Hong Kong and Macau p.1

Jeff had a work training in Hong Kong this past weekend, so we took this opportunity to check it off our list of places to see along with Macau. Now Jeff had about 50 places he wanted to see in a matter of a weekend. I was not quite sure how we were going to accomplish this, but was up for the ride. My only request for the weekend was to go the Wonderfish Spa to get a foot treatment given by little Garra Rufu fish that nibble on your feet to get the dead skin off. More on that later . ..

Sunday is reserved for Macau and we didn't put too much thought into how long the commute to get there could take. Besides for the one hour ferry ride, you still have to clear immigration since you are departing Hong Kong and this is a huge tourist trap so travel time to get to our first casino was about 3 hours. I had made the executive decision to skip all site seeing and head straight to the casino. The site seeing we were missing out on was of Portuguese style cobblestone streets leading down from a ruined cathedral. We were informed later on this was probably a great decision and we were better off just going to Portugal some time in our life.
The following will probably only makes sense to those of you that gamble and play blackjack but all of you can take from this that the casino was quite an interesting experience.

We took the free shuttle to the City of Dreams casino and after a quick look around we decided to grab a free spot at the $100 table(we are talking Hong Kong $). This is equivalent to the $10USD tables that sometimes arise at the MGM Detroit. For those of you that play blackjack you can probably recount the times you get irritated by a few people who have no idea what they are doing sitting down at the table that you silently curse as they refuse to take their hits (not so silently if your name is Jeff). If this really gets to you then avoid walking into a casino in Macau. However, for the entertainment value I highly recommend taking a seat. The few first things that we learned is there is a whole new set a rules in Asia. Talking on your cell at the table, taking notes and betting on other peoples hands were all allowed here. People that don't know or want to play can still lose their money by betting along with you. If you have a stack of chips and just hit a blackjack you can be sure someone is going to plop their $100 chip right behind yours. Since we do not speak Cantonese and the dealer seemed okay with this, we decided just to let it go. There is also an option to bet on getting a pair at 11-1 odds. While the odds are definitely not in your favor, many people enjoy this bet and we saw one lucky girl win over $4000 as she kept hitting pairs on different peoples hands. The other thing we learned is that Chinese people were in favor of fortune telling instead of statistics when playing. These people would rather see the dealer make his hand instead of busting early taking their hits. I am not sure that any person ever hit on a 16 and a 15 hit was agonizing. The man in the last seat would make every decision with the same grueling thought process as if he was deciding to take a loved one off life support. It did not matter if the dealer had a 3 or a 10, this guy seemed to want to will the cards to be the right number. Sometimes people would take their hits to the safe 17 and disappointed to see the next person get a 2. "I could have had a 19!" That is what I am assuming they yelled next in Cantonese. We were entertained but decided to go try our luck at the new Hard Rock table upstairs. Since there was a completely free $200 table, we thought we were better off there. We couldn't have been more wrong. As the dealer drew to 20 and 21 on the next 5 hands, Jeff quickly lost all his money and I was lucky to push a few times so I was just down. We decided to escape from this money pit.

Feeling inspired from parts of 'Indecent Proposal' which was on the night before I decided I had a feeling for red and told Jeff we should bet the remaining $600 on roulette. Of course, he was game for this and we found an open table. The dealer looked very confused as I set it all down on red. It became apparent that most people don't roll this way in Asia and he asked us if we wanted the chips to spread our bet. I declined as Jeff quoted the scene where Woody Harrelson loses all his money on red. I refrain from smacking him and stick with my bet. Red it is and we are almost back to even! It is hard to pull yourself away when you hit a big bet but we decide not to push our luck this time and head over to the Venetian. There is really not much to say about it. It is sub par to Vegas, the table minimums were higher and Jeff almost managed to lose his wallet in the pooper. I decide I hate it and we head back to the City of Dreams. I hear the $100 blackjack table calling our names again. A few hours later we walk away with an added $2000 HK, expenses paid and we got to spend the day in air conditioning. Definitely a win in my book. Jeff decided he would like to open a casino only open to the Chinese sometime in the near future.