Written on Monday 25th January 2009 9:32 pm
Yesterday, Sunday morning we prepared for an overnight stay in Macau (literally some Portugese name) with another family. For privacy’s sake let’s call them the N family. My mum went to school with Mrs. N so they were old friends, my dad enjoys trying to one-up Mr. N in everything and they have one son; let’s call him N Jr, who came to stay with us in Australia last year. N Jr hung around for a month and a half so we were familiar.
We met up with the N family at the ferry port in Hong Kong Central (literally Centre of Hong Kong). Together we all went into a Starbucks where N Jr, my brother and I chatted while behind us my dad and Mr. N arm wrestled.
The ferry to Macau took an hour. I get light-headed on boat trips so I tried to sleep but a baby was crying the entire time. I didn’t mind though since I was glad someone was having a worse time than me.
Macau is a city of casinos, neon lights and smog. With only half a million people populating it I was surprised to learn that it grosses more profit from gambling than Las Vegas. At least that’s what my dad told me – and he is frequently making stuff up.
We took a bus to our hotel, The Venetian. It was a monumental building with its own sky and canal on the 2nd floor. It was less impressive that they allowed smokers inside the building. The air felt like second hand smoke everywhere.
After checking into our rooms both families headed down for some lunch. We chose a Chinese restaurant inside the Venetian. Everyone started telling the waiter what they wanted and when we were done Mr. N asked how big the portions were. The waiter then rolled his eyes so far back they reappeared from the bottom, then begrudgingly replied and walked off.
Well, Mr. N felt that that was pretty rude so he decided to scare him a little bit. So he walked up to the waiter and asked to see the manager. All we could see was a flash of fear in the waiter’s eyes which was quickly masked. Mr. N never did get to speak with the manager, but the waiter did change his tune and also gave us a nice discount.
So that was lunch. After that we gambled a little in the hotel’s casino and rested up in our rooms. At dinner Mr. N challenged my dad to get a discount like he did. My dad tried the sweet talk approach. I think we got charged a surplus.
We walked around the streets for a bit, taking in the vibrant neon colours of Macau and after accidentally giving a European tourist wrong directions back to her hotel we decided to visit another casino, The Grand Lisboa. We wanted to sneak my brother in, but he was underage. The best plan we came up with was to rush in as a huddled mass. However in our rush, we left my brother behind with my mum. The security guy stopped them both and asked for ID. My mum thought she could divert the guy’s attention by ruffling through the contents of her purse. She ended up showing her own passport, but this only irritated him. So we went back to the Venetian to end our first day in Macau.
N Jr left early in the morning the next day before my brother and I woke up. He had to get back for a lecture, the nerd. We had breakfast at about 10 and not having any else to do I suggested a visit to the spa. Only my dad thought this was a good idea, so the two of us went off and did just that.
I wanted to get a massage since I never had one before. We both got full body Swedish massages. During it my dad fell asleep and snored loud enough to drown out my thoughts. My masseuse asked if I was nervous because this was my first massage. I said I wasn’t but then she started kneading my butt like bread dough. The masseuse’s hands were rougher than I imagined they should be, like a cat’s tongue.
So that was our time in Macau. Getting back to the ferry before departure was made more difficult since my dad got lost somewhere in the hotel. The rescue effort consisted of my mum yelling at him over the phone. They’re going to have so much fun travelling together in mainland China – just the two of them.
That leaves my brother and I to find our own entertainment back in Hong Kong.
Yesterday, Sunday morning we prepared for an overnight stay in Macau (literally some Portugese name) with another family. For privacy’s sake let’s call them the N family. My mum went to school with Mrs. N so they were old friends, my dad enjoys trying to one-up Mr. N in everything and they have one son; let’s call him N Jr, who came to stay with us in Australia last year. N Jr hung around for a month and a half so we were familiar.
We met up with the N family at the ferry port in Hong Kong Central (literally Centre of Hong Kong). Together we all went into a Starbucks where N Jr, my brother and I chatted while behind us my dad and Mr. N arm wrestled.
The ferry to Macau took an hour. I get light-headed on boat trips so I tried to sleep but a baby was crying the entire time. I didn’t mind though since I was glad someone was having a worse time than me.
Macau is a city of casinos, neon lights and smog. With only half a million people populating it I was surprised to learn that it grosses more profit from gambling than Las Vegas. At least that’s what my dad told me – and he is frequently making stuff up.
We took a bus to our hotel, The Venetian. It was a monumental building with its own sky and canal on the 2nd floor. It was less impressive that they allowed smokers inside the building. The air felt like second hand smoke everywhere.
After checking into our rooms both families headed down for some lunch. We chose a Chinese restaurant inside the Venetian. Everyone started telling the waiter what they wanted and when we were done Mr. N asked how big the portions were. The waiter then rolled his eyes so far back they reappeared from the bottom, then begrudgingly replied and walked off.
Well, Mr. N felt that that was pretty rude so he decided to scare him a little bit. So he walked up to the waiter and asked to see the manager. All we could see was a flash of fear in the waiter’s eyes which was quickly masked. Mr. N never did get to speak with the manager, but the waiter did change his tune and also gave us a nice discount.
So that was lunch. After that we gambled a little in the hotel’s casino and rested up in our rooms. At dinner Mr. N challenged my dad to get a discount like he did. My dad tried the sweet talk approach. I think we got charged a surplus.
We walked around the streets for a bit, taking in the vibrant neon colours of Macau and after accidentally giving a European tourist wrong directions back to her hotel we decided to visit another casino, The Grand Lisboa. We wanted to sneak my brother in, but he was underage. The best plan we came up with was to rush in as a huddled mass. However in our rush, we left my brother behind with my mum. The security guy stopped them both and asked for ID. My mum thought she could divert the guy’s attention by ruffling through the contents of her purse. She ended up showing her own passport, but this only irritated him. So we went back to the Venetian to end our first day in Macau.
N Jr left early in the morning the next day before my brother and I woke up. He had to get back for a lecture, the nerd. We had breakfast at about 10 and not having any else to do I suggested a visit to the spa. Only my dad thought this was a good idea, so the two of us went off and did just that.
I wanted to get a massage since I never had one before. We both got full body Swedish massages. During it my dad fell asleep and snored loud enough to drown out my thoughts. My masseuse asked if I was nervous because this was my first massage. I said I wasn’t but then she started kneading my butt like bread dough. The masseuse’s hands were rougher than I imagined they should be, like a cat’s tongue.
So that was our time in Macau. Getting back to the ferry before departure was made more difficult since my dad got lost somewhere in the hotel. The rescue effort consisted of my mum yelling at him over the phone. They’re going to have so much fun travelling together in mainland China – just the two of them.
That leaves my brother and I to find our own entertainment back in Hong Kong.
