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So, Macau.
Dad wanted to catch the bus because it was cheaper. I got a return ticket, depart at 9, return at 2. I didn't count on 'time to immigrate' at the border. It took us about 2 hours to get to Macau by bus when you include immigration times. Departure from HK was easy enough. Arrival at Macao...
Asia has this thing where they make you stand in individual lines, and if your line gets stuck because someone at the front hasn't done the right thing, then you also get stuck in that line. I prefer the 'snake queue' where there's a long line of people and you step up to the next available teller. (But I prefer the individual line queue to what Sydney immigration does, which is basically a FREE FOR ALL - shove your way to the front and you're gold! Love my country, but Immigration is bloody idiotic.)
Anyway, the bus said "go through immigration at your earliest possibility, don't delay, because the bus will not wait for you and you're on your own: immigration takes about 20 minutes".
The bit about 'the bus will not wait for you and you're on your own' part is sliiiiiightly terrifying. Esepcially because I got caught behind a whole line of people whose passports were apparently not sufficient to get them to Macau, and - as you do - they stopped to try to argue the point. Which meant I was thinking "bloody hell, I'm going to get stuck on the border of two countries neither of whose language I speak, but where I could pass for one of the citizens and nobody is going to be able to communicate with me in my language" (technically, a lot of people in Asia speak English, however they don't understand it very well - it's pretty much on par with most westerner's language skills in Asia - you can do 'yes' and 'no' and things that require pointing, but any more complicated concepts like "how the hell do I get out of this country" are buckley's).
I did manage to get through and out, and ended up sprinting to the bus with another westerner guy on the bus who'd also gotten caught behind the 'not these passport' people. His partner is a HK resident, and they went through super-fast.
After that, got back on the bus and followed on to Macau.
Macau is best known for its casinos. Glamourous lifestyle, beautiful palatial spaces?
UGH.
I've been to Vegas. I've been to the Sydney casino and the Canberra casino and several other casinos in my life.
They're all pretty much the same. The job is to get patrons in and to keep them there spending money as long as possible. Which...I'm not a gambler. I like playing, but I prefer doing so with friends, setting a fixed amount to lose, playing for the company and fun of it, and cheering people on. And the casinos I've visited are all designed to showcase a glamour and glory that implies wealth and excess. 'Sin City' so to speak. But the actual thing of spending money, shopping, or 'winning' isn't something that interests me.
The second point is that I've also been to Venice and London and Paris and New York. I'm the daughter of an architect. Modern engineering is a marvel and a wonder. But it's not the same kind of marvel and wonder that created the city of Venice and its waterways. It's not the same kind of ingenuity and physics principles (or physics-defying principles) that built stone palaces and places of worship. It's not the same degree of training and skill that the artisans had to learn in order to create lacework out of stone and metal and wood.
I admire the work that went into creating the ancient palaces because it was effort: blood, sweat, tears, training, and often lives lost in the building. The admiration of modern programs and just how easily we can replicate those ancient palaces with brick and mortar and plaster and polycarbonate sheathing is a different kind of appreciation and while I can admire the thought behind it and the general result, I do not admire the work of it - because it's not work.
Not like this:
That's a whole tile wall with glazing. They either laid out the tiles and glazed them and then kilned them, or did an entire glazed painting on a big slab of clay and then cut it up into smaller pieces. But it's beautiful, even if it's simple.
This isn't simple:
That's carved teak, y'all. CARVED TEAK. One piece, probably carved whole. In little lacework. With graphics! Someone spent their life learning how to do that, and this was probably a masterwork for them!
Also this one:
AAAAAAAH! AND THEY'RE LETTING IT ROT!
Look, yes, I am absolutely the weirdo who went around taking photos not of the bakery selling the Portuguese tarts that some influencer had posted about (they were really good tarts, but I found it entirely by accident), but of rotting old windows and temples and that were probably temples before my country was a country (okay, look, it's not like it's difficult or anything) and incense coils and random old buildings and beautiful gardens. This is how my brain works.
Getting out of the casino? BEST DECISION I MADE THAT DAY.
But I missed my bus back! Which was fine. I caught the ferry. It was 1 hour from shore to shore, and immigration was EASY. I don't actually think it was that much more expensive, either. *shakes her head at her dad*
--
I was going to post about the last day in HK, my stopover in Dubai, meeting an old Stargate friend in Nijmegen, and the Red Light District in Amsterdam, but I'm in London for one more day and I'm contemplating doing a Monopoly Board scavenger hunt. Obvs the UK one, not the US one. But it will take a bit of time and I need to fix up a pair of newly-bought 2ndhand trousers so they won't fall off my hips. That would be disastrous anywhere.
--
I managed my YT assignment. It's okay? But I think it warrants a rewrite because there are things that I am Not Satisfied with.
My Sedoretu Exchange assignment is still being worked on. They're just not co-operating. GRARGH. (I'll be honest; I might be more enthused about the Sedoretu exchange if I thought that the person I was writing for was real and not a sock.)
