Player, dealer...

Macao. It officially came under sovereign Chinese rule in 1999 being handed over by the Portuguese. Almost all the signs in Macao are bilingual: Cantonese and Portuguese. It's peculiar why Portuguese still remains such a part of Macao when it's clear that there are very few Portuguese on the island and it is no longer taught in the schools. Mandarin is now being taught and stressed quite heavily, as was the case in Hong Kong, and subsequently, with the mainland influence now really taking effect, Cantonese has decreased in popularity and significance.

The official currency of Macao is the pataca and it's used exclusively in Macao and only in Macao. The pataca has a 1:1 exchange rate with Hong Kong dollars, and Hong Kong dollars can be used interchangeably througout the island, but the downside is that patacas cannot be used in Hong Kong. The analogy that Ethan and I came up with was that Macao was essentially a big Disneyland where you could buy lots of Disney money that you could use on the rides or to buy cotton candy, but it would only be of value while you were at Disneyland. Once you left Disneyland, or in this case Macao, the Disney money became useless and you would be forced to take a hit in order to exchange it back. After two days in Macao, we ended up having 4000 patacas ($500) left over, and Ethan took it back to the US with him to exchange there. Stupidly, we didn't realize that patacas were so exclusive to Macao, or otherwise we would have used the Hong Kong dollars everywhere.

There's still a lot of colonial architecture that remains and the many areas are reminiscent of the Portuguese-style streets and facades. A lot of the churches in Macao are painted bright colors in a way that immediately reminded me of the multicolored houses of Valparaiso, Chile. Pink, green, and yellow, as in Chile, were all quite common colors.

Macao is the only place in China where gambling is legal, or at least approved by the state. Ethan noted that the casinos in Macao were much quieter compared to those of AC, and I agreed. Though I don't have as much experience as Ethan does when it comes to casinos, it was clear that the people tended to keep to themselves and rarely talked while at the table. I was disappointed that there was no poker in Macao. 24 casinos. No poker. That being said, there was not a big expat contingent as there was in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, or even Guangzhou which would explain why certain Western games wouldn't be played here. Comparatively, Macao seems like a relatively exotic location within China where very few backpackers visit. The rooms are expensive, it's not easy to get to, and nearby Hong Kong is much more of a draw.

Baccarat is an interesting game. It's all the rage in Macao and people wager anything from 100 yuan to 10,000+ a hand. The play begins with a betting round in which you can bet on the dealer, the player, or a tie. You get dealt two cards and the goal is to get closer to nine. The closer your two card total is to nine, the stronger your hand. Let's say you bet 100 yuan on the player. The dealer then deals you two cards and two cards for himself. You win if you beat the dealer's hand. When the hand is over and the winner has been determined, the dealer flips over a chip that says "Player wins" or "Dealer wins".

It sounds simple, but Ethan and I were unable to figure out how to play exactly because we didn't know the value of each card. It didn't stop us from playing though and as a result, the real excitement came from trying to guess which chip the dealer was going to flip over as we couldn't understand what each card was worth. I think Ethan finished up about 1,000 yuan playing a game that neither of us really knew the rules to.

The most fun part of Macao was the greyhound racing park. I had never seen a greyhound, let alone a greyhound racing park. I remember a long time ago when I used to listen to Opie and Anthony when they talked about visiting a greyhound track. They would tip some guy to go to the paddock area and watch which dog took a dump last because it was always the fastest one. I explained the strategy to Ethan who like myself had absolutely no clue how to handicap dog races in China, so we began watching the last one to take a dump. We didn't have to tip anyone because they brought the dogs out and paraded them on the dirt before the race. Each time we would bet on the dog who shat last. We were picking winners, placers, exacta boxes, you name it. I think we finished up about 150 yuan, which was a lot considering we were betting 10 yuan a ticket.

Interestingly, the dog track seemed to attract the same sort of clientèle that a horse racing track would attract in the US: single middle-aged balding men. There might have been one woman in the whole place. We were the only foreigners. I might have been the youngest one there.

