Where Was I?

After about two and a half months in Australia and New Zealand, I was now headed back to Asia for the next leg of my journey around the world. 

I will admit, it was nice spending a couple of months in countries where English was the native language, especially after I had spent a few months in Southeast Asia. 

But, just as the calendar turned to spring, I was ready to head north and experience another part of the world with a completely different culture. 

I took the 11.5 hour flight from Auckland to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, one of my longest flights of the 50 I took around the world.  I passed the time with five movies, including the 2018 Best Picture, Green Book, and before I knew it I was in one of the busiest regions in the world. 

I knew some of Hong Kong’s complicated history before I visited, but it was a bit confusing trying to figure out the connection with mainland China and how the two coexisted with one another.  

After interacting with a few of the local guides who were around my age, I was able to grasp a much better understanding of how my generation views the relationship with China and how they want full independence.  

I spent about a week in Hong Kong and Macau, which gave me enough time to see the attractions, eat the food, and get a good feel for these countries.

The Best Thing I Did in Hong Kong

Hike Kowloon Peak

Hiking Kowloon Peak

This hike wasn’t quite as intense as Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, but Kowloon Peak still had some steep sections that were challenging. 

Hiking up to the suicide cliffs provided some spectacular views of the city. 

Suicide cliffs

Taking in the views

Kowloon Peak

I went with a local guide and a few other tourists who were visiting from other countries.  It really made a difference to have a guide on these kind of hikes for a variety of reasons. 

His presence made everyone feel safer because we knew we had an experienced local hiker with us as we made our trek up.

He also provided a lot of useful information about the country. 

And maybe most importantly he gave us some tips about where to take photos and brought a drone which captured some of these amazing shots from Kowloon Peak.    

Sitting with the guys on Kowloon Peak

It took close to three hours to make it up to the top, which included some time to sit and enjoy the views and play with the drone.  Once we reached the top, we decided to wait until dark so we could get some views and shots of the country at night.  

View from Kowloon Peak at night

While in the photo above most of Hong Kong is visible, there was only a short window to capture this view, as much of the time the city was covered in fog and nothing would be visible.  

It made for an interesting trek down in the dark, but the backside of the mountain had a sort of staircase that led us back down to ground level. 

I had to make some adjustments with my sugar because our timing changed as we went along, but I’ll discuss that more in the diabetic section below.   

Other Highlights

Food Tour 

Eating on food tour

I did some sort of food tour in almost every city I visited, but the Hong Kong food tour could have been the best of them all.

Like I did with many of my tours, I booked it through Airbnb Experiences, and this one, Hong Kong’s Best Bites, really turned out to be great.  

Our guide Esther, a local Hong Kong woman around my age,  led myself and one other guy around the city to get a real taste of Hong Kong.  

The soup dumplings were something I had never tried before and were so good I was hooked instantly.   

Besides trying much of the local cuisine, she also brought us to a place called Australia Dairy Company, where they made the best egg sandwich imaginable.  It’s weird writing about an egg sandwich on white bread, something so basic, but it really was the best egg sandwich. 

Like many Hong Kong restaurants, ADC was overcrowded and actually infamous for their rude customer service in order to sit as many people as quickly as possible.  I guess if you make the best eggs in town, people will still show up.      

.   

Eating egg waffles

Not to be confused with one of Hong Kong’s most famous snacks, the egg waffles.  Yum!

I learned about the food culture in Hong Kong and how many of the restaurants need to hustle people in and out because of how densely populated this city has become.  Eating slowly or sitting and talking after a meal was frowned upon in many of the food joints I visited while there.  

With my food tour guide Esther

A Symphony of Lights

Symphony of Lights Show

After the food tour ended, Esther brought us to watch Hong Kong’s Symphony of Lights night show.  

Every night at 8pm, 42 high-rise buildings around the water take part in this laser and light show.  It’s a big tourist attraction and an easy way to spend 15 minutes to marvel at the grandiose setting that was Hong Kong. 

Hong Kong at night

Ferris wheel in Hong Kong

Happy Valley Racecourse 

Happy Valley Racecourse

The Happy Valley Racecourse was mightily impressive and something I had no idea existed until I arrived in the city.  The track was huge and on Wednesday nights the place turned into a party, filled with mostly expats and tourists.  

I only found out about all of this because a friend from high school was working and living in Hong Kong at the time and I was lucky enough to be able to meet her and her husband for a fun night at the track.  

We drank a few brews, bet on the horses, and won some Hong Kong dollars when Speedy King finished first!  (How could we not bet on Speedy King)

Just in time to head to Macau!  

It was also nice to see a familiar face after traveling solo for about six months.

