Grinder backpacking Asia

As I have mentioned in the Chip of the Day thread I am headed to Asia for about 4 weeks. I will be visiting Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Other than Macau I don't plan on playing poker as the availability of games isn't great and I am going for leisure not work. I will be collecting new chips at 2 casinos in Singapore and 1 in Kuala Lumpur (well a hour outside of it) and obviously in Macau. I am not sure what level of interest there will be in my travels but I figure I will write it and let you all decide whether you want to read it or not.

My journey to Asia is not a good one as I chose to have the much shorter return flight in exchange for a terrible group of flights there. In about 2.5 hours I will fly from Winnipeg, MB to Calgary, AB where I will have a 8 hour layover. Then I fly to Vancouver, BC for a 6 hour layover before crossing the ocean to Hong Kong. My flight on the way back is much easier. I fly from Hong Kong to Vancouver, have a 90 minute layover and then fly home to Winnipeg.

Well I am off to the airport, wish me luck!

Enjoy, shocked you aren't going to pay any poker. Especially in macau

"Other than Macau I don't plan on playing poker". That sounds like he's playing.

Interested to hear about the games there. I've heard that the games are so good that they encourage everyone to post that they're not good so that they will remain good. I recently read a post where a guy was playing the equivalent of US $6/$12 and said it was easier than a $1/$2 NLHE game here in the states...

Good luck, Don't drink the water, don't run afoul of local customs, don't drink the diesel fuel they mix with their local drinks. We did that in the Depression and it put a quarter of a million people in mental hospitals. Beware hotels that spray outdoor insecticides indoors even if its not sprayed in your room.

Good Luck PG! I am looking forward to reading about your adventure. I understand there is an "admission" charge to keep the locals in check, but I don't know if foreigners are free. There's a "Gotham City" themed resort somewhere over there too.

Do you speak any Portuguese?

have a good time.

If I ever went to Hong Kong I would try to get here

http://www.hkjc.com/home/english/index.asp

and I do not even bet the runners.
did you bring your beathing masks?


http://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news.php?id=178293

Have a safe trip

Good Luck..look forward to hearing all about the experiences.

P.S....don't eat the chicken nuggets.

Definitely interested in a detailed blog as often as you can, PG. Travel safe.

Sounds like a great time.

As four Macau, I think I heard that the rake is crippling except at the high limits, but I'll look forward to your report.

Ok so after a delay leaving home cause of snow we got to Calgary and I have a 6 hour layover here. I will try and get a couple hours sleep but I doubt it will happen.

BTLWI I have heard the exact same things about the games. I'm hoping they are good and the rake isn't too crazy, although I do plan on crying a little when they tell me what they rake.

Aye the Gotham casino is in Macau and no they don't charge tourists to gamble in Asia only locals in some places. As for Portugese I speak absolutely none. I speak Hebrew though, do you think that will help?!? 😅

Coilman I am not one for the ponies so I won't be visiting the jockey club.

Thanks MaxPen and I promise I wasn't lying when I said I would never eat a McNugget again.

Thank you everyone for the well wishes. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all.

I'd be interested in your take on the local cuisine over there; how much does it in fact differ from what we get in Chinese restaurants on this side of the ocean?

Any pics would be a bonus.

Have fun.

Quote: MrV

I'd be interested in your take on the local cuisine over there; how much does it in fact differ from what we get in Chinese restaurants on this side of the ocean?

Any pics would be a bonus.

Have fun.

I will try and post pics as much as possible. As far as I know the food there is nothing like Americanized Chinese food that we get over here. I'd be disappointed if it were.

Plane is boarding to Vancouver now. I managed to get about 30 minutes of sleep on my layover because around 2:30 AM the fire alarm went off in the airport and wouldn't turn off. Therefore I am very tired, oh well.

Following and looking forward to your take on HK and gambling in Macau.

This sounds like quite the adventure! Should be a pretty amazing trip. While there are always going to be sharks, I feel like you could clean house over there ;-) so hopefully it's quite the profitable trip for you. Are you just taking the trip to see the world cheap, or is this possibly going to be part of your yearly income if the games are good enough to make good money at?