The race itself was anti-climactic to say the least. After the dogs are paraded around, they're placed into a big metal box. After they're locked in, all the dogs start barking and scratching and howling and the metal box starts to shake. When the door opens a small stuffed animal swings by on the inside of the track and the dogs bolt out. The race was incredibly difficult to follow because there was no camera that would follow the action and the whole race was literally over in about ten seconds. Like with playing baccarat, the excitement really came at the end seeing who won after all the action was over, and not with the actual event itself.

Before visiting the dog track, Ethan and I went to check out a Jai Alai stadium but unfortunately, it had been torn down a few years ago. I would have guessed it was demolished because the city wanted to make room for more commercial or residential development in the expensive downtown area. Ethan remarked that a similar fate probably awaited the dog park. This huge open space in downtown Macao was surrounded by enormous skyscrapers. It's hard to believe that in ten years, the track will still be there serving this handful of single middle-aged men while Macao develops and expands at such a rapid pace.

We hit up some more casinos looking unsuccessfully for a 10 yuan minimum blackjack table and then took the ferry to Hong Kong.

we said Beijing duck, not Shenzhen duck

Shenzhen was the first stop on Ethan and my trip around China (after Nanchong). After flying to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province in the southeast of China, we took an hour train to Shenzhen. The city was once a miniscule farming town of 45,000 before it was given SEZ status and turned into a pocket of unbridled capitalistic development. The first day there we hit the big shopping downtown area where Ethan picked up a pair of shoes and I unfortunately couldn't find anything I liked.

Shenzhen was a memorable experience, not because of anything specifically noteworthy about the city itself, but because of the number of times we were scammed. The first was when the two of us stopped in to get some Beijing roast duck for lunch. For those who don't know what Beijing duck is, it's roast duck served with a soft tortilla like patty, plum sauce, and cucumber or chives. You take the pieces of duck dip it in a little sauce and roll it up in the patty and eat it with your hands. I should preface this by saying, Ethan and I both love Beijing duck with an unquenchable passion and can consider ourselves connoisseurs given our extensive experience. So before entering this restaurant I asked the hostess who stood at the front entrance whether or not they had Beijing duck (Beijing kaoya) to which she replied yes, of course. Ethan and I sat down and ordered the duck and waited a few minutes for it to be prepared. First our waiter brought out the pancakes along with the plum sauce and chives. A few minutes later the duck arrived.

I started to prepare my first patty by spreading a line of plum sauce and reaching for a piece of duck. I remarked that there was an inordinate amount of duck skin and not much meat. Ethan then looked at the plate of duck and remarked that not only was there a lot of skin, but the plate of duck was just skin and contained no meat at all. The plate of duck appeared to have an ample amount of skin and meat, but in reality, there were only about ten slabs of dry skin propped up underneath by some puffy wafers of some sort. We were paying 48 yuan for ten pieces of duck skin and some chips.

Ethan called over the waitress and we began to argue that this was not what we had ordered. I explained that we wanted Beijing duck. It sort of went like this:
Me: "What is this? We ordered Beijing duck."
Watiress: "This is Shenzhen duck."
Me: "Where is the meat?"
Watiress: "What meat?"
Me: "We ordered Beijing duck, you didn't give us Beijing duck."
Waitress: "They are the same thing."
Me (pointing to the picture in the menu): "This is what we ordered. Beijing duck. You gave us the duck skin, not Beijing duck. We want Beijing duck."
Waitress (calling over manager): "This is Shenzhen duck."
Manager: "This is Shenzhen duck."
Me: "We want the meat. Where is the meat?"
Manager (signals to a waitress who brings over a skinned duck): "You want this?"
Me: "We want the meat, yes."
Manager: "We don't serve the meat. This is Shenzhen duck."
Me: "I asked you if you had Beijing duck and you said you did. This is not Beijing duck."
Manager: "Do you want to eat this?"
Me: "We want the meat."
Manager: "Shenzhen duck doesn't have meat."
Me: "Forget it."

So Ethan and I got up and left. They were fine with letting us leave without paying, even though there was food served to us, and I had eaten a few of the wafers propping up the duck skin. We concluded it had to be a scam (unless anyone has heard/knows anything differently, in which case let me know) because I can't think of anyone who would pay 48 kuai for ten slivers of skin.

