Breaking the law

 Loup met us at the hotel for his last day in China overlapping with our trip. We walked down the nearby "hutong" or alley. Our neighborhood is super hip, but more crowded than Williamsburg typically. We kept seeing these candied fruit sticks. Loup said that they're not for summer because the heat melts the caramel, but upon tasting it, I knew it was just sugar covered. The most common fruit is crabapple but we got an assortment. I tried cherry tomato. That was weird.

 We drove to the country side and ate at a trout farm where they literally catch your fish right in front of you, bash its head in, gut it, and grill it...all fresh. We ordered a little bit of everything to taste a lot of different dishes.

 Seeing the fish still partially alive as she started cutting him up was very sad.

 We then went on the goose chase of a lifetime. Loup wanted to take us to a specific part of the great wall, but he couldn't find it. We were lost, and every time he'd ask for directions people had no clue what he was talking about. Finally, as the sun was going down, we decided to see the Lakeside part of the wall. We were the only ones there, and Loup said that rules were just guidelines. So we climbed this part...

 Not going to lie, but I was a little scared. Mostly because I didn't want to climb back down. I didn't even want to walk back to the edge to see Aaron climb up because of the vertigo.

 No one was there.

 There's the other side of the mountain and the untouched wall.

 The slants here are pretty steep. We were all panting after climbing up.

 Nothingness.

 There was a little part of me that was constantly afraid that someone was going to catch us. Of course we'd be in a lot of trouble because Aaron and myself couldn't communicate with anyone other than Loup.

 The guard tower was open as well.

 I climbed over the safety wall and took this shot with the part that had no side wall. So cool. Check out the part that is no longer over the water.

 I love the curves in the wall.

 Here's the "do not enter" sign. We're super phased.

 The last stop was the bird's nest and water cube, but being as cold as it was, this was the closest we got. I'm lame when it comes to weather.

Here's our hotel. Super chinese looking.

Ni Hao Beijing

 We woke up very early in Hong Kong to take a flight to Beijing. When we landed, we got a nice freezing breeze our way. Yikes! So cold. It's colder than NY according to weather.com. Aaron's new friend Loup picked us up from the airport, dropped us off at our hotel, took us to lunch (intestine, lung, and heart soup for aaron) and then dropped us off at the Heavenly Temple Park. It was so cold though, that I only took 3 photos and had no interest in staying. We walked across the street to a big flea market where Aaron got some shabu shabu for snack.

 In the market, I watched Aaron the master haggle. He was amazing. He'd just walk away and they'd drop prices faster than girls drop panties at a Maroon 5 concert. I bought some souvenirs for my secret santa back home. We then went back to the hotel to go online, and we finally got a taste of the Chinese firewall. No Facebook, no twitter, no youtube, no blogger, and no google.

 Loup picked us up for dinner along with his friend Sally. They took us to a famous Peking duck restaurant because it was American Thanksgiving. The spread was huge and I couldn't finish everything.

Yummy yummy duck!

 We had fish, duck, soup, shrimp, snow peas,....see? So much food.

 I had to order these little dessert ducks. Cute and yummy!

Here's our group. A cold first day, but a fun one filled with too much food.

Hong Kong's playgrounds

 We woke up early to play at Disneyland. The park is less than 10 years old and I had heard that it wasn't good, but how often am I in Asia, let alone Hong Kong, and at only $60 US dollars per person, how could we not?! Upon arrival, we saw Main Street and the castle....it looked tiny. Smallest castle I've ever seen in a Disney park (and I've now seen 4 of them). The park was clean and EMPTY.

Have you ever had a dream where you are the only person in Disneyland? This pretty much happened today. At one point in Adventureland, I turned to Aaron and said "where IS everybody?!" The park is way smaller and they're still getting their bearings, but the small changes to make this park special really surprised me. 

 We went to Grizzly Gulch, a wild west abandoned town (was it supposed to be abandoned or was it just because there was no one there?) with a big bear problem. The runaway mine car coaster was fun, but very smooth. So smooth that we were a little bored. It had all the components of a great disney ride so we thought it would be a great tester coaster for children. The best part was going backwards and the bears....cute little hungry bears. We walked back around and hopped on a second time. Mickey and Minnie were there as well, and there were 2 people in line....2?! Not 20, not 200, but 2!!!

