No need to be alarmed -- everything's cool

So the typhoon was a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting flying trees, street signs ripped off of their poles, weeping mothers as they witness their small children whipped into the air...

Ok, so maybe thats a bit of an exaggeration... :b

It rained a bit last night and we had some wind but that was it. The typhoon had traveled back onto itself and was heading for Macau. Once it hit land, it dissipated and the warning went back down to a T3 then to a T1.

So we headed out to Macau as planned early in the afternoon. We took the MTR to 上環, bought tickets for the 2.30 pm TurboJet, walked back and forth from the West Gate to the East Gate because SOMEBODY didn't know which gate we had to use to board :b Once we finally figured it out, we sat down at Gate 5 and waited for the hydrofoil to arrive.

We had about 45 minutes to kill so I left RC sitting at the gate while I tried to find people to harass. I passed a couple of caucasians who were with 2 chinese girls standing in what I thought was the stand-by ticket line so I got a bit curious to find out how much their tickets were. So I decided to approach them. I mean what could they do to me? I don't know them, they don't know me, and I wasn't going to see them again anyways...

me: Excuse me, but are you in the stand-by ticket line?
him: Uh no. The stand-by line is OVER THERE (pointing at the line behind me with disdain)

Oh great, I thought. This dude was literally talking to me with a degrading tone of voice. What a prick :b I decided to just ignore it. I smiled and said,

me: Oh, you wouldn't happen to know how much the stand-by ticket is would you?
him: No, I don't know. (and literally turned his back on me)

O-KAY... So I walked back to RC and thought, what the heck was up his a&&? :b

I told my story to RC and he chuckled and shook his head... "EXPATs.. ;)"

Heh, I hope I don't end up acting like that...

We got onto the ferry and had some trouble finding our seat but once we did, the boat started to go and we were riding the green waves towards Macau.

When we got within 15 minutes, the water turned from light green to BROWN. Ick. I don't want to know whats in that water :b

When we arrived, we went thru immigration and I was attacked by a local trying to sell me a walking tour :b I wanted to karate chop him but felt I shouldn't since I may get arrested :b so I brushed him off and RC and I ventured outside in the pouring brown rain :b

Our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf, which was really nice! The buildings were done up to look a little like Vegas and a bit of Portugal too. It was really quite nice even tho it was raining hard. After a brief walk around, we walked to The Sands casino/hotel and waited for a taxi for 20 minutes! $21 HKD later, we arrived at Senado Square and walked to the "blank">Ruins of St. Paul. An *amazing* site especially as you walk along the cobblestone street leading up to it.

After a brief look around and some photos later, we headed back down the street to find some delicious goodies and beef jerky! :D (Momcy, I'm sending you a box of these goodies!) At 6.30pm, we tried a small Portuguese restaurant -- oxtail soup, baby octopus, mixed grill of porkchop, lamb, and chicken, and some veggies. Not bad... perhaps a tad on the pricey side but it was ok :) My mom can cook WAY better... especially the oxtail soup!

It was getting darker so we cabbed our way back to the ferry terminal and took some night shots of the white bridge. We had some time to kill so we stepped into Yaohan (!) which not only sold groceries, but clothes too! :b

We were both glad to finally sit down in our seats on the TurboJet. It was a long day for the both of us and I just wanted to get out of my damp clothes and into a hot shower...

At immigration, I finally got my passport stamped CORRECTLY (YAY!)...

Would I go back to Macau? Only for the goodies... ;)

Oh, if you want to see photos, they're on Facebook! :D