The next scam took place when I was at a grocery store looking for some candy that Ethan wanted. Near the check out a woman was tending a small kiosk that sold China Mobile phone recharge cards that you could use to put money on your phone. I purchased a 30 yuan recharge and asked the woman to put it for me. Big mistake. She did it and immediately after I tried to call Ethan but it said I was still out of funds. I asked the woman why it still didn't work. She said I had to wait 30 minutes. So I waited 30 minutes. Then I waited an hour. A day. Three days later I still had no money and the phone recharge code no longer worked.

Before leaving Shenzhen to Macau, Ethan and I checked out the big computer center located near the clothing area downtown. I think Ethan needed some USB memory or something and I was looking for some camera memory also, so we stopped in and looked around. One of the shopkeepers told us they have 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, and 32 GB USB drives. I was flabbergasted. 32 GB on a little tiny pen drive? Impossible. Or maybe not. Clearly not having learned any lesson before I asked the price on the 32 GB, which was 250 yuan. I asked to try it in a computer and the shopkeeper connected it and showed that it indeed had a total space of 32 GB. Something had to be up. It had to. No way this little thing could have 32 GB of space on it. Ethan transferred some files onto the drive and sure enough it now read 31.7 GB.

We bought two for 400 kuai and while I continued to look at camera memory, Ethan went over to another shop. He then shouted to me that they had 64 GB pen drives also! D'oh! At some point Ethan handed his newly purchased 32 GB over to the other shopkeeper and explained to Ethan that it was falsely reporting the 32 GB space using some program to mask the size. The other shopkeeper removed the program and showed us that really it only had 512 MB. By the time Ethan had come back to warn me, I had purchased a 4 GB camera memory which also turned out to be masking it's size. We demanded our money back and fortunately without having to shout, punch, or break things, the shopkeeper returned the money. Ethan says that we should have gone to the other shopkeeper who warned us of the scam in the first place to buy something as a reward for alerting us to the ripoff, but we had to catch the ferry to Macao and were already very late.

Leaving Shenzhen that night was a relief. It was really overwhelming being there. It seemed everyone was out to get our money in some way. I did manage to pick up all six seasons of Oz though, and surprisingly each CD works perfectly. Off to Macao...

fotos de mi gato!

la jefa de una tienda alrededor de mi departamento me dio un gatito hace unos meses porque iba a abondanarlo/dejarlo en la calle. en esa epoca buscaba un gato y cuando la jefa me conto eso, tuve que llevarlo.

aqui son algunas fotos de mi gatito que se llama 'Xiao Qiang'. mis estudiantes le dieron el nombre y creo que proviene de una pelicula china muy conocida pero se me olvido como se llama. significa 'un poco fuerte'. a Xiao Qiang le gusta morderme con tanta frecuencia y ha llegado a molestarme bastante. a la vez es bien fuerte tambien. lo estoy tratando de enseñar por tirarle con agua y gritar cuando me ataque pero ya no ha mejorado. espero que cuando sea un gato adulto, no esta tan loco. bueno, al fin es un gatito precioso. siempre duerme en mi cama y me sigue cuando camino por mi departamento. lo echo de menos cuando no estoy en casa. a ver... las fotos!

Too much to write now

After the 9 day break from Nanchong, it's a smack in the face of what a different world this small city is, for most accounts, drastically ideologically contrasting when compared with the rest of China.

Xi'an: la 2da parte

Deja que las fotos hablen por si solas...







<- Singing happy birthday to my mom with a group of Chinese computer science students we met on the street. You can see the whole video at: http://www.youtube.com/v/Li9P7BxBhQA.







<- Terracotta warriors. Needs no explanation.













<- X mas celebration in downtown Xi'an. There must have been over 50,000 people in the streets. Roads were blocked off and everywhere people were setting off loud firecrackers that would sometimes go off just several feet from you.










<- Bell tower in downtown Xi'an where my brother and I paid ten yuan to ring the gong six times and celebrate our mom's birthday again. View the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Rjs9SoUeI

to guangzhou tomorrow

In Hong Kong now. Too much to say. Really an enormous and overwhelming city. It'll be nice to get back to the mainland tomorrow.