We had such a great time in Macau back in February that I was looking for an excuse to get back.  I found that excuse in AK, who started at my new office on the same day that I did but is, unlike me, new to Hong Kong.  His employment visa came through and he needed to do a quick visa run so I volunteered us as Macau tour guides and he eagerly accepted.  I outlined a plan for the day and told him that we weren’t into casinos at all but that our last stop for the day could be at the MGM, where my gf and I could relax in the bar (last time we were there they had a pretty decent band) while he could either hang with us in the bar or just go a few feet away and gamble to his heart’s content.   I should also mention that I haven’t been to Macau on a weekend in years, way before the current boom.

We arrived early enough for lunch and I suggested dim sum.  Last time we were there, we had a great lunch at Laurel at the Star World Hotel.  This is the one Macau branch of the Shenzhen-based restaurant chain and I think it’s terrific for food, decor and service.   The Star World certainly knows how to lure in the punters – this is what greeted us when we walked into the lobby.

Yes, look closer, they are probably all transsexuals.

The lunch didn’t disappoint.  We had 11 or 12 dishes.  The wrapper around the har gow was a bit too thick but the char siu bau was amazingly good and in fact all of the dishes were at the very least seriously good.

An hour later we were seriously full and set out to walk off that lunch.   Walking up to San Ma Lo, we took a small detour so we’d pass Margaret’s Cafe e Nata, home of what some people say is the best egg tart in Macau.  This being a Saturday, it was of course busy.

So we gave the egg tarts a pass and kept on walking.   We just missed some sort of kendo demonstration at the Largo do Senado square.

Directly across from that, some sort of protest going on.

As we walked on, it was getting crowded.  Look at how many people are clustered around this stall selling pork chop buns.

And that was just a preview of things to come.  We turned the corner and here’s the street leading up to Sao Paolo.

Sao Paolo itself wasn’t as crowded; I got the impression that the destination for most people was just this street for shopping.

I’ve got a thousand pictures of Sao Paolo so I decided to concentrate on taking pictures of people taking pictures of people – far more interesting to me at this point.

There’s lots more good ones along these lines but for some reason uploading pictures this morning is much slower than usual.  Anyway, after an hour or so, back down the hill.  The Koi Kei bakery has 3 or 4 branches along this single street and all of them were mobbed.

But we braved the crowds because no trip to Macau is complete without getting some goodies from Koi Kei – and as much as we bought, buddy AK bought twice as much.

Further down the hill, I peered in the window of an optical shop and saw some sunglasses from Parasite and I seriously liked the look of one pair.  Went inside, tried them on, loved them.  But they were expensive.  The guy said (of course) that everyone else in town was completely sold out of them and the ones in the window were the last ones they had in stock and they’d give me a 10% discount.  I wavered, hesitated, and asked about 20%.  The guy said he’d ask his boss.  A minute later, he’s back.  ”My boss says he would never discount 20% but you look like a nice guy so it’s okay.”  Oh shit.  It was too easy and this line of bs?  I should have asked for 25 or 30%.  So now I’m looking for a way to back out of the deal.  AK notices a tiny bit of discoloration on the frame – honestly, I could own them for 10 years and never spot it the way my eyes are but now we’re like, “this is no good.”  The sales clerk tries wiping and wiping but it’s still there.  So he takes them in the back, comes out two minutes later, would you believe they actually tried to paint over that spot!!!!  And of course the paint’s not an exact match, so now even I can see the difference.  And so, we left the store without buying anything.  (Got home, looked on eBay, no Parasite glasses there.  The PuYi chain in HK sells this brand, probably more expensive than Macau – so probably do without or wait till we get back there again.)

Further down the hill, a t-shirt shop.   This is where I got my “Obamao” shirt last time.  Is it actually an anti-Obama shirt?  Is it saying he’s a Commie?  The possibility has occurred to me.

AK was shocked that they could sell that Ronald McDonald Hitler shirt.   He doesn’t yet realize that people here have a different take on all that and, as we’ve seen in the past, some shops think that Nazi symbolism is “cool.”   I couldn’t quite explain it to him – the best I could come up with at the moment was, “Hey, the Germans never attacked in this part of the world; the Japanese did all the atrocities here.”

