed but I don't. There's a multi-style shaver outlet in the bathroom too which lets me put a nightlight in there. The nightstands also have little nightlights underneath them so you can see the ground if you need to get up when it's dark. Quite handy. Somewhat annoyingly the carpet is mostly brown except for these big dark brown butterflies which makes it look like there's something there that you need to not trip over heh. There's a little room with an ice machine and a drinks and snacks vending machine.

Also, our room is "city view" which is north-facing towards the peninsula. Except. Just north of here are a whole stack of apartments taking up most of the horizon, so you can only see about three buildings of the city. We'd probably have been better off with a view of the rest of the hotel complex. Also the glass is about five layers thick and highly reflective on both sides, so all lights get reflected back and forth which really kills photos. Oh well.

View of Taipa from our room at the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

Panorama of our view towards Taipa from our room at the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

After getting up at 08:00 I downloaded the previous day's photos and GPS track and wrote up a blog entry. We were ready by 9:30 then headed downstairs to one of the restaurants in the complex that's attached to the hotel. We didn't have breakfast included with our room, so it was 160 MOP each extra (plus an extra service charge hrmm). But we did fill up on lots of nice food which means we can skip lunch.

After breakfast we had a wander around the ground floor of the complex, looking at the shops and even going into the Apple store.

Model of the Galaxy Hotel complex, Macau

11am sound and light water show in the Diamond Lobby of the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

Came back and got ourselves ready, the headed out to Coloane. There's a bus (26A) which leaves right outside the hotel to go down to Coloane for 4 MOP each (actually 3.60 but they don't give change - you just drop coins in the slot by the driver when you get on for the price indicated on the electronic readout. I guess it'd mean if you lived at one end of the run and only wanted to go a short way you'd still need to pay the full fare for the whole length of the trip. If you lived at the end of the run you pay less).

Front entrance of the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

At Coloane we hopped off the bus and then just wandered. We came across Lord Stow's quite quickly, so went into the "garden" and ordered three of their famous Portugese egg tarts as well as some drinks. The tarts were indeed quite good.

Lord Stow's famous egg tarts

Then we just wandered up and down the water front looking across to China, at the St Francis Xavier church and a couple of temples.

Largo do Matadouro street sign

Stu looking at the view across the water to China

Coloane waterfront

Portuguese pavement of a ship

Chapel of St Francis Xavier

Eduardo Marques Square

Lion outside Tin Hau temple

Tin Hau temple

Tin Hau temple

Inside the Chapel of St Frances Xavier

Then hopped on another bus back to the hotel (5 MOP each on the way back).

Except I didn't go all the way back to the hotel. I hopped off outside the Parisian and had a look at the Eiffel Tower and then inside the lobby. Wow. Epic. I thought I might see how much it was to go up the tower, so started following the signs. I got led on a very long walk through all the shops which was super annoying. When as it turned out, the lift just off the lobby would have taken me straight up. The price was 100 MOP to go up ($20) but because it was such a grey and murky day I didn't bother.

Eiffel Tower outside the Parisian Hotel

The Parisian Hotel

Lobby of the Parisian Hotel

Lobby of the Parisian Hotel

I tried to find a way through the hotel over to the Venetian but it was all too hard so just walked around the outside. The Venetian is also pretty insane, but so big I had trouble finding the canal. I think it follows the path of the shops, but by this time I was a bit over it and just wanted to get back. I tried to find a way to the western lobby so I wouldn't have to walk all the way back outside and around but they certainly don't make it easy. In the end I had to walk through the casino to get there.

St Mark's Campanile outside The Venetian Hotel

Rialto Bridge outside The Venetian Hotel

The Venetian Hotel

Lobby of The Venetian Hotel

Lobby of The Venetian Hotel

Lobby of The Venetian Hotel

San Luca Canal, The Venetian Hotel

The Great Hall in The Venetian Hotel

The Great Hall in The Venetian Hotel

Came back to the hotel and chilled out for a while (at this point I'm up to 13000 steps!).

Then we went downstairs and had a wander around the rooftop resort area with all the pools. There's a bit of a wind-tunnel between the buildings which makes it super windy in places. I'm not sure there'll be any time to go for a swim though.

Pool on the rooftop of the Galaxy Hotel

Gardens on the rooftop of the Galaxy Hotel

The Galaxy Hotel

Water rapids course on the rooftop of the Galaxy Hotel

Wave pool and beach on the rooftop of the Galaxy Hotel

Then we went across the road to wander through the old Taipa village. We ended up at a place called Corto for dinner and had their suckling pig stuffed with rice. It was nice, but the skin was a little burnt in places. I guess that's just the way it's done, but I didn't like the burnt bits. The rice was awesome though - lovely flavours and quite smokey. We also had a cabbage dish flavoured with fish which was quite nice.

