Sophie & Jason

Honeymoon pt 1: Macau & Hong Kong

So how do you get ready for an around the world trip? Well, you give your landlord your notice and put everything in storage of course. This wasn’t the way it was planned, but that is how it played out. So as we were packing and preparing for our honeymoon trip, we were also packing and moving all of our stuff (mostly Sophie’s) into a 90 sq foot storage space. When we finally got everything out of the flat and into the box, we were free of our load and ready for the trip.

The first stop was Hong Kong and Macau, where many of my relatives live.

Macau was well represented at the wedding by my cousins Stanley, Jacqueline, Francisco and Olivia, but many of my uncles and aunts as well as my grandparents were not able to come to Hungary. So we went to them.

After landing in Hong Kong, we immediately hopped on a ferry across the water to the peninsula of Macau. At the terminal, we were greeted by not only my parents, but also Sophie’s parents, who had arranged a business trip to Hong Kong at the same time. The family was together again.

It had been over 3 years since I last visited and the first time for Sophie, so we were embraced like royalty. We stayed at The Rio Hotel, one of many casino hotels in the city that has given the former Portuguese colony it’s nickname, “The Las Vegas of Asia”.

We were treated to top restaurants. Daily dim sum lunches were followed by high quality Chinese dinners some nights, flavourful Portuguese dishes some other nights and unique Macanese meals (a tasty mixture of two) other times. Then there was the marathon 11-course Peking duck, abalone and lobster dinner celebrating my grandmother’s birthday. My relatives always made sure their visitors leave with a happy stomach.

When we were not eating, our driver would chauffeur us around town. Through the cobblestone streets of the colourful main square, we made our way towards the ruins of the Sao Paulo Cathedral. We visited the largest Casino in the world, The Venetian. We visited the ancient Taoist A-Ma temple. We were even given a private tour of the schools that my grandfather is a chairman of, Escola Secundaria pui va Middle School and Escola Secundaria pui va Seção Primaria e Infantil.

Sophie and I were well taken care of in Macau, as my relatives were excited to welcome in the newest members of the family. Sophie and her parents also enjoyed meeting my grandparents and having even more family member names to try and remember.

After 4 days in Macau, we continued on to Hong Kong for 3 days. We arrived in the evening and checked into the Metropark Hotel in Wan Chai. Sophie’s happy stomach had since become upset, so looking for food options was a challenge. We ventured into the more tourist friendly area of Central and had our first meal in Hong Kong at good old Pizza Express. The next night we had dinner with my friend Plato and his wife Julia at an Italian restaurant. And much to our luck, there was an Italian deli next to our hotel for us to stock up on breakfast supplies. We obviously wanted to relive our mini-moon in Cinque Terre, Italy.

We met up with Sophie’s parents for some sightseeing while in Hong Kong and were lucky enough to have clear skies at Victoria peak to catch a glimpse of the dramatic skyline. Back at city level, we fought through the crowds of a very well lit Time Square and the vibrant Ladies Market, but we were also able to escape the chaos to enjoy the peacefulness of the Chi Lin Nunnery. Sophie really appreciated the nunnery for it’s tranquil feeling in a bustling city.

We visited my uncle’s art gallery and publishing company, Han Mo Xuan, which displayed an impressive collection of calligraphy painting, art paintings and art books. On the final day, we rode atop a hop-on hop-off tour bus to revisit and summarize all the sights that we saw during the previous days by foot.

Hong Kong was like New York City on steroids. And as much as we liked the high tech and busy culture, Sophie and I were very much looking forward to some relaxation on the next part of our around the world honeymoon. At the airport, I was able to find some Chinese noodles for my last meal in Hong Kong while Sophie was able to find a Pizza Express to complete the trip.

Continue to the next honeymoon post Honeymoon pt 2 New Zealand >>