All credit to the local government for efficiency. We got notified that our HK permanent resident visa’s are ready and we needed to leave the country and re-enter to activate them. Nice and close is a small Island called Macau, perfect for a weekend away or even a day trip. Only 1 hour by ferry and you are there.
Originally Portuguese with a few churches left standing but apart from the very famous Portuguese tart that is still sold by the thousands you won’t see much of Portugal in Macau any more. Macau, as small as it is, produces four times the revenue of Las Vegas at present. It’s proximity to China the main reason.
All the famous Hotels and Casino’s are represented. I booked us in at a new one that just opened this month called “The Galaxy”. Had a bit of a worry because once they took my money online I had no idea how I was suppose to get my tickets for the ferry that was suppose to be included. That’s where it started anyway.
So we went to the Ferry terminal looking for a Galaxy office … and learnt that one does not exist. As the day got older and the options in getting there got less and less it started looking more like a episode out of the Amazing Race. I got the iPad out of the suitcase, thank goodness I took it with, and found a email with a customer service number that informed me of a completely unrelated company’s name that is currently dealing with all their ferry tickets in the interim.
Got the tickets only to find out that the next ferry would only be at 3 and we would have to wait for almost 3 hr’s before we could leave and then once we tried to squeeze into a line to get us on earlier we found out that we would have to buy another ticket for Jake anyway because the package deal only included 2 tickets and he is older than 1 and needed his own.
So I finally lost my shit and bought us 3 first class tickets on a different ferry that left in 15 min. and the 3 of us sat at our own table ( the only one in the ferry ) right in front of the TurboJet ferry looking like a South African family that must have a husband that’s a high roller at some casino and must be scared of flying in the chopper that normally takes all the people that doesn’t want to mix with the common folk to the Island.
Thankfully the rest of the trip was less eventful, if you exclude the fact that on the way back we took a taxi to the ferry terminal on the main Island at 2:15 knowing that we still had to clear customs and depart at 3 pm. Because after our arrival at the terminal we were informed that we where actually on the wrong Island and had to go back to the Island we came from to get the ferry from that terminal. With the help of a policeman ( thanks mate ) we managed to get another taxi back and arrived at 2:40 pm. We cleared customs and ran past the desk at Cotai ferries so fast that the clerk didn’t have enough time to tell me in his broken English that we needed to buy Jake his own ticket and managed to board the 3 pm ferry with at least 2 minutes to spare.
We are home and we have our passports stamped. Glad the first run to Macau is out of the way. Next time we’ll look like pro’s.
A couple of phodies
