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Day Seven: Macau Bound
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January 27, 2007
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« Day Six: Snake-eating Lesbians and Blackalicious | Main | Day Eight: In Macau, you Wynn Some, You Lose Some »
We'd been told that everyone in the office was going to an offsite event on Friday, so we wouldn't be teaching any classes. What we didn't know until this week was that the offsite was in Macau.
Macau is a Special Administrative Region of China, just like Hong Kong. It's a former colony of a foreign power, just like Hong Kong. And it's a tiny area that commands a disproportionate amount of income, just like Hong Kong. But where Hong Kong's strength lies in its financial institutions and large corporations, Macau's is in its casinos and gambling joints. Macau is the Las Vegas of China.
Pictured here is the roof of the building next door to the office, which is 28 stories up. Maintenance people ride around on the little cart on the foreground, and we've seen them jump casually from the cart to the roof as though they were jumping up onto the curb from the street.
I'd done a little research into Macau before coming out, trying to see
if it was something we wanted to plan to do. The consensus was that if
you really enjoy gambling and are in the area, it's worth visiting, but
if you like Vegas for its shows and attractions and non-gambling
entertainment, you'll be sorely disappointed. Since neither of us are
big gamblers, we didn't bother planning to go.
But it's one thing to head off to Macau by your lonesome, and quite
another to be out on the town with a bunch of friends. So when we were
extended an invitation to attend the offsite, we jumped at the chance.
I was in the pen with a bunch of the developers -- who are mostly a somewhat reserved bunch -- later in the day, when one of them approached me.
"You know about Macau, don't you?" he said.
"I've read a little bit."
"Well, Macau is known for three things," he said conspiratorially. "Two of these things I am sure you like. You do not look like the sort of person to do the third thing. Do you know what the three things are?"
"Gambling!" I volunteered.
"Yes, that's right. And the second?"
Actually, I knew what the third one was. Macau is a hotbed of prostitution. There are massage parlors, there are high-class escorts, there are women on the street. Anyone with half a mind to can find sex in Macau. And I was sure that he wasn't about to suggest that I was a whoremonger.
But for the life of me I couldn't figure out what the second thing was. I'd read a little about Macau, and hadn't come across anything else that it was known for. "I give up," I said.
"The second thing is...Prostitutes!" he trumpeted.
"What's the third thing!?" I asked.
He looked around to make sure no one with authority was listening. "Drugs," he whispered. "And you do not look like the sort of person who takes drugs."
But apparently I look like the kind of guy that regularly enjoys the company of prostitutes. Well, at least I know where I stand.
--
Foodwise, the day was fairly uneventful. Lunch was at a workaday
Cantonese place that was good but not remarkable. Joe and I had to
work through the evening to prepare for India, since we were headed to
Macau the next couple of days and wouldn't be able to prepare later.
We left the office around 11:30 p.m. and had dinner at the hotel
restaurant while watching people do karaoke. Had a couple of gin and
tonics and went to bed, dreaming of prostitutes.
Pictured here is the hydrofoil to Macau. A trip to Macau takes about an hour on one of these boats, where it used to take three hours on one of the older boats.
January 27, 2007 in Hong Kong | Permalink
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