I wish you safe travels and a grand, profitable, adventure!

Quote: PokerGrinder

I speak Hebrew though, do you think that will help?!? 😅

זה לא יכול להזיק
(according to Google translate, that should be, "It can't hurt"). Looking forward to hearing about the fun times, and seeing the new chips for the Chip of the Day thread.

from a buddys blog that has been traveling the world for a little more than 2 years when he was in China

...... The reason I’m in the lobby is because the wifi is not working in my room. It works in the lobby but neither of two VPN services that I have access to are actually working, hence I cannot access my blog, WordPress (the site that hosts my blog), Smugmug (the site where I post and archive my photos), Facebook or any site a Westernere might want to use. I can’t even look up the chart of the North Anerica Cup as even standardbredcanada.ca is blocked in China! I can access Baidu and a live auction site though.

https://100saturdays.com/2015/06/23/trip-notes-for-june-22/

BTW here is his how his FIRST Saturday on his amazing trip started.... In Winnipeg

https://100saturdays.com/2014/07/05/saturday-1-20140705-winnipeg-manitoba/

I didn't post last night when I got to Hong Kong because I was so tired from the journey. I am heading to Victoria Peak with 3 guys I met at the hostel from Aceh, Indonesia. I will post pictures and a little bit about my adventures trying to find the hostel yesterday when I get back tonight.

It's 6 pm Wednesday in Las Vegas. What time is it in Hong Kong?

Looking forward to the pictures and write up. Here's a picture from the internet, apparently there is a tram that you can ride:

Happy trails PG. Please keep us posted from the road. Especially if you seen any new and interesting games.

BTW, I've been on that tram on the picture above. However, it was cloudy the day I rode so no good pictures from me.

Make sure to sit on the right side for best views. You can take the bus back down to save some money and time waiting in line.

Aye Las Vegas is 16 hours behind Hong Kong. It is currently 5:21 PM on Thursday while it is 1:21 AM on Thursday in Las Vegas.

I actually took that tram about 5 hours ago. It takes you to The Peak which is what they call the top of Hong Kong. I think it's called Victoria Peak.

Wiz thanks for the well wishes. I will let you know if I see anything new. It was decently clear today so we had a nice view. I found it difficult to take pictures because of all the trees.

Konbu sadly I didn't get the window seat either time so I could see everything very well but the pictures weren't great. I didn't know you could take the bus down. We bought a two way ticket when we went.

Yesterday my plane landed in Hong Kong. I was tired and starving but determined to find my way to the hostel without a taxi.
This is on descent.


I bought an Octopus card which you load with money and you can pay for subway rides and food with it. With help from workers at the airport I figured out which the trains I needed and got to the Mong Kok station without issue. There was a sushi to go place with a beautiful display and so I grabbed some sushi. It only cost $28 HKD.

Next up was finding the hostel. This proved to be very difficult.
This was what I saw when leaving the subway station. Very cool.


So I haven't slept in almost two days, I'm carrying my backpacking backpack and my regular backpack and it's quite warm out. The hostel is supposed to be a 3 minute walk from the station. Well... I walked around for a hour before I found a McDonalds. I used the wifi and google maps got me to the hostel. I was so happy to finally be able to sleep.

I slept for two hours before being woken up by three roommates. They were coming back with soups and whatnot for dinner and tried to make have some but I declined as I had just ate. They are very kind and I actually spent the whole day with them today. They are Indonesian. One of them speaks decent English but we still use google translate a lot. One speaks very little English but can still communicate a touch. The third one speaks no English at all so we have yet to talk at all. He seems mildly afraid of me lol.

We are headed out soon to watch the symphony of lights so I will post about today later tonight.

I definitely do not have the courage to travel the world by myself. I also could never stay in a hostel. Good luck out there, don't become an international incident.

