Little Cirque du Soleil stop-over in Macau

---

My last visit to Macau was a great week-end back in December 2002...long time a go, a week-end spent eating, partying
and playing golf.

This visit was a little different....as you don't party the same way when you are travelling with an 8 years old kid!

We had two main goals for these 30 hours in Macau...Cirque du Soleil and Fernando's! Both done, with great fun.

First, the new direct flight from Saigon with Viva Macau, the local low-cost. Had no idea what to expect...ended up
with an old 767, empty, but not bad...I was just worry that the airline could go bankrupt before our flight was due!
So safe on this one! We dropped the luggage at the Westin Coloane before heading for lunch. I've been here before,
but only to play golf...

And we made our way to our first stop...Fernando's...if you have been to Macau and don't know about it, you've miss
a lot of the fun. It's a little (not so little) portuguese restaurant, not far away from the Westin, tuck on the beach.
They don't take bookings, neither credit card...you show up and you wait. Oh, and while you wait, you order your first
jug of sangria...let me tell you, I never walked out of here completely sober...

So you wait one hour, at the bar, and this is if you are lucky, as it was Sunday lunch time! Let say we waited just
enough to have our first full jug of sangria...empty! By that time Leslie was not very happy of the wait, but he did
cope with it.

Once seated, we order our second jug...this time a half one...I'm not really sure if it's half of a liter...or half of
something bigger! To this you had up a plate of sardines, a plate of grilled chorizos and olives, and a plate of
grilled chicken and fries...and yes, I enjoyed the smile of Leslie enjoying his first sardines!

We made it back "nearly" on time to the hotel to catch the shuttle to the Venetian. Next goal, find the box office
of the Cirque du Soleil to get our pre-booked tickets. Woaw...the Venitian...I prefer the one in Las Vegas...this
one is massive, and not easy to get your way around...but we made it.

And at 7pm (after a little round of shopping)...it was time for Zaia, the latest edition of Cirque du Soleil. First one
for Ma'ri, third on for Leslie, and my ninth show from Cirque du Soleil!

This one was really amazing. Great music, a truly dream/airspace feeling...a lot of flying comedians, loved it! I
haven't read the critics yet, but they've done a great job! And Leslie and Ma'ri truly enjoyed! Our next show should
be early summer 2009!

We made it back for a great...and needed sleep at the Westin, ready for another long day.

Monday...which is today, was the opportunity to visit the Old Macau. At least this part of town hasn't change much.
I love Las Vegas, because it's a fun theme park put in the middle of nowhere...not sure I appreciate what they did of
Macau the last 5 years! But we reached our goal, we had a great lunch at Fernando's and an amazing show.

Tonight I'm meeting with Sarah and Mike, my first travelblog Christmas drink...should be fun as we've been to so
many of the same places in the world the last few months, and fun to see that they live in Europe, me in Shanghai,
and we'll finally meet in Hong Kong. So I may just put a small post on this...before next post...just be patient,
going to be fun...as usual!

---