Watching the horses

Victoria Peak

View of Hong Kong from Victoria Peak

Victoria Peak, known simply as The Peak, was one of Hong Kong’s most popular tourist attractions.  The way to get up there was via the Peak Tram, one of the oldest running railways in the world.  After waiting in line for about an hour, it was an incredibly steep ride up, but the views from the top were pretty incredible.  

I stayed up there until sundown so I could try and get some views of the city at night as well. 

From Victoria Peak at night

Similar to the hike, there was a lot of fog at the top, but for short stints there was a time to snap a pic where one could see the entire city lit up. 

Flower Show

Hong Kong Flower Show

The Hong Kong Flower Show was a seasonal attraction I found that was on display while I was in Hong Kong.  The entry fee was cheap and it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours marveling in some amazing flower displays.  

Flowers at the Flower Show

Sports Flowers

Macau Strip

The Venetian in Macau

After a few days in Hong Kong, I took the ferry over to Macau.  It was only about an hour ferry ride and they had boats running all day.  The entire ordeal wasn’t too difficult and considering I was technically leaving one country and entering another, the immigration process was pretty quick and easy. 

Macau is an autonomous region and because it doesn’t have to follow the same laws as mainland China, gambling is allowed.  This is why millions of Chinese flock to this region every year and it’s known as the Las Vegas of Asia. 

That was enough for me to at least go see what it was all about. 

Some of the hotels were exact replicas of the Vegas counterparts (Wynn, Venetian) and even the interior designs were identical.   

Macau at night

I spent some time going from casino to casino to try and get a feel for the city and what the gambling culture was like.  Some of the games were the same as the U.S., but there were also games I had never seen before.  The biggest difference was the number of baccarat tables, as this was by far the most popular game in almost every casino. 

Some of the casinos had poker rooms, but the stakes were higher than what I was comfortable playing, so I only played for a short period of time to avoid torching all of my travel funds at the tables.  I tried to learn a few of the new games as well and played a little blackjack before leaving for South Korea.  

There were certainly a lot of similarities to Vegas and it was easy to see why gamblers would travel to this adult fantasy land.  

Eiffel Tower in Macau

Ruins of St. Paul’s

Ruins of St. Paul’s

I’ll be honest, before I planned this visit I had no idea there was more to Macau than the gambling on the strip. 

While the strip did house many of the big Vegas-style casinos, there was another section of the city with historical landmarks and some more culture.  

 I spent one afternoon walking around these landmarks, including the famous Ruins of St. Paul’s, pictured above. 

This country had been under Portuguese rule for centuries and there was a ton of Portuguese influence in a lot of the architecture and food scattered around the city.

The streets were crowded and it was difficult to walk in some of the more narrow alleys, so after a few hours I had enough of the culture and went back to my hotel.     

Streets of Macau

The Sugars

Highest high: 250

Lowest low: 42

Avg Morning: 108

Avg Afternoon: 134

Avg Night: 111

Insulin Pods: 3

Avg Basal Rate: 1.10

Emergency sugar supply: Skittles, glucose tablets, energy drinks

Type 1 in Hong Kong

My sugar levels were shockingly pretty steady during my week in Hong Kong and Macau.  I say shockingly because I ate a lot of dim sum and a lot of dumplings, which meant a lot of carbs and taking educated guesses on how many carbs were in my dishes. 

The dim sum setup took some getting used to, but after maybe my third time eating that style I was able to figure out how to properly order without the waitress getting angry.  

There was a lot to see in Hong Kong and I did do a fair amount of walking the streets, but as I mentioned above it was the hike of Kowloon Peak where I had to make the biggest adjustments with my insulin.  

I’ve talked a few times in previous blogs about how doing physical activities like a hike can be one of the more challenging parts about staying in a good sugar range.  

For the Kowloon Peak hike, it was originally slated to be about three hours,  but once we reached the top of the peak our small group decided that we would wait for sundown and then hike back down in the dark.  This extended the journey into about a five hour ordeal, which meant I had to make some in-game adjustments to my basal rates and to my sugar intake. 

I was a little low once we reached the top, so I went through a Gatorade and ate a candy bar while we watched the sunset.  I wasn’t sure how long we would actually be up there before hiking back down, but I wanted to make sure my sugar would not go low when hiking in the dark.  I lowered my basal rate by 0.1 and with the Gatorade and candy, I knew I would avoid any low.  I also knew my sugar would likely go too high from this, but I could shoot insulin and adjust when we were back on level ground. 

I wrapped up the evening with some more dim sum.  

This would normally need another 15 units or so of insulin, but after a long hike like the one I had just completed, I shot around 12 units.  

I would always shoot less after a big physical activity because my body would still be recovering and it could cause a hypo if I was not careful.    

That’s enough about my sugar levels, here’s a picture of the dim sum:

Dim sum in Hong Kong

That was it for Hong Kong and Macau, it was time to move on to South Korea. 

Keep the sugar levels steady.

Jeremy 

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