So you were starving and happened across a McDonald's, huh? How were the nuggets out there?? =)

Glad to hear you got in safe and sound. Rest up and enjoy the adventure that is your trip! IF you wanted to post some pics, I'd love to see the adventure, but this is a once in a lifetime experience so make sure YOU are enjoying yourself! Definitely at least post at the end of the night on any gambling action though =D.

60-70F for HK in January is very good weather. Can see why it's "hot" for someone from Winnipeg!

It will be upper 80s to 90s with 100% humidity in the summer.

Also, for offline map I highly recommend MAPS.ME, you can bookmark stuff beforehand.

On my way to Managua now, but too lazy to open a thread like you!

Quote: Romes

So you were starving and happened across a McDonald's, huh? How were the nuggets out there?

Hong Konk McDonalds' serve whole pieces of fried chicken. Hong Kong people wouldn't buy those wads of chicken pulp.

Quote: JimRockford

Hong Konk McDonalds' serve whole pieces of fried chicken. Hong Kong people wouldn't buy those wads of chicken pulp.

You're missing the apparently too inside joke about PG doing the nugget challenge and claiming he'd never eat another nugget again... (which was even referenced earlier in THIS thread).

Quote: Romes

You're missing the apparently too inside joke about PG doing the nugget challenge and claiming he'd never eat another nugget again... (which was even referenced earlier in THIS thread).

Lol no way in hell I'm eating American food on this trip at least not American fast food. I had already eaten the sushi before finding McD's. I just know that no matter where you are in the world they have free wifi. As far as the nuggets. They still sell them, I saw them on the window but they also sell what I think they call drunmies which are fried mini drumsticks. Looked decent actually. Speaking of all this food I am going hunting for breakfast (7am) because the Indonesian guys I'm hanging with don't eat until like 2 pm and I am not going 17 hours between meals again today. I thought I was going to do die on Victoria Peak yesterday.

sushi in HK

wut

I was going to link the youtube video of the Hangover 2 scene at the strip club, but it contained some NSFW stuff. Basically avoid that.

Quote: djatc

sushi in HK

wut

I was going to link the youtube video of the Hangover 2 scene at the strip club, but it contained some NSFW stuff. Basically avoid that.

It was the first food I found and I sooooo hungry.

I think I will definitely avoid the lady boys.

Yesterday started out with me tagging along with my three dorm mates from Indonesia. We went to Victoria Peak. We took the subway to Admirality station, walked around outside for 15 minutes before we found the signs directing is to the Peak Tram. We got there, paid our $88 (return) HKD and waited for the train.

The train came and it was a beautiful old train with wooden seats. We boarded and it started going up an extremely steep hill which kept getting more steep the higher we went.

As we were going up all the buildings looked like they were slanted instead of us.

We got to the top and took a bunch of pictures from the various rooftops of the malls that are there.
From left to right: Rizke, Iman, Kamal and your truly.

Another one of Iman and myself.

This one is from the other side where you can see Hong Kong. Kamal and I.


After we took the Tram down which went very fast backwards, we took the subway to the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade. We took pictures of the skyline and lights of the buildings. We didn't stay too long as we were coming back later that night for the symphony of lights.
This huge amazing clock tower.

Me with the clock tower.


We went back for the show at night. The show was very underwhelming and I would much prefer the Bellagio fountains any day of the week. It had music and some lights, nothing spectacular.
Clock tower at night.

Building lit up.

Group photo. Left to right: Iman, me, Kamal and Rizke.

Don't worry I didn't fall in.

This building kept on changing the lights on it. Sometimes it showed the time, or happy new year or even dancing cartoons. I loved watching it.


Well that was my day yesterday. I'm going to take a nap before embarking on a night of fun.

