Macau and Salsa in HK

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On Wednesday, took a short trip to Macau, another SAR (Special Administrative Region) of the PRC (Peoples Republic of China). There's a turbojetting passenger ferry that goes from Shun Tak Center on Hong Kong Island to Macau and costs about $20US each way. The weather was looking pretty dismal and the water seemed very choppy as the TurboJet we were about to board rocked a little more vigorously back and forth than I would have liked. The TurboJets are like airplanes on water. Big, comfortable, and fast and even in the face of some rather big waves, the TurboJet cut through the waves like butter. My brothers and I had all taken a dose of Dramamine beforehand but the precaution was largely unnecessary. When we arrived to Macau, the storm was a little more forgiving.

Macau is a port town that was settled and governed by the Portuguese for centuries. There's Euro influence in the architecture and layout. I really dug the yellow and black Portuguese pavement which had a wavey pattern up and down the streets and looked slick in the rain. The street names are in Portuguese. The Largo do Senado area is like walking through a slice of Europe. The signs in the airport, in the city, everywhere are in Mandarin and Portuguese. Macau is nice to walk around and check out the buildings. It's a shame it was raining because I would have liked to see more of the sights. You can get Portuguese food here and you can see some of the Portuguese influences in the cuisine. My brothers and I bought some pastries from a bakeshop and tasted the best egg tart I've ever had in the world. Other than that, there's lots of gambling casinos and ritzy shops. Apparently there's an underwater casino being built. Macau feels like Las Vegas except the buildings aren't fake imitations. They're the real thing. And the cool little extra you get is a Macau stamp on your passport! One tip for visitors to Macau from Hong Kong. They'll take only HK bills. Coins are a no-no. The Macau Pataca is not equivalent to the HK dollar. The coins look the same, but you can't use HK dollar coins in Macau and you can't use Macau Pataca in HK. I've got a handful of pataca I will probably won't use again.

When we got back to Hong Kong, I was pretty determined to go salsa dancing and drag my brothers along. On Thursday nights, it's supposed to be happening at the 1/5 Lounge on Star Street in Wanchai (http://www.dancechic.com/Default.aspx?tabid=93). With my shoe bag and credit card in hand we took the MTR back to the island and found 1/5 club. As soon as I heard the music, I got the the giddy feeling and ran up the stairs to the club. My brothers followed and I since I knew this was going to be a bit of a torture for them, I handed the server my credit card and told them to feel free and order on my open tab. I NEEDED MY SALSA FIX! It took me a while to get up the courage to ask someone to dance. Everyone seemed to be dancing on1 as well. This guy with glasses seemed like he knew what he was doing and he seemed to be dancing on2 every once in a while, but it was hard to pin him down. I asked an older guy to dance who looked pretty confident on the floor and had been dancing with quite a bit of the girls only to realize that his lead was of the "I'll-rip-your-arm-out-of-its-socket" kind. One guy I asked declined to dance with me because he said, "I should really dance with the girl I came with." No problem. My brothers were glassy-eyed and bored staring out at the crowd so I decided to finally ask the guy with glasses to dance. It was the best dance I had that night, I even saw the dude with the date who declined me watching us... yah, he didn't realize what he turned down.

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