Dash: Macau 2006 (repost)

from my old blog: 

Friday, May 25, 2007

Macau Madness

A year ago, Ariel and I went to Macau for two weeks.. Yeah it was crazy and all but here are some of the things that we got to do that made it so memorable:

1. Upon arrival at the Macau airport, the two of us got held up at the gates by the guards on duty.. Long story but we got in nonetheless after some time of confusion. But just to make things clear, we didn't get held up because Ariel looked like a terrorist! LOL. Although that might have been the reason why we got stopped in the first place by the guards who RANDOMLY choose from the arrivals whose possessions to check.

2. One of the nicest things about Macau are their buses. Air-conditioned, automated, and organized, they made getting around the place quite easy. Since we were staying in Taipa, which is a bridge across the main Macau area, the bus we were riding on our first bus trip alone went across the bridge... Then... Someone shouted (which we so did not understand), the bus stopped, and the people were all pushing to get out of the bus!! Waaa!!! We went along with them, a bit panicky ourselves only to find out that there was just something wrong with the engine and we just had to transfer buses. LOL. Of all the buses, it just had to be our bus. It was great standing there in the middle of the bridge since you don't normally get to stand there. Too bad we didn't even think of taking our picture to commemorate being stranded.

3. We helped out in the kitchen for lunch one Sunday! Woohoo! That was quite an experience for someone who doesn't really cook, doesn't really do the dishes, doesn't even set the table most of the time.. (okay, I'm not THAT lazy.. LOL) Which leads me to...

4. I cut myself with the knife I was using to.. Hmm... Slice onions?! I really can't remember what I was preparing then but I definitely cut myself. Why do I remember? Coz it hurt. LOL.

5. Since we just had to have internet.. We walked three hours just looking for a computer shop! LOL. It turned out that everyone there probably had their own internet connections at home or at the hotels or at the universities.. We finally found one near Senado square though. Whew! But not before tiring our feet out for the night.

6. We almost slept outside for the night LOL. There was something wrong with the keys to the apartment we were staying in with Ma'am Celine and family. And when they were in Hong Kong for the night, we almost didn't get in... Until..

7. We devised a way to open the gate with.. Chopsticks! LOL. For some weird reason, I was carrying chopsticks in my bag. And thank goodness for my uber thin wrists that we got to open the steel gate covering the door and was mercifully saved from staying out all night in the FREEZING COLD. (Yes, it was super freaking cold that time that even when we were safe inside, I still slept with my shoes on. LOL)

8. Since we were often on kitchen duty, it was also our duty to be able to communicate with the resident apartment keeper (for lack of a better term coz I can't think of any at the moment..) when the sink got clogged. Unfortunately for us, he doesn't speak much english. But since we were incredibly brilliant, we thought of taking a picture of the clogged sink with our camera phone and showed it to resident apartment keeper. Lo and behold! He understood! And soon we had the sink back in action and a thousand plus peso bill (once converted) in our hands. Just for the sink?! Waaaaaa... Thank goodness it doesn't cost that much to get a sink fixed around here. Liquid sosa lang ata katapat nun dito e hehehe. O kaya mainit na tubig.

9. On one of those days when we were roaming around looking for architectural firms, we got on a bus that included where we had to go to in its stops. Unfortunately, we didn't know that it already passed that stop and so on we rode until the bus was empty and the driver left his seat. Huh? Where were we? And that's the story of how we accidentally got to go to the border between Macau and China. But we never got to cross waaaa.

10. And the last but certainly not the least of our experiences, since these 10 are actually still quite a few compared to the numerous memorable experiences we had (I think Ariel and I actually had our first almost-fight in Macau due to very obvious personality differences hahaha), on our first Sunday there, we got to hear mass. In Portuguese. :)