We met up with George and Josephine in the party district of Hong Kong - Lan Kwai Fong. We were actually about to call it a night after shopping in some very hot weather when they contacted us, but never being one to pass up a party, we headed out to find them.
The area is absolutelty filthy. Filthy for the sweating heat, filthy for the rubbish, and filthy for the sea of international tourists looking for a good night out. We joined them.
We bar hopped a bit and as the night went on, a plan was hatched to go to Macau the next day. Unfortunately for John and I, that was about 4hrs away. We crashed at their nearby hostel so we'd have a better chance of getting to the ferry with them. We'd be going in full dress in 30° weather, but we had to do something other than drink while we are here, and this was our chance.
As we rush for the ferry, I'm absolutely starving. My looking around for some food at the terminal has the net result of everyone getting on the ferry but me, where it promptly departs. Well fuck. What's worse is that I have John's return ticket. Good luck with that one, John. Bonvoyage!
Luckily, an attendant helps get me on the next boat 30 mins later. The trip itself takes about an hour and a half, where I reconnect with the group. We hire a tour guide and mini van to take us around Macau, and it really made the trip worthwhile for us. We visit the old fortress and museum, as well as the facade of the ruins of St Paul's church. Being a former Portuguese territory, we sampled some very nice food as well.
Gambling is legal in Macau, and with 18 million tourists every year, its easy to see why there are so many casinos. Macau itself only has half a million inhabitants, but the casinos provide the local governement with so much money that they can keep reclaiming land and building new islands for yet more casinos and hotels. We tried our luck at the Venetian Casino, but none of us come out in the black.
Thinking we have time in hand, we board the casino shuttle to head to the ferry terminal. Our bad luck continues when we find its taken us to the wrong one. Well shit. Whats more is that our tickets are for the last ferry of the night. Double shit. We board a taxi that luckily races us over to the correct terminal, and we make our boat.
We're all craving a good nights sleep by this stage but John and I have a quiet drink in our room before calling lights out.
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