Dad wanted to catch the bus because it was cheaper. I got a return ticket, depart at 9, return at 2. I didn't count on 'time to immigrate' at the border. It took us about 2 hours to get to Macau by bus when you include immigration times. Departure from HK was easy enough. Arrival at Macao...
Asia has this thing where they make you stand in individual lines, and if your line gets stuck because someone at the front hasn't done the right thing, then you also get stuck in that line. I prefer the 'snake queue' where there's a long line of people and you step up to the next available teller. (But I prefer the individual line queue to what Sydney immigration does, which is basically a FREE FOR ALL - shove your way to the front and you're gold! Love my country, but Immigration is bloody idiotic.)
Anyway, the bus said "go through immigration at your earliest possibility, don't delay, because the bus will not wait for you and you're on your own: immigration takes about 20 minutes".
The bit about 'the bus will not wait for you and you're on your own' part is sliiiiiightly terrifying. Esepcially because I got caught behind a whole line of people whose passports were apparently not sufficient to get them to Macau, and - as you do - they stopped to try to argue the point. Which meant I was thinking "bloody hell, I'm going to get stuck on the border of two countries neither of whose language I speak, but where I could pass for one of the citizens and nobody is going to be able to communicate with me in my language" (technically, a lot of people in Asia speak English, however they don't understand it very well - it's pretty much on par with most westerner's language skills in Asia - you can do 'yes' and 'no' and things that require pointing, but any more complicated concepts like "how the hell do I get out of this country" are buckley's).
I did manage to get through and out, and ended up sprinting to the bus with another westerner guy on the bus who'd also gotten caught behind the 'not these passport' people. His partner is a HK resident, and they went through super-fast.
After that, got back on the bus and followed on to Macau.
Macau is best known for its casinos. Glamourous lifestyle, beautiful palatial spaces?
UGH.
I've been to Vegas. I've been to the Sydney casino and the Canberra casino and several other casinos in my life.
They're all pretty much the same. The job is to get patrons in and to keep them there spending money as long as possible. Which...I'm not a gambler. I like playing, but I prefer doing so with friends, setting a fixed amount to lose, playing for the company and fun of it, and cheering people on. And the casinos I've visited are all designed to showcase a glamour and glory that implies wealth and excess. 'Sin City' so to speak. But the actual thing of spending money, shopping, or 'winning' isn't something that interests me.
The second point is that I've also been to Venice and London and Paris and New York. I'm the daughter of an architect. Modern engineering is a marvel and a wonder. But it's not the same kind of marvel and wonder that created the city of Venice and its waterways. It's not the same kind of ingenuity and physics principles (or physics-defying principles) that built stone palaces and places of worship. It's not the same degree of training and skill that the artisans had to learn in order to create lacework out of stone and metal and wood.
I admire the work that went into creating the ancient palaces because it was effort: blood, sweat, tears, training, and often lives lost in the building. The admiration of modern programs and just how easily we can replicate those ancient palaces with brick and mortar and plaster and polycarbonate sheathing is a different kind of appreciation and while I can admire the thought behind it and the general result, I do not admire the work of it - because it's not work.
Not like this:
That's a whole tile wall with glazing. They either laid out the tiles and glazed them and then kilned them, or did an entire glazed painting on a big slab of clay and then cut it up into smaller pieces. But it's beautiful, even if it's simple.
This isn't simple:
That's carved teak, y'all. CARVED TEAK. One piece, probably carved whole. In little lacework. With graphics! Someone spent their life learning how to do that, and this was probably a masterwork for them!
Also this one:
AAAAAAAH! AND THEY'RE LETTING IT ROT!
Look, yes, I am absolutely the weirdo who went around taking photos not of the bakery selling the Portuguese tarts that some influencer had posted about (they were really good tarts, but I found it entirely by accident), but of rotting old windows and temples and that were probably temples before my country was a country (okay, look, it's not like it's difficult or anything) and incense coils and random old buildings and beautiful gardens. This is how my brain works.
Getting out of the casino? BEST DECISION I MADE THAT DAY.
But I missed my bus back! Which was fine. I caught the ferry. It was 1 hour from shore to shore, and immigration was EASY. I don't actually think it was that much more expensive, either. *shakes her head at her dad*
--
I was going to post about the last day in HK, my stopover in Dubai, meeting an old Stargate friend in Nijmegen, and the Red Light District in Amsterdam, but I'm in London for one more day and I'm contemplating doing a Monopoly Board scavenger hunt. Obvs the UK one, not the US one. But it will take a bit of time and I need to fix up a pair of newly-bought 2ndhand trousers so they won't fall off my hips. That would be disastrous anywhere.
--
I managed my YT assignment. It's okay? But I think it warrants a rewrite because there are things that I am Not Satisfied with.
My Sedoretu Exchange assignment is still being worked on. They're just not co-operating. GRARGH. (I'll be honest; I might be more enthused about the Sedoretu exchange if I thought that the person I was writing for was real and not a sock.)
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