This is something from the Japan/Hong Kong trip that I'm posting only now, almost a year later.
On December 21, 2016 I went to Macau for a longer period of time than I have in the past (two days instead of one). This is what I wrote:
Reminds me of Nicaragua - the flora, the climate, the type of building and the same sort of wear of tiles. Which isn't to say anything.
I feel like - in my lazy one-day analysis of here - Hong Kong and Macau are cousins - both colonized, have the same language and handed back to China around the same time, but with different economic consequences and realities. It's like that iconic movie Isabella. Going to Macau actually feels like living that movie. I feel people here are bitter. The restaurant worker remarked that our party of 11 ordered so few things (rightly so). The taxi driver from the story below. Well, when the main source of income is casinos, big huge ones...yes I'd be bitter too. But so far I see less old women begging on the street (maybe they're invisiblized), parks with more amenities, and people actually stopping to converse on the streets, unlike in Hong Kong.
Here's the conversation the taxi driver had with my aunt as he drove us from the harbour to a restaurant:
Taxi driver: You're coming from Hong Kong:
Aunt: Work must be busy for you, unlike us. You were given lots of money to develop by China.
TD: Hong Kong has a booming economy and culture. You can't complain.
A: But no one can buy an apartment.
TD: Same in Macau.
A (to me): Look, there's The Venetian.
TD: Wow, and you speak English.
A: Just like everybody else. It was imposed on us.
TD: What about that ambassador Leung Chun-ying and those councillors. So embarrassing. You send your children to get proper schooling and they turn out like this. Their mom and dad can no longer save face. Hong Kong tourists are propping up our economy, if it wasn't for you, we would be out of jobs. Hong Kong had a lot of mainland tourism but they said you don't welcome them so it's lessened now.
A: That's just some people.
Moral of the story is, I should take taxis and talk to their drivers more often.
--
Casino Town - Las Vegas redux/Las Vegassed
After having visited The Parisian casino and many Eiffel Tower replicas, Google reminded me that 8 years ago today I had visited and taken photos atop the one in Paris :)
On December 21, 2016 I went to Macau for a longer period of time than I have in the past (two days instead of one). This is what I wrote:
Reminds me of Nicaragua - the flora, the climate, the type of building and the same sort of wear of tiles. Which isn't to say anything.
 | |
| Stair names in Portuguese and Chinese! |
 |
| View atop a hill in a park we went to...I forget the name of the park. |
Here's the conversation the taxi driver had with my aunt as he drove us from the harbour to a restaurant:
Taxi driver: You're coming from Hong Kong:
Aunt: Work must be busy for you, unlike us. You were given lots of money to develop by China.
TD: Hong Kong has a booming economy and culture. You can't complain.
A: But no one can buy an apartment.
TD: Same in Macau.
A (to me): Look, there's The Venetian.
TD: Wow, and you speak English.
A: Just like everybody else. It was imposed on us.
TD: What about that ambassador Leung Chun-ying and those councillors. So embarrassing. You send your children to get proper schooling and they turn out like this. Their mom and dad can no longer save face. Hong Kong tourists are propping up our economy, if it wasn't for you, we would be out of jobs. Hong Kong had a lot of mainland tourism but they said you don't welcome them so it's lessened now.
A: That's just some people.
Moral of the story is, I should take taxis and talk to their drivers more often.
--
Casino Town - Las Vegas redux/Las Vegassed
After having visited The Parisian casino and many Eiffel Tower replicas, Google reminded me that 8 years ago today I had visited and taken photos atop the one in Paris :)
 |
| Las Vegas, or the replica of Las Vegas? Or a city in its own right? |
No comments:
Post a Comment