Macau - Monte Carlo of the Orient

If at any time during this entry, you hear a nasally sound it's because as of the past few days I've caught a cold and have a slight sore throat. I apologize in advance and I'll keep my sniffling to a minimum!

Last Friday was the start to a flurry of activities. I went up to HK's Victoria peak to see the view of HK from a top the mountain. You take a tram that takes you straight up, literally, the mountain in all of eight minutes. 1817 feet above sea level, so needless to say it's a pretty quick tram. It was bloody cold. All jokes aside, and I do realize I am from Canada, and worst of all, grew up in Yellowknife in where I think the term "when hell freezes over" originated, it was ccooold. Not only was I not prepared in my small sweater and jacket, I wasn't thinking that we were going to be so far up (Sometimes logic doesn't kick in quick enough!). This was supposed to be a year of summer, hence I didn't quite pack for cold weather, but my gluttony for delicious meals and great experiences kicks me in the butt again!

Needless to say the view was spectacular! You could see the harbour and a great panoramic view of all the huge skyscrapers. Definitely a must when in HK. Of course being with cousins who live here they wanted an experience as well. Eating as you may or may not have noticed is definitely a part of any travel experience and a big part of mine. We had just arrived shortly after 2pm, seems we're not morning people, and we hadn't had lunch so we were deciding on a place for lunch. Well my choice, being that I am in HK would be something Asian. Well for my cousins it's something North American. Being that they may not get out as often as I will over the next while I relented and let them chose. We ended up at Bubba Gumps. I eluded this chain restaurant in Maui, and here it was staring me in the stomach boldly laughing that I was in HK and was going to eat here! I hate chain restaurants. If I'm going to go out and eat I never chose Earl's or restaurants that serve generic food. What's the experience in that?! I'm more about supporting the mom and pop's restaurants which tend to have better quality of food and pay attention to details and cook their food with love! Never have I felt so out of sorts...I was after all in HK - the mecca of all things delicious and I'm sitting in a booth listening to country music, Reba Macintyre to be exact, and ordering onion rings, caesar salad, shrimper's delight, ribs and speaking to the waiter in English. (No that wasn't ALL for me, we shared!!!) Never mind, the way you ordered food was to lift up the 'license' plate with run Forrest run when you're ready and put the stop Forrest stop sign up when you don't need service. Chain of all chains, and here I was atop Victoria Peak in HK millions of miles away from restaurants such as these, so I thought.

~Sigh~ When in Rome/HK do as they do...eat at crappy chain restaurants. None the less I can check that off the list, albeit it's not even on the list of things I want to do.

We took our pictures and being that it's quite the tourist attraction there were many people there from all over the world! Madame Tussauds wax museum was a brief thought as well only to be kyboshed immediately seeing is that the main Chinese celebrity was not present. Apparently he was changing his attire and needed a waxing...waka waka! I know, a bad comedian in the works.

That evening I had arranged to meet another one of my cousins for a few drinks. Keep in mind I have 27 cousins all ranging from 39 to 13. My youngest aunt is only 4 years older than my oldest cousin and we all get along quite well. He came out to Kowloon to meet us and we went to some random lounge in Mong Kok. Well ordering single drinks here in HK is expensive so the thing to do here is order a bottle. It's still expensive, but seeing is that most Chinese people lack the enzyme to break down alcohol, many only have one or two drinks therefore it makes ordering a bottle that much less expensive. Tequila was the bottle of choice, and away we went. Taught them the NA way to shoot tequila - lick the top side of your hand where your thumb connects with your index finger, pour salt over it, hold a wedge of lemon in the same hand. Lick, shoot, suck...err, well those are the adjectives you use right?! OK - so being in HK, all the lounges have these half beer coozies filled with six dice each. You're never at a bore in Chinese culture. Have you been to one of our weddings and all the games we play!? So, we played several dice games, very simplistic drinking games, similar to our "spoons". Each person guessing how many 6's are in everyone hand and calling bluffs etc, you get the just of it. 3/4 of the bottle done and we decided to be responsible adults and call it a day. We were after all supposed to be on a boat to Macau at 11am.