Today has been less adventure and more food adventure. My new friends from Indonesia wanted to leave the hostel at 9 am today so I decided to get breakfast before we leave so I don't starve like yesterday. (Btw I was ready at nine, they weren't ready until 10:30, works for me I got to go on the Internet)

So I got dressed headed down and turns out that most of Mong Kok is closed at 7 am. I walked a couple blocks and found a restaurant. I walked in and asked for a table for 1, they sat me with an older gentlemen which I learned through breakfast is normal. They gave me a menu which I obviously had no understanding of. I went to the counter and tried to order the same thing as the guy had at my table which was beef and some ramen looking noodles. The lady and I pointed at pictures on the menu until I thought I had ordered the soup and a ham and egg sandwich (sandwich comes with the soup). I was wrong! My food arrives and first is a tuna sandwich, ok I can eat that lol. Next is a bowl of saucy beef with maccaroni noodles in soup, again not what I ordered but it tasted good.



Oh so maybe Konbu can help me with this one. I ordered water (although the lady insisted I have tea or coffee, multiple times and then came to my table and again tried to get me one of those). The lady brings me a small cup of hot water that has a lemon zest to it. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to drink it or wash my hands or what really. The lady that took the seat across from me after the older guy left dipped her fork in it but never drank it so... I have no clue. I took a couple sips and then just ate and bought a bottle of water on my way back to the hostel. I'm thinking they were thinking "silly white guy".

We then went to the Garden of Stars which has some hand impressions and statues of famous actors maybe??? I'm not sure since the only name I recognized was the Bruce Lee statue. I did find one statue which amused me cause it seemed so out of place but it was cute so I took a picture for my friend Magda cause she likes pigs.


I have been to Disney World 4 times so I had no interest in going here but the guys wanted to go and take pictures. I tried explaining to them that they wouldn't be able to go inside so they were going to take a hour long subway ride to take a picture of the front gate. The language barrier won and they went while I chose to go back to Mong Kok.

I left the subway station and started walking through a flea market looking thing near my hostel. I walked for about 20 minutes while looking at the tiny "restaurants" on the side of the market trying to decide where to get food. I came across this noodle place that smelled good.
When I say "hole in the wall" I'm not kidding.

I walked up and they didn't speak English. Then I asked for a menu and they again didn't know how to help me. I then pointed to whatever they were currently cooking in the wok and motioned to myself saying can I have that. This cook nodded yes and said $32 to which I said sure (no clue what I ordered). I gave him $102 and he said no worries (obv no English) only $30 so for some reason I got a $2 white person discount. A man came and picked up the food that I pointed to and then they started making mine. They packaged it up and I went to the hostel. I stopped at the street meat place cause I thought I just got noodles. So I chowed down and it was all very good. The noodles were thin noodles with some brown odd meat in it. The meat was fine but I wouldn't go out of my way to have it again. There were also a few onions and a lot of these soft white almost tasteless vegetables that I couldn't identify. I ate everything I bought like a pig and I am still curently full. I took a nap for a few hours until the guys came back.



My friend Eric gets here from Cambodia in about a hour (he messed up his flight, was supposed to be here yesterday) so I'm not sure what he wants to do tonight. Thinking about just walking around Mong Kok and taking it easy tonight.

１　Your breakfast came as a package. It depends on the package. Yours was a small sandwich, meat and mac in soup and a drink. Coffee or tea. Upgrade to a cold drink will cost u 2-5 dollars more. That cup of water or tea is always free. It is standard. In Hong Kong, they do not server finger bowl.
2 The meat looked like beef brisket. Tasteless white vegetable looked like turnip. Next time order Cantonese chow mein( Mixed meat and vegetable on noodle). That is your safe bet.
Use google translate, your life would be much easier.
The other picture were beef balls and sausage.

At last, dont worry, u can order any meat because in Hong Kong, they dont eat cat or dog anymore.

Grinder, u teach me how to play poker and I will show u around.

This thread is great.

Grinder only going to 65*F in Hong Kong today...... shorts weather for sure.

I had to look at the weather today back home for you...... MINUS 47*F windchill

Good timing for your trip for sure....keep the story/photos coming

https://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/mb-38_metric_e.html?unit=imperial

Quote: speedycrap

１　Your breakfast came as a package. It depends on the package. Yours was a small sandwich, meat and mac in soup and a drink. Coffee or tea. Upgrade to a cold drink will cost u 2-5 dollars more. That cup of water or tea is always free. It is standard. In Hong Kong, they do not server finger bowl.
2 The meat looked like beef brisket. Tasteless white vegetable looked like turnip. Next time order Cantonese chow mein( Mixed meat and vegetable on noodle). That is your safe bet.
Use google translate, your life would be much easier.
The other picture were beef balls and sausage.

