M&M - Mainland and Macau

During the day on Friday, my STs and I went to Shenzen in Mainland China. Shenzen is at the end of our rail line and is only 20 minutes from our train stop. You still need a Visa to get in and customs can be a bit tricky. The customs guy didn’t believe that Meg was actually the person in her passport photo and had to call for a second opinion. Fortunately, they let her through.

The 16 words and phrases of Shenzen:

1) Lady
2) Boss
3) Lookie
4) Copy
5) Purse
6) Watch
7) DVD
8) Movie
9) Bag
10) Fendi
11) Coach
12) Gucci
13) fake
14) good
15) best price for you
16) follow me - my shop

These words are often combined in such a way that they make absolutely zero sense and the store clerks hurl the words at you as they attempt to pull you into their store. Some of the more aggressive clerks even stand in front of you to block your path. I’ve now perfected what I call the model look – stare straight ahead without acknowledging anything around you or making eye contact with any person or thing. I felt pretty horrible about it at first since such behavior is incredibly rude, but it was necessary to survive. I bought my first fake jeans today. I tend to be very opposed to such things, but I’m so sick of my clothes and so poor that I gave in. My new R&R’s are fantastic and they set me back a good $150 less than the real versions (which means I paid about 20 for them). I can’t even tell the difference!

After returning from Shenzen, I met my GL and some of his friends for a little adventure out in Central HK. We went to Lan Kuai Fong again, which is where all of the tourists hang out. Hanging out with Germans tends to lead to drinking German beer, which we did. Then we headed back to where it all began for my GL and me – a dance club called Hei Hei. We finished the night with a kebab and I can still taste the garlic.

Saturday took us to another China SAR (Special Administrative Region). Macau is an island just a stone’s throw away from mainland. We went through customs again (cool stamps) and spent the day eating Macanese food and walking through casinos and Portuguese streets. Macau is very similar to Europe in its architecture and the majority of the people are Portuguese, so the island feels completely different from Hong Kong or Mainland. Great date night with my GL.

On Sunday, my STs and I went to LKF for a few drinks and dinner. We decided to start a bar crawl. One drink per place. The second place was a Mexican restaurant, so we opted for chips and salsa and a pitcher or margaritas, which slowed down our bar crawl. We finally found our restaurant and enjoyed the spiciest Chinese food known to man.