I got up later than I had planned, fully expecting to be going to Shin Zen with Danny's step-mom. Unfortunately she was unable to go, so I decided to take a day-trip to Macao. Danny had been bugging me to switch my ticket from Wednesday at 1:30pm to the same flight on Thursday so I could see the races at the Hong Kong Race Track on Wednesday night. It turned out that the change fee was less than $100US so I though why not. However, when I went to look into it. It turned out that they had no flights on Thursday except for the midnight flight, which would get me in Friday morning instead of Wednesday evening. Now I've had an amazing time here in HK but I think it's more than time for me to move on. Especially since I don't know how my flight home is looking.

I decided to wait on changing my ticket until I could reach the amazing Jim to see about extending my trip. If I'm locked into April 2nd (and I pray I'm not) I'm certainly not extending my HK stay. I've still got Helsinki and Prague at the very least. I walked over to the Macau ferry station and booked my trip on the Jetboat that gets you there in less than an hour... and here I am typing about my trip.. more to follow!

So I'm now on the Ferry home to Hong Kong. The sun has set over the Macao harbor and it's approaching 8pm. My feet are tired from a long day of walking around. I started by catching the bus over to Senate Square. Macao is striking because it's both distinctly Chinese and European at the same time (because of the fact that it was a Portuguese colony for 440 years). I made my way from Senate Square to The Church or St. Dominic and the Church of Macao Cathedral. Then I walked to the Lou Kau Mansion up a monstrous set of steps to the Monte Forte and then back down to Ruins of the Church of St. Paul. That unfortunately is where my camera ran out of batteries. I followed the streets down lower and discovered all sorts of bakery's and shops selling what I can only describe as scrumptious Chinese and Portuguese version of beef jerky. Not as dried as the American version.. in fact quite flavorful and jucy, but still flat strips of flavored meats of EVERY kind. I tasted a bunch and finally bought some for later.

At the bottom of the strip I made my way over to the casino area and checked out the Grand Lisboa just to see what all the fuss is about. Now I can appreciate good architecture, and since I dont gamble this is usually what I like most about casinos. These however were boring rooms devoted to baccarat above all else. No one seemed to be drinking. Or even really having fun. Level after level offered Chinese people obsessed with gambling and nothing else. There were no impressive bars or clubs. Overall.. I think I'll stick to vegas.

Posted 17th March 2008 by Josh Gray-Emmer