I feel like Hong Kong and Macau were the perfect destination to wet my appetite for travel into Asia. We got by on English okay, but struggled at some points. Rohan thinks they had a better grasp of it in Thailand. I think that just under a week in each city was enough to take it all in and I can definitely see myself returning in the future.

Now that I’m home, my focus is turning to buying a house in the next few months. Hopefully, my haggling experience in Hong Kong will come in handy in the negotiations. Owning real estate is said to be the Australian dream (and the American dream and I’m sure everywhere else’s dream). I’m not entirely sold on the whole notion, in fact it kind of makes me sick the length’s governments around the world will go to in order to sell ‘the dream’ and then artificially prop up housing prices through their policy making and the presence of a central bank. It is kind of laughable that everyone just goes into the housing market expecting their house to be worth more in 5 or 10 years time, of course prices are going to go up because the government is involved in creating inflation and the prices for everything go up. When you actually look at real estate in terms of something real and tangible like the gold, you can see that over time property appreciates only marginally. All that is for another blog though. I’ll be cautiously dipping my toe into waters of real estate investment, and diversifying myself in other areas at the same time.

At night we caught the train to the CBD and had dinner then checked out Lan Kwai Fong, the ‘premiere dining and entertainment destination’ in Hong Kong. It was absolutely packed being a Friday night. It is basically a collection of pubs and clubs and it was so popular people were out on the street drinking. There seemed to be a very high volume of westerners there, surprise surprise. We decided we’d return on Saturday night, got some ice cream and headed home.

Rohan wanted to eat dinner somewhere seedy, so we did and they had no idea about English so we just pointed at pictures on the wall. I couldn’t stomach mine, it was stewed beef but it didn’t taste like beef at all. They gave us what we thought was tea but then it turned out that it wasn’t hot and then we saw people washing their hands and putting their cutlery in it. I didn’t touch mine; I still have no idea what it was.

By far the highlight of our journey to Sham Shui Po was the computer arcade. It was multiple levels of computer shops all next to each other and the place was completely packed out. It was quite unbelievable how many people were buying computer gear, media players and video gaming stuff. If I was in the market for building a computer or anything electronic really I would have been in heaven. Things were about 40-50% cheaper when compared to back home I’d say.

The tram climbs a really steep gradient to the top of Victoria Peak, which is a great place to look out over the Hong Kong skyline. Unfortunately, we have barely seen the sun since we got here and today was no different with the haze. The view was still pretty good, but we really couldn’t see much past the first few blocks of Kowloon. It’d be great to go back there at night, especially if it is clear.

At night, we were about to head to the markets when Rohan realised that he was missing about HK$6,000 that he had stashed in his laptop bag. We decided we’d mount a search when we got back from the market. When we returned from shopping at about 11pm we couldn’t find it anywhere so he went and told hotel staff. They sent up two security guys to search our room, they went through our bins, looked under everything and through our bags and stuff. They found nothing went and proceeded to check the garbage and linen that had been removed from our room.

Nothing showed up, so Rohan went to the police station to report it. I’m not really sure what the police stuff achieved, from what I read our travel insurance doesn’t cover stolen cash if it isn’t on your person. He left at about 2am and was there until like 4am. Anyway, they have camera footage of housekeeping being in our room about 20 minutes before we got back from the peak and other than that nobody has been in here. It seems pretty clear where the money went, but there is probably no way to prove it since it is their word against ours. Thankfully, I was carrying most of my money on me and the rest was locked in the safe. Rohan has been giving me grief about being so security conscious; don’t think he will be anymore.

Anyway, we went back to the same markets as the first night and bought a lot more this time. We had dinner in a street restaurant where they were cooking the food outside. Rohan ordered some sea snails, I tried some and they didn’t really have a taste. On the way home we walked through the red light district and got some interesting offers to say the least.

Upon arriving in Hong Kong we stopped for lunch at the Ferry terminal and then headed straight to the hotel. It was probably the best meal I’ve had all trip and the cheapest. We are staying at the Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok, the area with the highest population density in the world. We have a pretty good view of Lanhgam Place shopping mall and train station.

We messed around online for a while and then decided to hit the gym. One of the reasons we chose this place was because of how awesome the fitness centre looked, with its epic skyline views. We weren’t disappointed and I’m sure it looks even better at night.

After the gym we gave the pool a look. The locker rooms are something quite extraordinary and over the top. There is a guy employed in there to meet your every need, a dedicated area to shave and style your hair with all the products available, showers, steam room, sauna, piping hot relaxation pool and I think the coolest thing was a mini dryer thing that extracts the water from your swimsuit. Needless to say, RaiderDuck totally owned the place strutting around in his robe.

The pool is on the rooftop and provides good all around views. It felt like a hot tub compared to the ice waters of Macau. We hung out there for a while; saw a couple having wedding photos taken poolside. We resisted the temptation to splash them.

After some dinner we caught a cab down to the Temple Street night markets. The merchandise was pretty much what you would expect, clothing, jewellery, accessories, electronics etc. They seemed to go on forever, at least four or five decent sized blocks. We were both surprised by how little you were hassled as you walked along. We ended up walking all the way back past where we are staying and to the Ladies Market. It was pretty much more of the same, but a lot closer to home.

I was impressed with how the poker rooms were run and the level of traffic they had given that it is not peak season. The live games here have actually been pretty weak/tight when compared with Vegas and back home. As you would expect there has been a lot of limping, but raises actually tend to get respect pre-flop and I’ve seen very little bluffing and aggression post-flop. Coming here I was expecting wild games with the locals living up to the crazy gamble stereotype. On average, one player at the table has been drinking and I think that has a lot to do with the tameness of the games. If there is one thing the poker rooms lack here it is a good cocktail service to keep the players well lubricated. They are actually downright stingy when it comes to drink service for poker players.

