|
|
|
||||||||
8th January (Day Thirty Four)
Got up really early today as I have decided to go and visit the island of Macau, which is just sixty five kilometres away from Hong Kong.
Macau.
Macau is the oldest surviving European settlement and is Portugal's last colony. It is an oddity which has managed to cling to the Chinese coast since the mid 16th century despite attempts by the Chinese, the Spanish and the Dutch to brush it off.
From 1498 to 1557 the Portuguese had been trying to conquer the spice trade of the Moluccas (now known as Indonesia), and in 1513 when the first Portuguese set foot in China, they started to trade from an island close to Macau at the entrance to the Pearl River. In 1556 there was an agreement between the Chinese and the Portuguese to let them rent some land in the form of a peninsula known as A-Ma-Goa, Amaco, Aomen and Macau, apparently in return for ridding the stretch of sea around Hong Kong of pirates.
Macau grew rapidly as a trading centre, largely because the Chinese wanted to trade with the West but could not go abroad as the penalty for doing so was death! The most lucrative route to open was that of the long circuit from the west of India to Japan and back, with Macau as an essential link. Acting as agents for the Chinese merchants they took Chinese goods to the west coast of India, exchanging them for cotton and textiles which they then took to Malacca and sold to local merchants in exchange for spices and aromatic woods. The Portuguese then continued on to Japan where they sold their Malacca cargo for Japanese silver, swords, laquerware and fans, returning to Macau to exchange them for Chinese goods. The Japanese were forbidden to enter Chinese ports and with the trade with other Asian nations being fairly insignificant, and the lack of any other Europeans on the scene, the Portuguese became the carriers of all large scale international commerce with China and Japan.
From 1850 to the 19th century, Macau had a fairly turbulent existence with constant threat of invasion from the Chinese, Spanish, Dutch and British. For this reason the Portuguese built large forts to help defend them selves against any such attack. They also built their homes and churches in the traditional Portuguese style and, even today, it is obvious where the roots of this tiny island came from.
Once the joint declaration over Hong Kong was signed by Britain and China, it was inevitable that China would seek a similar agreement with Portugal on Macau's future and an agreement was finally made in 1987. Under this agreement Macau will become a special administrative region for China for fifty years from 20th December 1999 and, rather like Hong Kong, it will have a high degree of independence except for defence and foreign matters.
The whole of Macau covers just sixteen square kilometres and is only 1.6% of Hong Kong's land total. Today it is famous for the one thing that is not legal in Hong Kong, licensed gambling which was introduced back in the 1800's to help boost the economy. It is for this reason that the Hong Kong Chinese visit Macau in such large numbers. click to see map
I headed for Kowloon on the Kowloon/Canton Railway (KCR) and, at the first station where I could connect, I transferred to the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and headed to Central on Hong Kong Island where I was to catch a hydrofoil boat to Macau. The price for the journey was HK$98.00 (£7.00) for the one hour journey. It was rather like a flight in an aircraft than a journey in a boat, I had to keep my seat belt fastened at all times and the inside was very similar in layout to an aircraft.
At the Macau immigration they were fairly slow getting people through, I put that down to the problem they have with illegal immigrants which it was estimated, numbered around forty thousand in 1992. Once I had my passport checked and stamped, I headed off to catch a bus to take me to the area where all the casinos were, as this I thought would be the place to see the sights that Macau is famous for. I hunted around and eventually found a hotel for HK$150.00 (£10.00) and once I had dumped my bags I set off to explore. I walked for miles and miles just taking photographs and watching the people going about their daily lives. The streets were very colourful and all the street signs were in both Chinese and Portuguese so it was virtually impossible for me to get around with my map, except for trying to match the letters as my Portuguese is nonexistent. Because the island is so small, I found it very easy to walk around the main streets and soon got to know my way about the central areas.
Later in the afternoon I went to the main casino (Hotel Lisboa) to see what it was like. The first problem was that I had to leave my day sack in a cloakroom because it was full of undeveloped films from my journey I was not very keen however, faced with no other choice, I reluctantly agreed to leave it. Once inside the grandeur of the place was quite breathtaking and every where I looked there were sculptures and beautiful decorative finishes to all the walls and floors. There were three floors and each one had a different theme, for example the Jade Palace Rooms and the Royal Rooms, each floor had different types of games that could be played and I spent literally hours watching people just throwing away money, some looked as though they had loads to throw away as well! The whole building was round, the ground floor had One-Arm Bandits all around the outside with a large games room in the centre full of Roulette and Blackjack tables. Above the One-Arm Bandits was a big L.E.D. read-out that showed a large number that kept increasing very quickly all the time. This number being displayed showed the amount that anyone could win on the Bandits at any given time, and while I was in there it stood at, $1,666,720 although it was always changing as people kept piling their money into the slots and pulling the handle. Most people had so many coins that they were using small buckets to carry them around. The odds of hitting the jackpot, which is five 7's in a row, is approximately 3.2 million to one.
Other games that were being played were........
Blackjack:- A card game where you have to get as close to twenty one without going over and bust.
Roulette:- This of course is where the dealer spins a wheel and you have to bet on the outcome.
Baccarat:- Also known as Chemin De Fer and is becoming the card game for the rich. These rooms are always the most classy part of a casino.
Fan Tan:- This is an ancient Chinese game practically unknown in the West. The dealer takes an inverted silver cup and plunges it into a pile of pocelain buttons then places it to one side. after all the bets have been taken the buttons are counted into groups of four and you have to bet on what number will be left over after the last group has been counted, 1,2,3, or 4, as well as odds or evens. The minimum bet is M$20.00 (£1.50)
Dai Siu:- This game is played with three dice which are placed in a covered glass container. this is then shaken and you bet on the total of the toss, and whether it will be from three to nine (small) or ten to eighteen (big) If you bet on a big/small toss, the house only enjoys a 2.78% advantage.
