Day four: tempt not a desperate man

And let us tell you, William Shakespeare was bang on the money with that one!
Some say the true test of a person is how well they do in the face of temptation. That being said, this means that one of us is a little stronger than the other...
Today we went to Macau – I’m sure you’re all anxiously awaiting to see whether or not we doubled our travel fund, and I’m sad to say that this is not the case. While Brad faced an absolute beating on the Blackjack table, rather than sensibly call it a day, he instead tried to gamble his way out of his losses. He insisted that this is exactly what Les would do in the same situation (much to my disagreement), which therefore justified his actions. Needless to say, we’re on the bones of our arse for the rest of our time in Hong Kong! Thankfully though we can probably skip dinner...
My highlight of the day (other than watching Brad blow money like it was going out of fashion) was lunch. For just over NZ$20 we feasted on anything and everything you could imagine. I paid particular attention to the dessert buffet, which was so diverse it was actually stressful. Trying to decide what sauce to put on my rocky road ice-cream sundae just about killed me (melted chocolate and blueberry if you’re interested). Brad feasted on even more prawns and about 10 different types of roast meat! Honestly those that don’t believe in God need to come to Macau and see the amount of delicious food. I counted 10 different types of lettuce for goodness sake!
Macau is a crazy place – like Hong Kong, Macau is governed by two countries and was colonised by Portugal, but exists as part of China. It feels quite South American, crossed with Vegas and China, with a total of 32 casinos – each one more extravagant than the last. After getting off the ferry, we were accosted by girls in cabaret outfits insisting we go to their casinos. In the end we chose Sands Casino, as they had a free shuttle bus and it was relatively close to the ferry terminal. As the bus pulled into an extravagant gold coloured building, we knew we were in the right or wrong place (depending on who’s view you’re looking at!).
I fluttered away HK$20, which is equivalent to NZ$4, then promptly gave up. Casinos just aren’t my thing and just watching Chinese business men gambling away thousands of dollars a hand made me feel ill – especially when you consider how much poverty is probably in other parts of the country. All was not lost though, and I did walk away with HK$.10, roughly 2c!
Brad on the other hand loves a good game of Blackjack, and while he’s usually very sensible, unfortunately he must have left his common sense in New Zealand, as I had to leave the table and go and watch the dancing girls instead (can you believe they have a cabaret show!?). I wasn’t the only girl there though, so I imagine all the other girlfriends must have been in the same boat! But all was not lost as we did walk away with full bellies, good memories and a complimentary packet of cards (albeit an expensive pack!)
On the way back we stopped at my new favourite place in the world, H & M, which is a huge department store full of the coolest clothes for ridiculously cheap prices. It’s based in the UK so we’re going to have an absolute field day when we get over there! They have male stuff as well, so it’ll be a one-stop shop for everyone’s Christmas presents!
Tonight we’ll try and get an early one, with perhaps one last little stroll of Tsim Sha Tsui, as we’ll be up at 4am tomorrow to head to the airport. We’re catching the bus there as the subway isn’t open at that hour. It will be hard for us to go back to buses – subways are amazing and so quick. Goodness knows how we’ll cope when we’re back in NZ and have to drive. Without sounding like one of those unpatriotic ex-pats who whine about how small/ slow NZ is when they return, we really are lacking in terms of public transport. In fact, it’s quite embarrassing – goodness knows how we’ll cope during the World Cup!
So that’s it for the Hong Kong updates, when you next hear from us we’ll be in London-town, but before then we have a 14 hour plane ride to get through, as well as navigating our way to Shady and Emily’s on the underground!
If we can leave you with one message about Hong Kong, it’s that you have to come here, if you haven’t already. It’s amazing and definitely one of our favourite places.
Love to all and miss you very much!
Love a little-poorer Kylie and Brad!
xx