There wasn’t much to blog about the last few days, we have just been hitting the gym and pool and playing poker live and online. I ended up winning five figures (HKD) for the trip, RaiderDuck lost a few thousand and we were splitting our action. So, once again I run incredibly bad in that department (I ended up having to fork over a similar amount in Vegas last year). Maybe next time I’ll negotiate a deal a 50/25 deal with him because he is so bad at owning the souls of fish =p.

We ate some goose, which was strange, but a new experience. We tried some Macau Beer; it tasted kind of fruity, but loosened us up a bit. Once we got back to the poker room we’d missed our roll call so we had to go on the waiting list again. They had a very strange policy where drinks were free outside of the poker room, but once you start playing you had to pay. So we had 3 vodka and red bulls each while we waited and then they opened a new table.

We got seats next to each other for the first time on the trip and it was a lot of fun. When we sat down the guy to our left was a white guy wearing a suit, early twenties. We asked him if he was a POHM and he took offence. We knew he wasn’t American because they don’t know what a POHM is. So we concluded that he was an Aussie also and after like 20 minutes of guessing where he was from, we found out he was from Randwick in NSW. His name is James and he works in Macau as a horse trainer. We proceeded to shout him vodka and red bulls all night and talk crap.

Rohan and I got involved in some super sick hands against each other. Not that it matters because we are trading our action anyway. The first hand we played against each other I had JJ, raised on the button, he 3-bet out of the blinds. Flop was Txx, check check, I turn a jack, he checks and calls. River blanks and he check/folds showing QQ.

Second hand we are both in early position, I raise QQ, he 3bets, I call. Flop QJx, I check/called, turn blanked and went check/check, river was a king and I bet. He folded AK face up.

Meanwhile, we spot a guy across the room that looks a lot like poker pro Phil Laak. We talk about it for like 20 minutes, debating whether it is him or not. Eventually, I got up the courage to go over and talk to him. He was a top and very funny bloke. Earlier in the night we played against a guy calling himself Phish, he was with Phil, apparently he is over here researching the HK/Macau poker market because he is getting involved somehow. Anyway, Phil was playing the highest game in the room and just messing around. He was up for a chat. Rohan came over as well and he told us the story about the World Series of Poker where he dressed up as an old man and nobody knew. Apparently, he got the idea while he was high and watching Jackass.

We then asked up his High Stakes Poker hand vs. Antonius. He told us he shouldn’t have bet the river, because as soon as Patrick called the turn he knew he was calling the river. There was more to his story, but I don’t really remember it now.

How could we not ask about the J. Tilly hand where she checks behind on the river with a full house? He told us she has holes in her head sometimes (whatever that means). Like some poker concepts she grasped straight away, but sometimes she gets intimidated/lost.

For a while we went back and played at the table. We were getting in trouble for talking in English during hands? Whatever happened to English only at the table? We had some fun with some of the local players, calling them out for being pros and making them laugh. Rohan and I played another sick hand where I had Jh8h and flopped a straight flush draw, played it pretty slow on a paired board and made flush on river. Rohan led out river, other guy called and showed his hand, I had that beat so I called. Rohan had the queen high flush and won that one.

Not long after, I picked up Ad3d and limped behind a bunch. Flop can 385 two diamonds, Rohan donked couple of callers, I raised big. Rohan called, everyone else folded. Turn was an ace giving me two pair, Rohan check/raised all-in and I called. He showed 78 and I won. I played around to the blinds and we left. Between us we made a few thousand, don’t really know how. Funny story, the name of the last dealer we had was Moo!!! Also, coolering someone is now known as cruelering.

Rohan had been chatting to Phil while I was finishing, we talked some more crap with him and left. We are potentially going to play at his poker club in Hong Kong next Thursday. We left the casino and went to the supermarket and got batteries, weird drinks and ice cream. The ice cream was called ‘Cutie Moo’, we think it was named after Moo, our dealer.

Back in our hotel room we berated Australia for sucking at T20 cricket. The end.

The restaurant backed onto the poker room, we walked in expecting it to be buzzing at 9pm on a Friday night, but there was only one table running and one with two people sitting at it. We joined the short table as did a few others and a game got going.

The first couple of dealers were painfully slow, it was taking what felt like an eternity to play hands even though the table was still five and six handed. For the first few hours I mostly played position, I had one hand where I made the nut flush on river and won a decent pot heads up. Other than that I mostly just chipped away all night, never went to showdown.

Allowing smoking at the table is annoying the hell out of me, all my clothes stink and it is taking a lot of fun out of it. Towards the end it was all getting too much for me, it was making my eyes tired and affecting my interest in playing. I ended up winning about $2,000HKD at what ended up bring a pretty tight table. I don’t really remember any massive all-ins. Rohan managed to pick up AA vs KK and got that all-in pre-flop, but other than that there were no real coolers or big showdowns in the 3 or 4 hours we played.

I put in decent hand volume online this morning and afternoon, although not quite as much as I would like as I’m not quite used to playing on my laptop for extended periods.

The hotel gym is sweet, everything is very new and they have a designated personal trainer down there. Macau seems to love to employ people to perform meaningless tasks. I told the story yesterday of the restaurant having heaps of staff and us being the only ones there. Additionally, the poker room had heaps of staff dealers hanging around doing nothing.