Macau

Destination: Macau
Objective: Secure Work Visa

Yesterday I went to Macau with Mai. As you should know if you read this blog, I went to get my work visa. The process has taken longer than originally thought, but I now have my visa! I applied about 5 weeks ago, and have been 'working' since about September. I feel a little better knowing that I can now work for real and actually start teaching full-time.

Back to Macau. Dirtiest city ever! As much as Macau pegs itself as a tourist city, that only applies to about 1/10th of the city. The rest = nuclear fallout ground.

The trip to Macau was quite enjoyable aboard the famed TurboJet. They are sort of hard to describe, but these 'ferries' are really just large speed boats. The boat actually skips above the water, it's kind of funny looking. It only takes an hour, and you float into Macau through a super thick fog, and then bam! there's the city. Somewhat cool effect, I hoped it was all fog. My hopes were quickly dashed as soon as we started to explore.

Macau itself is extremley small. I think it's technically a SAR like Hong Kong, but it's a lot smaller, and the size of a normal town, but very crowded. The inner streets are quite simply disgusting. I don't mind old buildings falling down and crowded living and motorcycle insanity and lack of green, but the air was unbearable. It makes Hong Kong seem like fresh mountain air. At one point we had to stop and get off the main road because we seriously couldn't breath. In some ways we had gotten lost, but knew the general area we were in. Next time, if ever, I come back I will not stray from the main paths, or risk dieing of lung cancer in two minutes.

Taxi? what's a taxi? I'm quite confident the people of Macau have never heard of taxis, because it is rare to even see one, let alone get one. Here's my advice Macau, if you want to become the next Vegas, you should first find some taxis to get people around, and put a huge vacuum above the city. I know I won't be back any time soon, I really like breathing too much to risk it.

Funniest thing I've ever seen: Having been to Las Vegas, I have seen some funny things in Casinos. Never, did I EVER expect to see a casino in the 'Vegas of Asia' completely empty at 10pm in the evening. WTF!??! Mai and I could not stop laughing. We walked into this floating casino, the guard gladly welcomed us in. IT WAS DEAD! There were 2 other young people inside, that's it. 2! People plus us. The moment we entered it was like everyone had seen a ghost. We could not figure out why this casino was empty. It made nooooo sense. It was also one of the coolest casinos, as it was floating. Weeeeeiiiirrrd. We left right away because the place gave off this mood like we were going to get shot.

End result: Hooray! I survived Macau and got my work visa, now I never have to go back! Yes!!!!!!

Note: We did have a very awesomely huge lunch at a Portugese restaurant in Macau. (Macau is a former Portugese colony)