R. Gov. Tamagnini Barbosa streetscape

Baked Stuffed Suckling Pig w/Rice Portuguese Style at Corto Portuguese Restaurant

Stopped in at a 7-Eleven on the way back to pick up some snacks (so I have something to eat in the mornings in the several hours I have to wait for breakfast) then back to the hotel.

Galaxy Hotel entrance by night

It was about 19:30 at this point and I'd really wanted to go for a wander around the area at night to see the casinos all lit up, but I was just too exhausted, so collapsed into bed early (like 20:30 early).

Had a fairly civilised first flight of the day - 09:00. So we woke up at 6am and got ready, and Chrissie arrived at 07:00 and we were out the door by 07:10.

Had a spot of breakfast in the Qantas club before boarding. And saw "Airforce 2" on the taxiway as we were boarding.

Stu and Karen on the plane at Canberra Airport

Sadly planes were taking off to the south, so our seat on the left side of the plane didn't give us a view of Canberra city.

Looking towards Melbourne CBD

We arrived at the gate in Melbourne exactly one our after leaving the gate in Canberra.

In Melbourne, security was pretty quick, although Melbourne should follow Canberra's lead and have lots of convenient benches before and after security to organise all your stuff. The space after security in Melbourne is very pretty much non-existent which makes it a bit awkward to repack your bags.

Immigration was completely boring - you just stick your passport in the machine, have your photo taken, then dump your passenger card in a box.

Our next flight was due to board at 10:30, so we went straight to the gate. But after standing there for half an hour they finally made an announcement that there was a problem with one of the cargo doors they were looking at, and it would be another 45 minutes before we boarded. So we high-tailed it out of there and went for a drink and snack in the Qantas club. Much more relaxing. In the end they didn't board until 13:00 with pushback at 13:27 - over two hours late.

Karen at the Qantas Club at Melbourne Airport

On the flight I had tortellini for lunch which was quite nice, but quite filling. Later on they had noodles for a light dinner. With icecream and fruit in between.

I watched Moana first up. Nice enough movie, not sure how it'd stand up to repeated viewings. It was visually stunning though, would be nice to watch it on a bigger screen. Stay for the end - shiny! Next up I watched La La Land. Which to be honest for the most part I found really .. boring ..! The songs just didn't grab me and the whole first scene I'm going like "what's the point?". Meh. I did like the camera work on some of the scenes though - lovely long takes reminiscent of the old school days of movies. Next I watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which I enjoyed. Little references here and there to the Harry Potter world (including a teensy bit of John Williams' score), but able to stand on its own. Finally I watched three episodes of season 10 of Big Bang Theory.

Given that we were two hours late leaving, we landed in Hong Kong at 18:47 local time - only an hour late. At the airport we headed to the Macau ferry ticketing area to get tickets for the 21:00 ferry to Macau. Then had to sit around the airport for an hour which was a bit boring. But not for as long as if our flight had been on time! Sat next to a super annoying Vietnamese guy who was facetiming his girlfriend but he wasn't really talking (and neither was she), he just had her on video with the volume up really loud so all the background noise was super loud and annoying. In the end we moved to a much quieter spot.

At 20:30 we were able to catch the people mover to the ferry terminal. We had allocated seating on the ferry (they gave us seats at the front but on opposite sides of the aisle, with noone in the window seat) but the ferry wasn't full so I took the window seat next to Stu. The ferry ride was a bit boring - it was dark and rainy so there was really no view. Took a bit over and hour to get to Macau (would have been quicker if we hadn't had to do a go-slow because of the airport extension work going on). Then a bit of a walk to the arrivals hall, and we walked in to chaos. A couple of ferries had arrived at once so there was a room full of people. It was *somewhat* organised but a bit stressful getting through immigration (and sadly no stamp for the passport). Then to go pick up our bags. It's a little bit nerve-wracking because you never actually see your luggage when you get off the plane. You give the ticket office your baggage receipt from the airline and they go and get your bag and put it on the ferry. So it's a little bit scary wondering if your bag will turn up. Fortunately it did, as if it hadn't we'd have had to spend the next couple of days shopping for clothes, which is noone's idea of fun.

The hotels all have shuttle buses from the ferry terminal, so we went out and across the road to find ours. The relatively short drive to our hotel took us past the Parisian and the Venetian which are pretty over the top themselves. Finally we arrived at ours, and really the whole place reminds me of Vegas. Absolutely over the top. Just insane. Checked in and came up to the room. But it was nearly midnight so we just had some noodles from the mini bar and the single beer (complimentary mini bar, as least on the first night) and collapsed into bed.

Diamond lobby of the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

Our room at the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

Bathroom in our room at the Galaxy Hotel, Macau

Toiletries in the bathroom of our room at the Galaxy Hotel, Macau