Sweaty with sore feet

Thursday 26th - Hong Kong & Macau

attractive isn't it?
I almost didn't get out of bed this morning (yup this morning! I've finally managed to catch up with this blog!) I think it's the heat, but Ingo was showered and ready to go (or so we thought...) as I was only dragging my head off the pillow. But get up I did and then packed all my stuff into my bag, told Ingo that he really shouldn't leave his passport here, and we set off for the ferry to Macau.

We got all the way down the lift in the hostel building when Ingo realised he didn't have the map! So we went all the way back up the 8 floors, Ingo couldn't find the map (is it in your pants from yesterday pocket? no don't think so) when I saw it on the table. Yes just sitting in plain sight on the table ;) So then we went back down. "Get your octopus card (awesome thing the octopus card, much like snapper but the whole transport system and subway is so much better here that it's ten times better then snapper) (another thing, why are all these transport cards named after sea creatures?) out, so you've got it ready" Says I, "oh shit. I don't have it" says Ingo. "where is it then?" "uh... I think it's in my pants pocket" :| you can imagine how much I laughed at him for that one! Anyway we were finally on the subway and then we started walking in the direction Ingo pointed stopped for a spot of lunch (traditional sandwiches ;) and then realised that we were actually on completely the wrong side of the city!! So back to the station we'd just exited, and then changed lines once to catch the subway to the ferry harbour.

When we got there we were trying to find the way to go to buy our tickets and get on board, when there were all these advertisements about Macau this other country... and I say to Ingo, "did you bring your passport? because it looks like this isn't just an island of China type of thing..." So we find a travel agent, "Do we need a passport??" "Yes." well. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing! Poor Ingo was so angry with himself! Talk about the worst organisation of the century ;) and this from the German! not the easy going NZer ;) So we had to take the 2 connecting subways back to the hostel and then Ingo realised that actually, the ferry terminal that's closer to us is actually the better way to go. 5 mins later and we were there!

Just over an hour ride and we were in Macau :) Talk about nothing going very well! We lined up for a good 15-20 minutes and then we were told we were supposed to have filled out an arrival card :/ So back we went to fill it out and then finally we were through! Phew, What a mission!

Macau was just as frigging hot as Hong Kong :/ As soon as we got out of the terminal (and had got our hot little hands on a map) we head off to find the centre of the city (Country? Island?) We went off one way but it looked like we couldn't get up easily so around we turned and back the other way! We wandered through the city, past a couple of not so flashy casinos, until we found all the massive ones, the Wynn, MGM Grant, plus a couple more which names I can't remember. They were massive! (for a person who's never been to vegas) and sooooo over the top! I couldn't believe how much wasted space they could create :s and sooo icy cold! It's a wonder people aren't constantly suffering from colds and runny noses the amount of times in a day that their body has to re-adjust to a new temperature.

After wandering around the lobby's and sneak peaking into a few of the more impressive looking casinos, we decided we would have something to eat. We went to leave the latest casino (the Wynn) when all of a sudden it was pouring down with rain!!! From no where! blue skies to stormy rains, weird! And not up and down rain either, so our brand spanking new umbrella from the markets was hard-pressed to keep us both dry as we walked from street to street.

We wanted to try Portuguese cuisine and eventually found a cute little off the radar place that had a special with soup + main + soft drink for a cheapish price and it wasn't too bad food either :) We then walked and walked ad walked all over half the country (Ingo said it sounded better to say half the country then "only half the city" ;)) Looking for different sites. We saw a couple of little temples, and an old European church ruins (the biggest in Asia) the Ruins of St Pauls, we went to a Chinese garden in the middle of the city that was quite cute and filled with those awesome giant leaves that nothing can stick too! We saw heaps and heaps of stuff and had walked for miles, that barely neither of us could stand, so we started walking towards the terminal hoping to get a taxi on the way, but we ended up walking the whole way back with no taxi (Ingo refused to flag one down, he wanted to find one that was just sitting around waiting for us :/) A ferry was just about to leave which meant no sitting around waiting, and soon we were back at the hostel :) No shopping for us that night! far too sore feet!

(Interesting note: I was up to date with my blog but then I got side-tracked with sleeping so finished it on the plane and subsequently am now publishing this back in NZ :s)
So a nice early night to get straight into the shop shop shopping tomorrow :)