Winter Escapade - Macau

Some short info on my Mum. Till her 50s, she was a miserable and lonely housewife, then one day, hit by a wave of inspiration, she left for Vietnam on wing and a prayer to open an private English school.

It was the first of its kind and a huge success. Soon, there were two schools and then three. And then people grew wise and the market started flooding with competitors and she was back to one school.

In between, however, she amassed and managed to save quite a lot of money. In doing so, she also took up a very expensive hobby - jackpot machines.

It was with that background in mind that I explain to you that once my Mum found out that we were headed for Macau for our plane back, she had been persuading, then cajoling and then bullying me (in that order) into making a trip into the former Portuguese enclave early so that she had enough time to pit herself against the might of the Venetien empire.

And so it was that we ended up at The Venetian, in the middle of the Cotai Strip. Nice place too, and I would have taken more pictures had I not been seething from the spat I had with my Mum.




I never like to 'invest' on holiday trips unless I am there specifically for that purpose and so jumped into a cab at the first opportunity for a trip into the city. With the high population density, old buildings and right-side drive, the place felt more like Hong Kong's city centre.




But the old town centre was truly beautiful, what with the place all done up in anticipation of Chinese New Year.






And the ruins of St Paul's church in the evening light was magical...




All too soon, it was time to return to The Venetian to collect my Mum on the way to the airport. Not before a slight hiccup though. My Dad wanted to lead but ventured the wrong way such that we were hopelessly lost. And there were no cabs to be found. So we took a minibus to somewhere near The Venetian. That was an experience I didn't plan for.

Ok, just say it. I is FAT.



And that was the Winter Escapade. Hmmph!