Ah - through customs again the next morning and onto our boat to be ferried across to Macau. It's been a long time since I've been on a boat, and I forgot how rough and choppy the water could be. It wasn't a bad ride there, the ride back was awful. I hate roller-coasters, and I'll admit at 29 I was extremely scared and almost bawled like a five year old who dropped my ice cream, on the boat ride that swings back and forth, but the ride back was sort of like that. I had to make myself sleep so I wouldn't throw up. Great image I realize...sorry I digress.

When we arrived, we checked into our hotel at the Venetian. I've been to Vegas and seen the Venetian there, but this was pretty impressive. Macau is the Monte Carlos of the Orient. It is one of the largest gaming cities. Went to Vegas and only played the slot machines and well, let's just say I did the same here. I was going to get the gumption up to play a little blackjack but alas the big chicken in me decided to just have some fun and kill some time!

During the day we strolled the streets, taking pictures along the old historic buildings and parks lined with gorgeous tulips of bright reds, yellows, purples and pink. Walking through the old cobbled stoned streets, you find the signature of the far east - a brand new M5 BMW parked beside a decaying building adorned with a sign screaming from the 70's with the browns, and oranges exactly like the couches our parents had. I know you know what I mean, we ALL had them! We stumble onto a street that is considered a tourist area - we pass a 'tavern' and it's only filled with caucasions. Yup, tourist area it is. It even had a chopper parked outside...ok, smaller version. As we walk further the smells slowly lure you in, as if being enchanted by a seductress of sorts waving her kerchief as your eyes roll to the back of your head and you succumb to her mystery. The smells of fresh baked ginger candies, and cakes, and Chinese jerky and soups. We came across this very famous bakery called Koi Kei, and it's signature is the peanut and ginger candies but by far my favorite was the almond cakes. MMMM....so delicious. It's not the cake you think as in birthday cake, it's cake as in not quite a cookie, but not doughy like a cake. Descriptive I know..They are made of Mung bean powder, almonds, some vegetable oil and a tiny bit of water, and the crumbly mixture is poured into a mold and baked...out come these delectable, scrumptious cakes that are crispy to bite into while warm and melt in your mouth texture leaving the bits of crushed almonds to crunch on. My favorite of all time, although by the time they are shipped over to Canada they're all stale and old and not as wonderful. But we all know fresh is always best!! Here's the link - http://home.macau.ctm.net/~jos3xm/KoiKei/about.html

I never realized but the second official language in Macau is Portuguese. We ended up going to this very famous Portuguese restaurant, yeah not great with names, but it was quite quaint. Felt similar to that of Italian, but I'm completely uneducated in all that is Portuguese. Had an Italian flair to it but distinctly not Italian of course. Different, not sure I loved it, but different.

Upon killing a few hours before we had to leave a few of us headed back to the casino to test our luck again. While I'm watching some roulette table, my male cousin comes up and asks if I've noticed all the 'call' girls last night? Perhaps I'm a bit naive when it comes to things like this or maybe just distracted by trying to figure out the average ratio of how often the red vs black comes up on the roulette table. Not that he's into that kind of stuff, but growing up at his mom's fruit stand here in HK you learn a lot of street smarts. My curiosity got the better of me, I'm not good at gambling anyway. We stood, while discreetly watching everyone that passed as he pointed out which ones were and which ones weren't. Definitely a distinct look these women. It's quite common over here, this industry and trade. That I'm familiar with, I just didn't think it happened so much and blatant at the Venetian Hotel Casino in Macau. The most obvious was of course the older men with the younger females, then you can narrow it down to the way they dress. Now being that Chinese is a bit more of a conservative culture, they're not quite dressed how you would think they would be. Still fully clothed nothing to extravagant but not quite dressed the same as a tourist. After all it is in a hotel full of tourists. I'm still not sure exactly the distinction but I'm sure you could differentiate them from others. Street smart, book smart, a little bit of both!

Oh - The circus has made it to the Orient! Cirque Du Soilel was at the Venetian. Yes, I'm still proud to be Canadian and that our circus is amazing and worldwide! Zaia - the dream of girl in space. I was very tempted, I love the circus, but our schedules were too tight.

Alas I ended up catching a cold, and sore throat so the next day I stayed in bed for a well needed rest. Can't push on like I use too, but that's also what this is supposed to be about. Listening to what my soul, spirit and mind needs and nourishing it with all the resources I can give it and best of all to just relax....and enjoy!