Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
When I had the opportunity to use frequent flyer miles for an overseas trip, I decided to use them to go over a different sea than usual for a trip to Asia in November 2002. Here is a report on that trip to Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
TRIP TO ASIA, NOVEMBER 2002
Amc2004-09-13 14:42:34
Displayed times (last time: )
until 1998.
There were museums near my hotel; I thought it would be good to get a museum weekly pass for HK$30 for six museums rather than pay HK$10 per museum (all low prices at HK$7.8 per U.S. dollar). This turned out not to be such a good deal; I went to the Art Museum and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in the New Territories. I went to the Space Museum just because it was there, and it turned out to be its free admission day.
I initially thought I would be having Chinese, mostly Cantonese, food during my stay. I had some other cuisines (partly because the Chinese style may not work well for solo diners), but I still had a good selection of Chinese food. One curious thing was that even the Lonely Planet guidebook, which one would expect to be more adventurous, mostly listed upscale hotel restaurants for Chinese food. I found out that these restaurants were popular with locals; still, one would expect more regular restaurants to be listed; most would have a menu in English even if the serving staff didn’t speak English. I ate at the Dynasty Cantonese restaurant at my hotel, nice with crisp-skinned meats. The best meal for me was the Peking Duck at the Pekinese restaurant Tai Fung Lau (its address is listed on Chatham Rd., but the entrance is around the corner on Hart Ave.), a popular place that filled up with a local banquet group. In the non-upscale restaurants, prices were reasonable by American standards.
As one with a fair amount of experience in North American Chinese restaurants, I saw some differences in restaurant practice. Napkins weren’t offered except in the most upscale places, making it more awkward for one who is clumsy with chopsticks. Sometimes, even when I looked up from the menu, making eye contact with the server, and it should have been clear that I’d made a choice, the servers stayed standing across the room; I take it I needed to beckon them. A 10% service charge was added to the bill, which
...
See photographs from:
Vietnam Gallery
,
Macau Gallery
,
Hong Kong Gallery
,
Cambodia Gallery
