Massage and Relax

---

You know the kind of traveling I would love to do? The kind where I decide. I decide when I'm moving onto the next place and when I'm not. So on a day like today when the weather is practically begging you to rest and relax, as is the town, you can actually obey it's command. When your body sas "I want to stay" you can. I remember my friend Annie MacDougalls parent were constantly doing that. I don't think I would want to do it if I had kids that were in school but if I did it now my body would be ready to settle down and be there for them once the time came. Or at least that's what I think. But it's hard to travel like that because normally jobs don't let you do that.

Fibered. That's the word on his shirt as he walks by me. "Entrada" it said as I entered the country. The surprise at seeing the two words is the same. For what does Fibered mean after all? And why was I suddenly seeing Spanish? They speak Portugese here, I remembered as I got my passport stamped "Macau: Portas de Cerco 5 May 2006" it now read. Relief fell on my shoulders as I walked to the bus stop. I had waited an hour and a half in two different lines marked "Lane for Foreigners" and filled with Chinese and their Visas before I had finally entered with some Indians and Lebanese people. Now I could get on the bus and see the island. I walked up the stairs and stared at the sign $2.50 exact change only. I had Chinese money and two American quarters from South Korea. I got off the bus and found myself some money at an ATM before I made my way back tot he bus.

I had no real agenda here. Just wanted to see what it was like. My friends talked about how they liked Macau so much but as I looked at the dirty buildings half falling down I didn't know why. Maybe it was what had been running through my mind earlier about how I liked to travel that made me get on the bus. I randomly got off and walked to a nice area "Jardin de San Francisco" it read with a wonderful love poem behind a tree. It was Portugese but I could read the majority of it. Finally! I thought, I can read! It was a huge eye opener and I noticed myself reading things I never would have before. "No smoking in the bus" "No talking to the bus driver" I understand it! The shock of this was big after constantly being surrounded by Chinese where I can pick out characters here and there, or Korean that I can't read at all.

Pigs in a blanket. Belgian waffle. Cheese roll. These are things I got from the bakery. There were many such bakeries all over the place. "Taipa" the bus said as it passed by. That's where I want to go! It took one hour to find the right bus and retrace my path to the entrance of Macau / Zhuhai before I was on my way.

I saw the most beautiful dance ever. I finished traveling around Taipa and went on to the third island, Coloane. Once I got off the bus there was a big festival going on. I walked through the rows and rows of tables with people sitting ready to eat and walked right up to the front of the line. There, finally, were the people that we had missed while being in Foshan. The dragon people - two men standing holding a dragon head and long body over them. One of the two men was dressed with dragon legs and feet and the other just had on red pants. They were all different colors sitting waiting for the festival to really start. Finally a man got up and made some sort of speech in Cantonese that I didn't understand and they started the wonderful traditional music. The dragon people began to dance. And I began to take pictures. I took many as the feeling that was pouring inside me was coming from these beautiful creatures and their dance. I felt like wonderful fire was floating through my body. At one point the dragons went up on stage and a man dressed in a funny mocking Chinese man costume as well as two people dressed as birds got up and started dancing with the dragons. Then many people came out with long sticks and the birds very smoothly mounted themselves on the sticks. Then slowly and carefully the men uprighted the sticks so it looked as if the birds were truly flying in the trees above. It was absolutely amazing. And I couldn't stop smiling after watching this show for a good long time. Afterwards I walked over and sat in a church for a little while peacefully until Paul called to tell me I wouldn't get a chance to see him again on this trip.

There is traditional Chinese playing in the background. A Farari turned left at the corner. A British car was parked next to a tree and I could see Portugese architecture outlining the horizon. A Chinese old man crossed the street. Ou Mei (Macau in Chinese). I love it here. Not for it's spectacular nature or beautiful European designed buildings and cobble streets or the relaxed nature of the people or the small festivals being taken place on each island or wonderful weather or beautiful beaches. For there are also crabby old Cantonese people and dirty streeets and construction and litter. Parts of the main island remind me of Honolulu and there are more people speaking Cantonese here than the Portugese the natives I just heard for the first time. Parts remind me of what little I remember of Belgium from when I went as a kid. Parts are just old China. This is what I love here. The love and the hate. Just like Varanasi. I definitely want to come back.