At last, don't worry, u can order any meat because in Hong Kong, they dont eat cat or dog anymore.

The coffee/tea was actually $3 more, it said on the menu. As far as the soup and sandwich I know it was a conbo I just didn't get the correct combo lol.

I enjoyed the weird noodle dish I had I just didn't know what it was. I can only use google translate with wifi and I had none. I'm never worried what I am eating, I'll eat anything if it tastes good.

Thank you Mr.V, I'm glad you like it.

Coilman shorts and tshirt indeed. It is crazy cold back home. That's why I go out of town for long stretches very winter.

I am enjoying your blog PG! A couple of questions come to mind:

HK was a British colony until what, 1999? So is the number of English speakers in the population falling?

Does the hostel provide a safety deposit box for you to secure your valuables?

Do you feel secure walking around by yourself, or are there sketchy characters lurking about?

I enjoyed the contrast of your picture of the train ride with the "postcard". Sort of a reality check.

Keep em coming!

Also, just a reminder to me: 1 HKD = 0.13 USD

Quote: PokerGrinder

...We then went to the Garden of Stars which has some hand impressions and statues of famous actors maybe??? I'm not sure since the only name I recognized was the Bruce Lee statue. I did find one statue which amused me cause it seemed so out of place but it was cute so I took a picture for my friend Magda cause she likes pigs.

The pig's name is "McDull" Apparently, the "pea-brained" but earnest character is very popular with the children.

I think "Hello Kitty" would have the pig for lunch.

The white things are definitely daikon radish. HK tap water is safe to drink, but the older generation is used to boiling water to disinfect it. There are still a lot of homes where they'll boil the water, let it cool, pour into a jar then place in the fridge for cold/iced water. It's not customary to serve tap water. You can drink the cup of hot tea if you're really thirsty, otherwise many people will dunk their spoon and chops to "wash off the detergent residue" Like speedycrap said, set meals usually comes with a hot drink, such as milk tea, coffee, or half milk tea/half coffee called "ying yang". To give it a try you might like it.

Hong Kong is pretty safe to walk most anywhere I'd say. I see more sketchy places here in Managua.

Check Michelin 1 star restaurants. They are local,good and usually cheap(affordable).

Aye I think it was until 1997, it was FOR 99 years if I'm remembering correctly. Just me personally I have noticed a lack of English in markets and food places. Subways and the airport are fine though.

The hostel has lockers but I haven't used them. I have a money belt which I have on me 24/7 and other than that I am not traveling with anything worth anything. I brought my iPhone but no laptop or tablet.

I am always aware of my surroundings no matter where I travel to but no I wouldn't say I feel more unsafe here than let's say when I go to grind in Mississippi.

Ya I keep having to say to myself as I buy things $1HKD=$0.18 CAD

The pix was cute, very photogenic too 😜

Thanks Konbu. I'm headed back to that place for breakfast so I will get tea and see if it's included. I assume you are right.

I looked up Michelin star restaurants and I can't decipher which ones are cheap vs expensive. Might look more into it later.

My buddy Eric eventually got to the hostel around 10:00 last night and we headed out for a bit. We walked and grabbed a beer and some meet on sticks. Nice relaxing night. Headed to the harbour after breakfast this morning.

We started the day by walking about 25 minutes to Mido Cafe that Eric wanted to go to. They apparently have amazing Hong Kong French toast and the Cafe has been used in many movies. We got there and both ordered crab and white sauce omelettes and shared the French toast. The omelette was good but had way too many onions in it and the French toast might have been the best I've ever had. It was very buttery and had a syrup that wasn't maple that was amazing.





Right across the street from the cafe was the Tin Hau Temple so we walked over and went inside for a bit. The temple was very neat and had many people praying and lighting incense. Outside of the temple was a courtyard with beatutiful old trees.