We kept walking and walking.  It was around 6 PM, way too early for dinner, and I wasn’t quite sure what to suggest for the next couple of hours.  So I suppose it’s partly my fault that our day went off the rails at this point.  ”When do I get to see a casino?” AK asked.  And as we were passing the Grand Lisboa, we went inside.  He found the poker tables and said he needed an hour.   Okay, fine.  My gf and I set off in search of massage, but there doesn’t seem to be any in that area, short of ultra-expensive hotel spas and men-only saunas with happy endings.

We end up sitting outside the Grand Lisboa, an opportunity for me to at least grab a few more photos.  Check out the stockings on the girl in the first shot below.

Back inside, 8 PM, AK tells us that he thinks it’s just 3 more rounds to go and then he can leave.   While my gf goes to the toilet, I stand behind a baccarat table and watch a guy play the game, which I’ve never played.  I’m not sure if this is a game for idiots but it certainly struck me that way.  The dealer would give him his two cards and he’d hold them flat on the table and bend the corners up to see what they were, as if it was some huge secret, but then a second later he’d flip them over and toss them to the center of the table.  The dealer would reveal her two cards.  She’d give the guy another card face down and he’d bend it up on one side and study it carefully before tossing it at his other two cards.  That’s all he can do.  If there’s any strategy in playing this game, I couldn’t see it.  (I suppose the option to take or not to take that third card is the only option available.)  Then the dealer took a card and 4 times out of 5, the dealer won.   The minimum bet at this table was HK$500 and I think the guy lost around $5,000 in the few minutes I was standing there.  Not for me.

We collapsed into the Crystal Deli and Lounge, got some tea and coffee and I could see the stage on the casino floor, where three women were alternating between the can-can and pole dancing.  The mega-huge screen on one side of the casino kept telling me about how much money Mr. Chen won at Caribbean stud poker and an upcoming show at the “Rockza” Theatre featuring Japanese AV stars in various states of undress.  And then offers of a “complimentary tour” of “more than 10 unique items” at the Grand Lisboa – including pictures of Stanley Ho holding up various mega-expensive items from his personal collection, with this little Mona Lisa mini-smile that said he’s thinking, “Yeah, that’s right, all you suckers paid for me to have all this.”   All I could think about was this was a seriously seedy affair despite all the pretense to the contrary.

At 9 PM, AK said he was still stuck.  They wouldn’t let him cash out, he had to stay until the end of the tournament.  That he didn’t know it was a tournament when he sat down.  That he’d been scammed.  And so on.  He suggested that we go for dinner and he’d call us and find us once he was done.

At this point, my gf and I were no longer in the mood for the nice dinner I’d originally planned (had been thinking of O Porto Interior or Litoral).  And I didn’t want to go too far away and make it too difficult for AK to find us.  So we went across the street to the old Lisboa and pushed through the hordes of mainland prostitutes in micro-mini-dresses and push-up bras patrolling the basement in search of any punter who wanted to celebrate his victory with a quickie to get to the Noite e Dia coffee shop, which has a huge menu and acceptable food.   (Note:  my gf ordered the ceasar salad with a grilled chicken breast and it was an entire chicken breast, not sliced, and apparently not spiced before it was cooked either – completely bland although the salad itself was quite nice.)

By 10:30, we still hadn’t heard from AK.   We had 12:15 AM return tickets (long story) and I had no idea what we could do at that point to kill an hour.   We walked around, sat where we could, I tried to call him a couple of times but no answer.   Finally at 11:30 we went to the ferry terminal.

Tried calling him one more time, still no answer.  The boat was fairly empty and he definitely wasn’t on it.  All we could do was shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, he’s a big boy, I’m sure he knows how to take care of himself.”   Looking forward to finding out about the rest of his trip when I see him at the office on Monday.

We were both really tired on the boat and I wanted to grab a quick nap.   Just as my eyes started closing, the Australian guy sitting behind me thought it was the perfect time to demonstrate all the really cool ring tones he had on his phone to his teenage son.

Home by 2:15.  Asleep by 2:30.

Tonight we’re going to the Teresa Carpio concert at the HK Coliseum.  I’ve got a photo pass and hope to be able to share some nice shots with you within a few days.