Category: 2002-11: HKG and Macau

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The Lisboa’s “other” attractions (besides gaming)

Ana told me that Steve Wynn of various Las Vegas resorts received a gaming license, thus breaking Stanley Ho’s monopoly on gaming here. It’s a good thing because the Lisboa casino is a dump. “Check Your Guns at the Door” and “No Spitting” is posted at the casino entrance. I would have taken pictures of these signs, except you can’t take pictures in the casino. This is not bullshit!

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The neon looks nice, as does the downstairs racetrack

However, the Lisboa Hotel lobby and rooms have been renovated. It even has some art here which is nice. But when you go downstairs to the shops and canteen, there are a LOT of hookers working the floor. That area at night is known as the Racetrack.

A lot of hookers. Good looking hookers. Zhuhai’s favorite exports.
And for you hom-suppy people out there, over here, it’s a buyer’s market!

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Macau for walkers

We’ve been puttering around the various districts around Macau and I’ll have to admit, I’m rethinking my original opinion of the second SAR of the PRC. It’s more than gaming. I like it. Along with the egg tarts.  

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The Ruins of St. Paul’s. More here.

Although Macau is still kind of sleepy (many of the shops in the non tourist areas close around 2000) and dangerous looking (lots of dark alleys and the triads are big here), much of the city is still narrow alleys and colonial architecture.

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St. Paul’s from a dark alley.

Shopping is scenic, but still no gore-tex to be found.

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The Leal Senado at night. Nice!

Macau has been making efforts to preserve many of the old buildings and has aspirations to join the UN’s list of world heritage sites. More power to them.

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Time for shopping

After two bottles of wine and one big nice lunch, we’re going to do some shopping and walking around. Got to find some gore-tex jackets and what not for China cuz it’s cold there.

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Heading back to Macau after a large lunch. That’s the Macau Tower.
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Lunch at Fernando’s

So we’ve arrived at Fernando’s, this legendary haunt on one of the outer islands of Macau. It’s a beachfront bar/restaurant serving Macanese food. That’s a mix of Chinese and Portuguese food. Sounds yummy, right? Well, it is. Mmmmmmm.

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Macanese food and Portugese wine

When we left the ferry pier, the roads surrounding it had still had the race course barriers up from the Macao Grand Prix from the previous weekend. It’s F3 along with a motorcycle race. That would have been cool to see.

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The day was socked in and it was November so no one out there.
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That’s the Hyatt Regency on the opposite shore
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Forgot one thing…

Crap!

You need your passport to go ANYWHERE around here. And that’s kinda cool.
I just have to remember to bring it with me. Ana sent me an SMS when I was on the MTR pulling into Wan Chai.

PASSPORT?

Yes, I forgot my passport. Geez. At least I’m only one stop out. Back to Causeway Bay…

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Off to Macau!

So I finally wake up, SMS Ana and get my butt out to the Causeway Bay MTR. We’re going to Macau today, meeting at the HKG-Macau Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan, which also happens to be the terminus of the Island Line. Verrry convenient.

I finally got my go bag set up. It has the tourbook, cameras (digital & film), notebook (the paper kind), Clie and whatever I pick up on my travels. I think I have everything now.
I’m outta here!

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yay, off the plane!

So we finally land. Whoo hooo!
But now it takes time to get off the plane since I and others are in the back end of the plane.
Passport Control (a very long wait).
Get the luggage (sort of a wait).
Customs (pretty quick).

Wonder why it takes so long for the bags to show up? I mean, you wait for a realllly long time for Passport Control. You would figure that the ground crew would use that time to get the checked bags onto the carousel so they would be ready for people to pick up.

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UA (lack of)Food and Entertainment

Well, the food is palatable. The cup ramen they serve for a snack is not. UA branded “instant noodles”.  So I brought 5 Shin Cups for myself and the others.

Yummy. Spicy. Yummy.

Oh did I mention? UA no longer serves Coke. Seems that they got some big contract with Pepsi to fly their bigshots around. In exchange, they stopped serving Coke and started serving Pepsi. Eeeeyuck.

Now about the entertainment on UA. Politically correct drivel. Awful.
I do not want to watch kid and chick flicks over the course of this flight. I guess that since they cannot serve peanuts and they do not serve Coke, they will not show anything fun or interesting.

But I do have an ace up my sleeve. I have my PowerBook and I have the Scorpion King on DVD. Talk about the polar opposite of Like Mike, eh? And Kelly Hu is a LOT easier on the eyes than Lil Bow Wow.

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Off to HK in UA steerage. Ugh.

So we take off and I’m in row 52.
Yes, five-two. That is deep deep steerage on a 747. Notice the end of the plane here.
This is relevant because I am on UA and these rows are NOT Economy Plus. And on top of it all, I have someone annoying next to me. Oh the joys of steerage.

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Not a lot of happy people here, myself included.

This is going to be a long flight.