 We then walked over to Mystic Manor, a ride that is married to the Chinese park for 5 years.....good job Asia, holding my new favorite ride hostage. It's essentially their Haunted Mansion, minus the ghosts. There's an art collector Lord Henry and his friend and pet monkey, Albert (love Albert). They have a shit ton of art in their mansion and have just discovered a new music box with magical powers that make inanimate objects come to life....and wouldn't you know, Albert opens said box. The technology for this ride was amazing. Both Aaron and I loved it and went on it again at the end of the day. The wait was less than 10 minutes both times.

 Fantasyland was small, but all the lines were here. I guess HK Disney is more for toddlers. Minnie was on Dumbo. I have never seen the characters ride the rides. How special. I heard some girl call out "Millie" so I guess Minnie has a different name in different parts of the world. We saw the Golden Mickeys show and Mickey was called "Mike-ay". We also got to hear the Fab 5 all in Chinese.

 How fun that I caught the janitor drummers. I thought they stopped doing these. We also checked out Space Mountain  and once again, there was no line! Went on it twice in a row and man, it's so good! We then left (after 5 hours) for Kowloon to check out some night markets, searching for a cable that Aaron left at home. No luck. Then it was off to Lan Kwai where we walked around, and finally decided on soup dumplings for dinner. My favorite part was the red bean paste baos.

 We took the ding dings to Happy Valley Horse Race Track and Aaron got a frozen kirin beer. I thought it was taste good, but he was unhappy with it (though he could've fooled me as he finished it all). We stayed for 2 races.

 The first race, my horse didn't even get in the top 4! Shameful!

The second race however, I won the quinella place! I bet 20 HK and won 91! Yeah me! (To be fair, Aaron helped pick my numbers, so go him!)

Luck be a lady...in Macau

We bought ferry tickets(I love how other countries use ferries) for Macau this morning! It's only an hour away from Hong Kong. The seas were very nice to my belly. Upon arriving, we set out to find the ruins via the free shuttles to the casinos. Thank you MGM Grand.

The Wynn here has the fountain show as there is no Bellagio. I was underwhelmed though. 

 The architecture here is strange. The Lisboa is definitely the most memorable and easiest to spot from far away, but is much prettier at night (damn I didn't get a shot)

 We went looking for some history before gambling. The church we found was very modest though everything here was interesting looking, being inspired by both asian and Portuguese influences.

 Aaron got some crazy curry hot pot lunch. He picked some skewers and was charged based on how many he picked. They were then dumped into water, then soaked in broth, and then covered in spicy curry.

 Here they are making his lunch. It was a very busy stand. The pin wheel fishcakes looked so cute.

 He looks so happy. He was also very grateful that I just sat next to him while he ate. I wasn't really hungry and this is so not my thing....

 I did however, get a small turkish ice cream. It's stickier than our ice cream and the consistency is way more gooey. Yum! The vendor would put it on the cone with a large metal stick, almost like a crow bar. He'd then hand the cone to the customer by sticking it to the stick, then flipping it upside down like a "too slow joe" move. Very cute.

 We found the ruins and they were very cool. We saw dragons and skeletons etched on the facade. Sad that the church burned down, but very nice that the ground is still considered holy.

We also stopped into the Macau museum. I was most impressed by the vintage paper products like this firecracker factory ad. It's from the 1930's and I LOVE her hairstyle. Obsessed!

 Love these 1930's match boxes as well. I especially love that Aaron found them for me. He knows what I like.

 We were then full of history, so we knew it was time for gambling! Yeah! We walked back towards the casinos, and Aaron tried some of the local jerky. It's a little insane here.

I found the craziest slot in the Lisboa casino. Raging Eruption (insert your own joke here). I made double my money first time around. Then I came back later and tripled my new money. I even hit the top jackpot on the bonus. I had gotten a crowd and some chinese man told me that I was very lucky. How nice. 

 I was pretty stoked. Can you imagine if I had been using US Dollars?! I must find this machine in Vegas!

With my winnings, I earned enough that it covered my entire dinner at the expensive buffet. And this was the craziest, tastiest buffet ever. They had live prawns that you could have cooked right then and there. And dim sum. And Indian food. And a cotton candy machine. And a crepe station. OMG the list goes on.

Here's Aaron with his fresh cooked prawns. 

 And me with my fresh made cotton candy. They also had a chocolate fountain. I'm usually not a lover of the chocolate fountain because they are commonly found at weddings and surrounded by flower girls and ring bearers around the age where they can grab and lick fingers, but not use napkins. I didn't see any kids here, so I figured I was safe.

Here's the prawn case. This buffet is no joke.