Hong Kong & Macau 2008 Day 7

Everytime I included Macau in our itinerary, I would regret it on our last day in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was so much fun that I did not feel like leaving and I really did not see the point in going to Macau. Reason why we were going again was because Slug wanted to recoup our losses from Rio and maybe strike a small fortune. Yeah, if only it were that easy.

Woke up feeling dreadful, as if the trip had come to an end. We packed our luggage before venturing out to Wan Chai, Mongkok and Causeway Bay for some last-last-minute shopping. Had breakfast in Wan Chai (we were deeply disappointed that our favourite 冬菇亭 had closed down) and suddenly Slug had to go back to our apartment for some urgent toilet business, so I went for a cheap manicure at a nail salon nearby. Slug joined me at the salon later, and we entertained ourselves by reading the tabloids and nail magazines.

Breakfast of macaroni soup at a cha can ting in Wan Chai

Wah Chai market streets

Bought egg noodles at the noodle store

Very big and tantalizing prawns on sale

Hong Kong is indeed quite happening. Throughout our stay here, we were bombarded with interesting and somehow bizarre news both in the social and entertainment scene. On the first day of arrival, a double-decker bus had exploded into flames. On Friday, it was reported that a panda had attacked a zookeeper at Ocean Park, and the next day, many unfortunate pedestrians were hurt and burnt when some goon threw two bottles of acid from an apartment onto the busy streets below in Mongkok. And from the juicy tabloids, we were enthralled by the raging news of Vivian Chow's fiance having an affair with a foxy Miffty (coupled with her raunchy pictures), and Cecilia Cheung's mother having to pick rubbish for a living because the former was forbidden to give her any allowance. All these somehow made us look at Hong Kongers in a different light.

The PRC manicurist tending to my nails kept quizzing us on how Singapore is like, the cost of living, the education system and the language spoken there, and we suspected her intentions. In the end, she did a marvellous job and did not even charge me for the pink diamantes she used to decorate my nails. An shabbily-dressed old woman, who had entered not long ago and had been sitting in a corner and staring at me all this while, stood us and bade us farewell when we were about to leave, urging us to come again. We were floored when she revealed that she was the boss of the salon. Appearances are so deceiving!

I became a Rilakkuma fan overnight and I fell in love with the specialty shop in Mongkok selling Rilakkuma towels, clocks, stuffed toys, notebooks, stickers, bento sets etc. Slug could not stop looking at speakers and amplifiers the whole time, constantly spewing names like McIntosh, Rotell and Mission and rambling about how good the quality of their audio equipment was.

Back to Causeway Bay for our third (and last) KFC meal, no thanks to Slug the KFC junkie, before lugging our heavy bags out of our apartment at 6pm (black night sky fooled us into thinking it was already 8pm).

Causeway Bay MTR station

My first Rilakkuma collectible

I liked KFC's chocolate marshmallow pie - fluffy marshmallow cream with liquid chocolate within a crumbly digestive cookie crust

We took a cab to Shun Tak Ferry Terminal, and boarded the ferry bound for Macau at 8pm.

Passengers dozing off on the ride

Slug and I on the ferry

After arriving at the ferry terminal in Macau and clearing the checkpoints, we waited a long time for the Holiday Inn Hotel shuttle bus, before we gave up and took a cab there instead. The hotel gave us a free room upgrade, much to our delight, and it was bigger and comfortable room on the 25th floor.

We were famished so we returned to our usual cha can ting opposite of our hotel for a late-night dinner. Although expensive, we were still quite pleased with their cooking.

Seafood noodles in a creamy broth and with a generous chunks of seafood

Slug's Three Treasures Rice

The cha can ting's dizzying variety of dishes

We then headed to Rio for some fun with our favourite masquerade-themed jackpot machine. There's nothing more fun in this world than to strike different combinations with those cute jackpot icons and watching the numbers roll in front of our eyes. And the clatter of the coins gushing out of the machine. We concluded our session at 2am, making some SGD$40. I had a bad feeling about it because it got Slug all hyped up and hopeful again as he believed we really could make money just by sitting there and pressing the buttons of the jackpot machine. Hurriedly dragged him out of there and back to our hotel for a good night's rest.

Slug admiring the glowing splendour of the watches in a pawnshop

Thanks to Ms Carebear, walking around in the hotel room in a bathrobe is the norm for me!