Macau

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Hi Everyone,

Lots has happened since my last entry. This trip has been a whirlwind so far. Hopefully I form a fairly coherent story of what's gone down.

On December 30th we took the ferry from Hong Kong over to Macau. While Hong Kong is a former British colony, Macau is a former Portugese colony, and it's where Sheena's Mom grew up. It's also becoming the Las Vegas of Asia.

We took the ferry with Sheena's brother and sister - both of whom threw up on the trip. Gross. Strangely enough, we had to go through customs to go from Hong Kong to Macau - I guess they're still pretty separate territories, despite both being part of China now.

From there we decided to go across another border into mainland China for some factory direct shopping. Which meant another trip through customs, and that we visited 3 different countries in one day. The shopping in China was literally right outside the door of the customs agency and was ENORMOUS. There was a bunch of cheap knockoff crap everywhere, but a few of the stores had somewhat authentic stuff. Sheena's step Dad Jeff ended up buying 8 suits (supposedly brand name) for $60 each. Then we bought some watches and other assorted stuff for cheap. It was fairly entertaining - Sheena's Mom wove an intricate story about how she was a tour guide to diplomats (me and Jeff presumably) just for haggling the price down a few bucks.

After the China trip we went to our resort in Macau. And yeah, the strip in Macau is really close to what Las Vegas looks like. It's got the same over the top huge hotels with giant casinos. Pretty cool really. We took a trip to the biggest one - the Venetian, and it didn't disappoint. They have an entire canal system inside the hotel with the gondola rides, little bridges, and everything. Not to mention super expensive stores for all the big brand names.

On the 31st we went down to the old Portuguese center of Macau which is now pretty much hidden behind all the apartment buildings and huge hotels. It was pretty weird actually, driving down the streets which look like Hong Kong, and then suddenly it seems like you're in Europe. There was an old cathedral, a fort, and a plaza which was pretty neat. It's kind of a shame that this part of Macau is now totally buried by the new part.

We had traditional Macanese food for dinner with Sheena's famous Aunt Maria. It was pretty tasty, and it got paid for by some random person who wanted to be Maria's friend. According to Sheena that sort of thing happens a lot around her. Being famous has it's perks! Damn, we should have ordered the expensive wine!

New Years eve was definitely a new experience too. We were going to a show being put on by Maria. It was a show for the diplomats of Macau and we got some back stage passes. It was a pretty small little show, but when we arrived we were put in the back room where we got to watch some rehearsals and stuff, then we were taken back around the stage to the front row. The show started off with an embarrassingly bad magician and we all had a lot of fun making fun. Every trick you could watch him pull stuff out of his pockets before it 'magically' appeared. Even Saffren (8 years old) thought the magician sucked. Good fun.

Maria then came out and it was excellent. She is a really good singer, and definitely knows how to work a crowd. She sang about 4 songs, then did the new years eve countdown. After new years she sang another couple of songs and started to get her family on the stage. This included me. My most absurd moment, sitting in the middle of this stage (at least a head above everyone) on the new years eve broadcast of the new years eve broadcast on Macau TV. Sweet! I'll see if I can pull up a video of that. It should be ridiculous but excellent.

But the best part of the night was still to come. We all got to be essentially Maria's entourage from the show. Which meant bypassing all the usual lines for customs, and getting her helpers to drive us around everywhere. Oh and lots of scotch whiskey appeared for drinking. Mmmm scotch. We were headed back to the Hong Kong ferry and so were supposed to go through customs again (huge line), but nope we were whisked off to the front of the line. Some lady was really upset at Sheena and us when we cut in. I'm sure she was there for an hour or so. She said something like "you HAVE to go to the back of the line," sheena said "no I don't," the lady said "oh yes you do!" Then the customs guy came and waved us all through. I think steam came out of that lady's ears. It was great fun. Oh, and on the ferry we got bumped up to first class, of course. We got home at about 4:30 in the morning and crashed. I could get used to that kind of treatment.

Hope all is well back home. Happy New Year everyone!

Ryan

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Comments

[Michael]

Heh heh
Sounds like a great time. Nice abuse of the system!