Pai Kao:- This is Chinese for dominos and looks much like Mahjong which I saw being played on just about every street corner in China. One player is designated banker and the other players individually compare their hands against that of the banker. The casino doesn't play, but deducts a 3% commission for providing gambling facilities!
Keno:- This is also played in Western Casinos and of course in Las Vagas USA It is believed to have originated in China more than two thousand years ago and was introduced by Chinese railway workers in the late 19th century. Keno is basically a lottery where out of eighty numbers twenty are drawn. You are given a Keno ticket and the object is to list as many numbers as you think will be drawn. You can bet on for numbers, and if those for numbers are amongst the ones drawn, you are a winner. You can bet on five or six or seven numbers etc. but of course the higher the amount of numbers you bet on, the larger the odds are against you. There are only two drawings per hour so it looked a bit too slow and boring for me. I was amazed to see this fever that had swept through the place to see who could throw the most money away in on go! I thought that it was absolutely crazy to be so short sighted and just keep throwing it on the table just to see it taken by the croupier. Crazy, but good to watch!
After the casino I headed back to the hotel and went to bed as it was getting late and the time spent inside the casino had flown by.
9th January (Day Thirty Five)
I had decided to stay in Macau for just one day, and after I had woken up at 10.00am I checked out of the hotel and made my way back to Hong Kong. On the way back to the port where I was to get the Hydrofoil, I came across many interesting characters and could not help but take as many photographs as I could.
I wanted to find a way of thanking Ken & Freddie for putting me up for the time that I had spent in Hong Kong, so I went to a wine merchants to get a couple of bottles of Portuguese red wine which I thought they would appreciate. Later, in Shatin, I also bought Ken a Kenny Thomas CD which is full of saxophone music which I had discovered that Ken liked.
After the hydro-foil had arrived back at Quarry Bay on Hong Kong Island, I went straight to Customs to have my passport stamped, which was not so straight forward. There was a problem with the address where I was staying in Hong Kong. The problem was, Freddie was a lecturer at the Hong Kong Chinese University, and as they lived on campus that was the address that I had given. The problem was that my entry visa was only for a vacation, if I been there to study, I required a proper visa which I should have obtained before leaving England. Well no-one would believe that I was there for a holiday and that I was going to leave Hong Kong in a couple of days anyway. They called over their supervisor and I had to explain the whole story again, only this time I called his bluff and told him to ring Ken and Freddie and ask them I he did not believe me. I produced the number for him but I think that he then thought that it would not be worth the effort so he instructed the border guards to stamp my passport and let me pass. (Phew! For a moment I thought I was not going to get back in!)
I had decided to get my hair cut as well as having a good look around Shatin in the New Territories where I was staying. Once inside one of the big shopping centres at Shatin, I found a hairdressers that did both male and female haircuts, but no one appeared to speak any English so I was just a little bit worried how it was going to turn out! The haircut that I had was like nothing I had experienced before, it was not just a wash and cut as you would expect in England, but more of a complete scalp work-out. The first part was very nice as a young girl took me over to a large reclined chair in front of a sink. When I was laid out flat, it was very comfortable indeed. Next she did not just wash my hair, she spent at least twenty minutes massaging my scalp and fore head during the washing process, which, as well as getting my hair clean, was very sensuous! I had a job to keep awake as the entire experience was so relaxing but all good things have to come to an end. Next I was led to a (non- English speaking) hair stylist, (at this point I was thinking Help!) However he did not just start to cut, instead he spent ages talking to me trying to understand exactly what type of cut I required, and only when he was satisfied did he begin. He actually made a very good job and to this day it was probably the best hair cut I have ever had, certainly the best hair wash, and all for HK$85.00 (£6.00).
I then did a bit more shopping (it was then that I bought Ken his CD), and arrived back at the apartment at about 5.30pm and gave them the presents that I had bought for them. They said that I should not have bothered, but after seeing Chungking Mansions for myself, I was extremely grateful for their hospitality. The rest of the night I spent reading about Thailand (my next stop!), and wrote some post cards and my diary.
10th January (Day Thirty Six)
Today I went to the second top tourist attraction within Hong Kong, Aberdeen Harbour where more than six thousand people live or work on Junks (boats) anchored in the harbour. Sampans (small boats) dash around the harbour, diving in and around the many larger junks ferrying passengers to the main land, or taking tourists out to be amongst the boat dwellers. The price for the tours were around HK$35.00 (£2.50p) and were worth it to see how the people live within the harbour area.
I personally was not too impressed with the harbour itself, I had probably got an image in my mind which was not the same as the one that I saw in reality. It was hard to put my finger on just what was disappointing, and probably if I had not seen all the wonderful things and experienced all the amazing things that I have experienced over the past month or so, the harbour would have been a wonderful experience, but on this occasion it was not going to be for me. Much of the day was spent sightseeing on Hong Kong Island in and around Central, and I found some great English style pubs where one can get all the British beers, if they had a T.V. on I am sure they would have "Eastenders" on! There is a large Ex-Pat community here in Hong Kong which is bought to ones attention by the amount of European influence in the design of the pubs, and of course by the cliental frequenting the establishments.
I did yet more shopping in Tsimshatsui and had a great meal at a Spaghetti House in the evening, and at 7.30pm telephoned Michelle for a quick chat as the next day I was off to Thailand and I was not sure when I would be able to telephone her again.
email h2oskineil@aol.com