I am now at the Four Seasons Hong Kong. Friday was packed — it’s about 650am Saturday as I finish this post. Woke up early, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my hair* — met the Maks for breakfast. A real buffet at any rate with lots of meat and stuff. Tasty stuff. Went to the Casino before breakfast to change my remaining RMB to HK$ — apparently one of the notes was no good. That was a very unpleasant scene. I ended up getting a receipt and will pick a fight with my bank upon return — I do not intend to be out RMB100 because of this. Anyway, I also got a Wynn Macao casino card just because I thought it would be cool to do. I used it a bit but for the trip I’m out a few hundred bucks — nothing serious. We got the grand tour of Macao which is still very Portuguese much like Hong Kong is still English, but we enjoyed it thoroughly. Lots of pictures of course.
We took the hydrofoil from Macao to Hong Kong around 1230 and it was a cool experience and was $142 Macao Dollars per person (a Macao Dollar is worth about 5% less than an HK$) — customs was again slow and ponderous but we were in the hotel at 1410 and had a 1500 meeting. I unpacked and showered only to find no more clean shirts except the one long sleeved one. Not good. Ran to the nearby mall, got sweaty in the process, found only one store with a short-sleeved shirt (Burberry) and spent HK$850 as not to die of heat stroke. Ran back, changed, and was ready at 310pm then we got lost on the way to the meeting and finally got there at 1540 but they were very impressed we walked. Meeting went until nearly 1810 and then we went back to hotel and dropped off our stuff, and then hopped the MTR (subway) to Jordan where the Temple Night Market is. Spent a bit of money on crappy stuff for fun. Took the MTR back noticing it’s got AC! Ate in the hotel lounge and discovered a new drink called a Lime Blush and had 4 at HK$80 each. I am such a pig.
I went to a Boots and Prêt-a-Manger today — just like being in England. Didn’t buy, just looked. And I got a Mars bar at 7-11 — the UK kind and not the US kind. If you’re familiar with the Mars and Milky Way chocolate bars their names are swapped in the US as opposed to the rest of the world. Not sure why. But at any rate the UK variety uses proper chocolate and not that crap they pass off in the US.
The final word on this hotel: our rooms have the most spectacular view of one of the most amazing cities on the planet. I would pay triple the rate to stay here again for this view. Even my pictures will not do this justice.
On my way to breakfast, I think I’ll drop off one last round of laundry. As if you care.
*if you don’t get this I am disappointed