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FARFRUMWURKEN
One of the unique things that the hotels do here in Hong Kong is that with each room, they provide you with an internet ready cell phone. The service is called HANDY, and it's a service that would be amazing in North America, but that would be too much to expect. On these phones, they highlight Things to Do, Places to Eat and Shop all complete with GPS maps that show you exactly where you are at any point in time.
I realize that Deb and I probably look like "tourists" here in Asia, but by not having a huge map unfolded on every second street corner is a bit of a blessing. All I need to do is look at this phone and it guides me to wherever we want to go.
As I said yesterday, today is Macau so we got ready and left the hotel at about 7:30 a.m. and headed to a local eatery for breakfast. After finishing a nice breakfast, we hailed a cab with the special "hand motions" necessary to get one to pull over and then headed to the Ocean Terminal so that we could grab the ferry to Macau. After a few miles Deb said "where's your backpack Bob" and I responded quickly with "it's on my" ...... whoops I left it in the restaurant. So in my best broken Chinese we got him to turn around and we headed back to where he had picked us up. What would I do with - no wallet, no ID, lost camera lenses, credit cards and the like - I bolted from the cab and ran back to the restaurant. God I'm a lucky guy - there it sat on the floor underneath the table - exactly where I had left it. No Loss, No Foul - thankfully this was Asia and not Brazil - it would have definitely been history.
Back in the cab and heading for the ferry. It's a one hour ride at a cost of about $160.00HK ($25.00US) for the Turbocat Hovercraft ferry. Before the 300 +/- passengers head out, "fasten your seatbelts" gets belted from the loudspeakers. For rough water, this sucker moves out well. Reaching the pier, we grabbed one of the hundreds of high-end (free) shuttle buses and headed off to the Venetian Casino with fist full of coupons. They say that Macau, the Chinese territory reported gambling revenue of 360 billion patacas or $45 billion for 2013, an increase of almost 20% over the previous year. If that sounds like a lot of cash, it is. Las Vegas will be lucky to make $6.5 billion, or 15% of Macau's total. Atlantic City's haul is even lower. After a quick lunch and some tours of all the high-end shops we decided it was time to head back to the ferry. We're not quite sure if it was cloudy, fog or pollution but it was a horrible day for photography.
Tomorrow, it's over to Hong Kong for a Hop-On/Hop-Off tour of mainland HK and hopefully over to the boat city in Aberdeen. Thanks for keeping up with us on these updates. One more day here and then we're off to Phuket, Thailand.
I realize that Deb and I probably look like "tourists" here in Asia, but by not having a huge map unfolded on every second street corner is a bit of a blessing. All I need to do is look at this phone and it guides me to wherever we want to go.
As I said yesterday, today is Macau so we got ready and left the hotel at about 7:30 a.m. and headed to a local eatery for breakfast. After finishing a nice breakfast, we hailed a cab with the special "hand motions" necessary to get one to pull over and then headed to the Ocean Terminal so that we could grab the ferry to Macau. After a few miles Deb said "where's your backpack Bob" and I responded quickly with "it's on my" ...... whoops I left it in the restaurant. So in my best broken Chinese we got him to turn around and we headed back to where he had picked us up. What would I do with - no wallet, no ID, lost camera lenses, credit cards and the like - I bolted from the cab and ran back to the restaurant. God I'm a lucky guy - there it sat on the floor underneath the table - exactly where I had left it. No Loss, No Foul - thankfully this was Asia and not Brazil - it would have definitely been history.
Back in the cab and heading for the ferry. It's a one hour ride at a cost of about $160.00HK ($25.00US) for the Turbocat Hovercraft ferry. Before the 300 +/- passengers head out, "fasten your seatbelts" gets belted from the loudspeakers. For rough water, this sucker moves out well. Reaching the pier, we grabbed one of the hundreds of high-end (free) shuttle buses and headed off to the Venetian Casino with fist full of coupons. They say that Macau, the Chinese territory reported gambling revenue of 360 billion patacas or $45 billion for 2013, an increase of almost 20% over the previous year. If that sounds like a lot of cash, it is. Las Vegas will be lucky to make $6.5 billion, or 15% of Macau's total. Atlantic City's haul is even lower. After a quick lunch and some tours of all the high-end shops we decided it was time to head back to the ferry. We're not quite sure if it was cloudy, fog or pollution but it was a horrible day for photography.
Tomorrow, it's over to Hong Kong for a Hop-On/Hop-Off tour of mainland HK and hopefully over to the boat city in Aberdeen. Thanks for keeping up with us on these updates. One more day here and then we're off to Phuket, Thailand.
- comments
Liz Rosa Hey Bob & Deb. So far the trip looks amazing. Love your blog. I've said it before but you are my blog hero Bob. You got me into it and now I can't go anywhere without posting all about my adventures. Can't wait to hear all abut HK. Liz
Roswita and Tony We were there in 1990, 26 years ago! All I recognize from your pictures are the ruins of St. Paul, the rest was not in existence! They just had a small casino building, it was the year after the Tienamin Square riots. The boom was just in the beginning. The Chinese love to gamble, hence the income. We have go back to catch up! Have a good time!