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Come with us as we make our way from Good Ole' Texas to fabulous Hong Kong, China.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Macau and the Rich Chinese

So, if Facebook is reliable, all of our friends and loved ones had a fantastic Christmas. That's good! Now onto New Years? Whew! This time of year is always a wild ride and then BOOM, a whole new year. Our Christmas was small, quaint, but wonderful. My Santa always rocks and that's why I love him all year round!

Dan is on a month to month business visa which requires a trip to Hong Kong every month and the company pays for it. Harsh, huh? I love it when Corporations drop the ball and we get a monthly get-away!

So, with that in view, one of Dan's Christmas gifts was a trip to Macau, which is the Chinese version of Las Vegas. Guess what folks, it's better in so many ways.

The thing about Las Vegas, yes there's no place like it on earth (probably a good thing), but it is old. Macau is an old city, but Gaming wasn't allowed until quite recently so everything is huge, lush, and brand new!

Now the Chinese only get 2 holidays a year. A week in February for Chinese New Year and a week in October. For the average Chinese person, this always means going to the town you are from and spending it with family. The reason I point this out is..... this means that the Chinese and other tourists who can just take off and go to Macau are only the extremely wealthy and so this place and any other hot spot is all about Luxury and VIP treatment. And as a Westerner, they don't realize you may only be a normal Engineer living in Mainland China, they assume you are seriously wealthy and expect only the best like they do. So for two days we have fallen into this catagory without even trying to.

Example, since we are leaving for Hong Kong first thing in the morning, Dan asked the Conceirge if he could go ahead and buy Ferry Tickets here from them. They quickly ushered us into the V.I.P. only part of the hotel (a completely seperate section with it's own conceirge, shops, and restaurants not accessable to regular hotel guests). Sat us down, offered us tea or anything else, and let us relax while he got us tickets on a Hydroflight craft (it looks like a yacht and goes much faster than the regular ferries). Just because we were American, they assumed this was the treatment we required. Of course we would have been idiots to argue, so there you go.

The guests in the hotel, I could watch all day. Soooo fabulous and soooo obviously wealthy. It's a good thing I brought my Birkin so I could easily blend with the ladies who were all carrying theirs. We even saw one couple arriving in a stretch Mercedes Limo. I knew Mercedes had one, but had never seen it parked right beside me. As usual with this set, the stores were extremely high end and full of shoppers.

Another Example, I wanted a pair of dress shoes for Sam. She needs some grey ones. I pick up a cute pair of Silver dressy Combat Boot types to check the size and the price. $2,000.00 (they ended up being Dolce and Gabbana Jr.) So, ofcourse I put them down! After all, I'm not freakin' CRAZY!!!!!!

So, as soon as I put them back on the shelf, an absolutley gorgeous Chinese woman asks me if I don't want them. I've been in this setting awhile, so I just flip my hair casually and tell her no, they are not the right size. (Snicker, Snicker). She asks me if I am sure and I say, yes I am sure, they will not work for me. So she grabs them and heads straight to the cashier and buys the damn things. $2,000.00 shoes to fit a toddler. And not even everyday shoes!!!! Dressy shoes. I thought I was going to faint. lol.

So, to re-iterate. I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!!!!!

Until Next Time, Have a safe and Happy New Year!!!!!!!

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