There are TONS of Indians here. "Bathroom?" I asked in what has become my normal language - Chiense. "What?" he asked me. "Bathroom. WC. . ." I could go on like this for a little while, I thought to myself. "Oh, right this way." He was Indian. There are also tons of Mexican here - and Mexican food. The first eyes of Mexican machisto thirst I saw upon me made me smile.

The Macau side much more efficient than the Chinese side. They know better than tot ry and make a foreign line - for the Chinese won't respect it. They also have the numbers clearly marked above one line - not two. Finally the Diplomat line is off to one side and Residents of Macau on the other - not in the middle, which is logical as there are many more people not in those lines.

Go to Hong Kong he told me. But I don't think it's good to go. There are too many people. It doesn't matter, he replied. Just go. So I suppose I will but I told him I may get a headache and I must be warned of that.

People ran like bees to honey as two lines near me from Macau back into China opened up. It was still a lot quicker leaving than going due to the China side of it. There was a woman "looking at passports and health inspections" but really what she was doing was ignoring all those who didn't look white and stopping those who did. So I was stopped to fill out the form. Getting to the bus was also a lot faster as I knew where it was and didn't have to "ask" (or start to) every couple of steps. I bought a Sprite so I would have change and was in the process of putting it in the slot when the bus driver came and started speaking to me in slow Chinese until I looked up at him and he stopped mid-word. "Ah? Where are you from?" He asked. "I thought you were one of Macau's Portugese people." I told him and had a conversation with his friends on the way to my hotel. I saw a nice shopping area - Jiuda (or something like it) on my way back to You Zheng Da Sha where my nice cheap hotel was. It had a hair shop that caught my eye and for whatever reason I decided to go to my hotel and comee back.

I saw the red swirling barber shop symbol (no blue on this one and the orange color and knew I was back. I asked the woman at the door how much it was to wash my hair. She said five kuai but it didn't matter because I'd already made my mind up. I was told to sit and wait as there was a line. I sat on the couch looking at everyone there. "You can speak Mandarin" I here a little voice say in Chinese. "Why yes I do!" I turn to her. She's a cute little girl laying on the couch playing with her feet in the air. We have a little conversation . I love kids like that. She can say things that I would hate or feel strange if someone else said, like "Your skin is really white." I don't mind at all. At one point I didn't understand something she asked me so I told her and she very cutely repeated it into my ear (as if she were whispering). I just got my hair done. We're waiting for my dad. It feels really good now. Want to touch it for a minute?" So I touched her hair. I spoke some K2 English with her. She was happy to show me her English as was her mother. Then I was called up to get my hair washed. She led me into a room where I was all alone. I put my stuff on the base of the bed and sat down. She massaged my shoulders and then had me lie down. She massaged my head and all the way down to my shoulder blades on my back. It was cold and I didn't say anything. There was an AC right no me. She figured it out and gave me a blanket. She continued massaging with perfect pressure - found my pressure points and did her thing. If you've never had a head massage China is definitely the place for it. Afterwards she put a hot cloth under my neck and on my head. After a bit she took them off and massaged my arms. Then I turned over and she massaged all the way down to my knees. I didn't talk to her much though. Normally I do but when it's a woman I don't. I feel more uncomfortable talking to men for whatever reason.

---

Photos

Buddha's Birthday
This is an offering to a smaller goddess at the Buddha's birthday on Taipa, one of the smaller islands at Macau.

Park on Taipa
A small park with a man doing exercises on Taipa island.

European street?
Looking down a street on Taipa with many European style colors and buildings.

Entrance to the Festival
Entrance to the festival with the dragons on Coloane

Dragons
Bobbing around on their tail's shoulders.

Dragons in a row
Them standing in a row.

Up, up and away
And they're flying!