Stop 3.3 Macau / 澳门 – shiny things

Macau is only an one-hour boat trip away from Hong Kong. There is a boat almost every half an hour.

Under portuguese influence, you can feel the mediterranean style in many places. But today, the town is filled with chinese tourists. The usual scenaries are probably a bit boring since they are simply ruins from the time the Portuguese were there. Also the brief history of Macau was mentioned in the HK history museum so I just quickly walked through.

Some food I had: congee, pork steak bum and some Portuguese style food (it is supposed to be a bit different than the original Portugues food, a similar comparison is to try French food in Vietnam). I was waiting half an hour for a egg tart, but stupidly enough, I didn’t get a ordering ticket before queueing for the pick up (it was not signalized). There is a couple from Beijing too and did the same mistake, they were 2 people and were kind enough to let me join their order. But in the end, they were not able to get the right batch so we gave up. It was nice to observe that how in this kind of situation, they reacted to the owner. They stayed calm and wanted to suggest that the shop put up a sign to inform how they organized themselves.

Of course, the main attraction are the casinos. The largest one on the island that I arrived at is the Lisboa. A really weirdly shaped building. Is it a leaf? Is it a feather? It is built with the money that people gambled away, that is for sure.

On the other island of Macau, I discovered some narrow roads which reminded me just of mediterranean cities. A small restaurant with some candle lights brings you into the right mood.

The largest casinos of course: The Venetian, The Parisien, The Galaxy. I didn’t end up having too much time to observe so I just spent 15 minutes in the Venetian. Jesus it was huge. The minimum bet I saw was 500 HKD. Quite ridiculous. And people there gamble away in a serious face wanting to win so badly. Where is the joy? Just like I saw in Helsinki once in the casino, people don’t really enjoy themselves. Even when someone wins something in roulette, it is just an expected return. Expectation! We often expect so much and are let down once we don’t get what we expected or hoped to get. Especially when we expect anything from things/people that we can’t really control. Should we ever expect anything from others? Of course we want to be treated the way we treat other people, but in the end if they don’t … we might feel angry, we might feel sad, we might get hurt, especially if  you cared a lot about that person. Where is the balance of setting expectations? If you cease to expect anything at all, don’t you loose your motivation sometimes? Or is it ok to expect and just deal with the consequence?

Me, in Guangzhou, just said goodbye to a travel friend I met 3 years ago again for 2 days

 

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