Day trip to Macau

Almost a twelve hour day with lots involved but it didn't seem rushed. Twenty five of us altogether, about eight of us had Super Pass which meant we had to pay extra. When we booked there were no economy tickets left so it was pay an extra $hk100 each or not go. The only difference was on the turbo jet going over to Macau, we got to sit up the top, had a meal free Wi-Fi and got off first. Wow, never been first class on anything before.

We had to take our passports and pass through Immigration and Customs, we were met the other side by a young women Sonia who accompanied us for the rest of the day.

We toured around and went a Museum, St Paul’s church and a small temple, we had an hour there before going on the A ma temple, as it is Qing Ming Jie today (Tomb sweeping day) many were honouring their passed family members. Macau doesn’t have any resources but they do make small cookies and we tried a few different ones near the temple before going to a buffet lunch. Lunch was okay but I have had much better, lot of meat and very little vegetables. I was okay though as my favourite dish qezi (egg plant) was there so I had that over rice. Yum! I do grow it at home and cook it but I cant seem to get it quite as good as it is cooked in China.

Macau tower was next and about half of the group choose to go up for an extra $HK120 each. Warren told me that the floor was glass and he knows how freaky I get walking on glass even when it only ground level. He has done it before so we opted out and visited the shops instead, ToysRus.

Last port of call was one of the 44 casinos. OMGoodness, 688 tables! We watched a roulette table for awhile. An older guy was there and I asked him if he was winning by using the numbers up. He shook his head and pointed to something on his screen, it was in Chinese and I immediately said "canbudong" meaning I can see but I cant read. Although Cantonese is the language here, we are hearing a lot of Mandarin spoken.  One lady at a shop told me that Mainland Chinese can go to HK, 1000 people per day but there is no limit to Macau as tourism is their only source of income. Because of the casinos only people only pay 10% for taxes. I watched the next spin and this guy bet 1500 HK dollars!!!!on one spin. I have not been in a casino for several years and this was all computerized.

Croupiers were on the black jack tables but that was all. As we walked past two women there was a lot of smiles and high fives, one showed me that she had just won $HK1000, I wondered how much she had bet to get that.