Hong Kong & Macau 2008 Day 6

No rain today, what a surprise. Wasted no time in getting ready and out onto the streets to enjoy our last moments in Hong Kong. Took the tram to Wan Chai to hunt down Slug's favourite 'pork chop bun' cafe, but strangely, it was missing. Like I said before, if you want to locate a particular eatery in Hong Kong, you can never find it; but if you have no intention of going to that place to dine, you will encounter it on the streets anyway. We settled at a random cha can ting for lunch.

Walking around in Causeway Bay

Taking the tram to Wan Chai

Slug and I on the tram

Slug's lunch - pork cutlet kway tiao soup

My lunch - rice and fish cutlet with white curry sauce

After that, did some last-minute flustered shopping at Sogo, and I was EXTREMELY disappointed to find out that the strawberry daifuku that I had been lusting about for the past 6 months was out of stock! The salesgirl gave me a wry smile when I pleaded with her to mail the daifuku to me when it was available, and she politely recommended me to try the chocolate daifuku instead. Slug felt that the chocolate one was just as good, so we each bought a box at HKD58 each. I just could not leave Sogo without any daifuku!

We returned back to our apartment at 4pm, dragged our baggage down with a lot of effort to the streets and hailed a cab to take us to the ferry terminal at Shun Tak centre in Sheung Wan. First time taking a cab in Hong Kong. We were gaping at each other in disbelief when we saw how fast the taxi meter was running. Taxi fares in Hong Kong are so not cheap!

We bought two tickets for the Turbojet ferry, checked in at the immigration counters and boarded the ferry for a smooth and comfortable one-hour ride to Macau.

Bye bye, Hong Kong!

On board the ferry

We could not wait and started to rip open our boxes of chocolate daifuku - Japanese rice flour cakes (like mochi) with smooth chocolate and rice crispies for its filling and dusted with bitter cocoa powder. What a nice treat to accompany us on our journey.

Mmmmmmm ..........

At 6.30pm, the ferry reached Macau Ferry Terminal, and we proceeded to check in into Macau. We were grossed out to see so many people at the immigration counters. There was a small commotion at one of the queues when some PRC uncle shouted at someone who had cut into his queue way in front of him. So there he went, shouting (and making himself an embarrassment) and ranting about how cutting queue is such a disgraceful act and only the Chinese can do that, which sent Slug and I sniggering at such irony.

You can't miss out the gigantic Sands Casino near the ferry terminal

The Turbojet ferry

Checking in at the immigration counters at Macau Ferry Terminal

Finally, at 7pm, we cleared the immigration counters and we headed straight for the shuttle bus pick-up point. It was raining heavily, and we were feeling so glum. Just realised that besides the ferry, one can get to Macau from Hong Kong by helicopter (for about HKD2,200), cool!

Boarded the free Holiday Inn shuttle van to take us to the hotel. Bellboy was a little slow in coming forward to help us with our baggage, which pissed Slug greatly. We were led to our room on the 17th floor, and we were greeted by a very pleasant floral-citrus fragrance the moment we stepped out of the lift and into our room. The lighting and decor of the room was just as pleasing, lifting our spirits after a dreary journey from the ferry terminal.

Holiday Inn hotel at Rua de Pequim

Our room

We rested in our room for a while, taking a refreshing bath and watching the many channels on TV. At about 10pm, we headed downstairs for a simple dinner at a cha can ting, where we had instant noodles with luncheon meat and egg. Did not have the chance to eat that in Hong Kong, and I missed it!

Dinner at the cha can ting

Official currency of Macau is MOP (patacas), but Hong Kong Dollars are widely used as well. In fact, this is the only country where the foreign currency is used more widely than its internal currency. As Macau was colonized by the Portugese before, road names, signs and information boards are written in either Chinese or Portugese, which proved to be tough sometimes for us when finding our way and communicating with the locals.

After dinner, we took a walk around the streets which were dark and not as busy as those in Hong Kong. We were amazed to find that there was an abundance of ATMs, jewellery shops and pawn shops around (even more than eateries), a tell-tale sign of the sad fates of obsessed gamblers. We spotted a huge casino whose bright neon lights caught our attention, and we headed towards it.

We entered Rio Casino and had to go through security checks. No shorts, no slippers and no photography inside the casino. It was an eye-opener as we watched all sorts of games going on - Blackjack, roulette, baccarat, Sic Bo (the Big-Small game) etc, and the intense expressions of concentration of some of those gamblers could kill. We felt like two nerdy newbies who knew nuts about playing these games in the real forms, so we hid in one corner playing the jackpot machines.

We picked one which had a masquerade theme, and we were attracted by the variety of combinations we could form and the many bonuses we could attain. So there we spent our night, drinking (drinks there was free flow!), playing and grinning at the clattering sound of the coins accumulating at the bottom tray. Maybe it was beginner's luck - we made some winnings. Even at 2.30am, Slug was still clinging onto the machine and I had to drag him out of the casino. Even as we were making our way back to the hotel, he kept rambling excitedly about how we were going to make more winnings in the next few days to cover our expenses. Oh no, he seemed to be already manifesting signs of addiction.