We took the subway to Central station and started walking towards the harbour. We ended up at IFC mall so that Eric could find wifi to book his flight back to Canada. I walked around the mall a bit. All the stores were high end brands, definitely an extremely expensive mall.

We then walked to SoHo and walked through a food market. I couldn't believe how expensive fruit was but I'm assuming it's because it's not grown here. We eventually ended up at the worlds largest outdoor covered escalator. We decided to ride it all the way to the top and couldn't believe how long it went. Took us 20 minutes to reach the top it seemed.


This is a picture I took on our walk down. Yes sadly the escalators only take you up, you have to use manpower to get down.


As we were walking around I kept referring to us as gwei lo and Eric asked me what that was. So I explained it's like a white ghost or in reference to a white person. I only knew this from the movie Balls of Fury where he calls the main character gwei lo the whole time. We then looked for a place to stop and have a drink and a bite to eat cause our legs were killing us from walking for hours, a lot of it uphill. We found a place called the Phoenix. Wouldn't you know I look at the beer menu and find this.

I laughed pretty hard and had to order it. It wasn't the greatest beer but it still hit the spot.

We headed back and napped for a few hours. When we woke up we headed for the market to haggle with some merchants for stuff we didn't need. Eric bought a beautiful painting on a canvas but IMO didn't haggle the price down far enough. I got a new phone case cause mine broke and I was happy with getting it for about 1/2 the original price even though the case probably cost the seller about $5HKD lol.

We then headed to this sushi place in the market that I found days earlier and had amazing sushi. We then headed back and said goodbye to our Indonesian friends who were checking out to go home via Kuala Lumpur.

Yes that French toast looks so sinful but it must have been so tasty...

As for fruits you were IN the city so even the local food market has quite a markup. If you were in Kowloon or New territories prices should be lower. I find a lot of tropical fruits that I can't find in the States and at lower prices.

I was referring more to strawberries and fruits we find locally in NA. They wanted $110 for ten strawberries.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Lol no way in hell I'm eating American food on this trip at least not American fast food. I had already eaten the sushi before finding McD's. I just know that no matter where you are in the world they have free wifi. As far as the nuggets. They still sell them, I saw them on the window but they also sell what I think they call drunmies which are fried mini drumsticks. Looked decent actually. Speaking of all this food I am going hunting for breakfast (7am) because the Indonesian guys I'm hanging with don't eat until like 2 pm and I am not going 17 hours between meals again today. I thought I was going to do die on Victoria Peak yesterday.

I would definitely eat at Mcd on a trip like this at least once, just to experience their version.

Quote: PokerGrinder

The coffee/tea was actually $3 more, it said on the menu. As far as the soup and sandwich I know it was a conbo I just didn't get the correct combo lol.

I enjoyed the weird noodle dish I had I just didn't know what it was. I can only use google translate with wifi and I had none. I'm never worried what I am eating, I'll eat anything if it tastes good.

Thank you Mr.V, I'm glad you like it.

Coilman shorts and tshirt indeed. It is crazy cold back home. That's why I go out of town for long stretches very winter.

you should have purchased one of those translater things that are self containing instead of needing internet. Is their an app you can get that would work, I would think there should be.

GWAE I actually looked at the menu to see if it was the same and it is exactly the same except they also have the drunmies on the menu. Otherwise it's normal. When I was in Israel the McDonald's was much different since they don't mix milk and meat or have any pork. It was a lot of fish on the menu.

As far as the translator I actually enjoy the not knowing what you're ordering, it's part of the fun.

Sounds like a great adventure. I've spent a lot of time in Hong Kong and other Asian cities on business, but it was mostly long days of work.

One tip. Get the address of the place you are staying written in the local language. Hotels often have cards at the front desk. If your hostel doesn't have one, get a local to write it for you. Carry it with you when you're out and you can always get back to your bed by showing it to a cab driver. It always seems taxi drivers are the least likely to speak English. Have fun and keep the posts coming.