Things I use to know like how a grocery store was organized, wait where even IS the grocery store? Were now foreign and I needed to quickly relearn. We furiously translated everything we encountered, foods that we thought we knew what they were frequently turned out to be something else and we learned quickly not to guess at what things were. We became one of “those people” who always had our phones out and were actively using them. Trying to balance being aware of my surroundings and being on my phone became a new struggle. But I realized that in a country where crime is almost non-existent I wasn’t afraid of being snatched up, mugged or robbed while I had my nose in my phone, I was more nervous about just walking right into someone or something. It always amazes me that in a country so full of people, and most of them on their phones at any given time there are so few collisions. I’ve never run into anyone, and no one has ever run into me because they’ve been on their phone. No one gives me dirty looks for getting my phone out to do something while in line at the store and no one is impatient with Rhys or myself when we have to use our phones to translate everything and thus holding up the line.
After a particularly long shopping excursion one night, Rhys and I went to meet a new friend he had made at his family’s local bar. We were loaded down with two very full bags of groceries and when we reached the bar we were told to leave the groceries outside the bar on a chair. I immediately thought “what!? You can’t be serious? Just leave them out here while we are in there?” The answer was yes, and we did as our host instructed. It felt so foreign to both Rhys and I. To just leave our stuff out for anyone to take or rummage through? I was pretty sus about the whole thing but didn’t want to be impolite and there was a part of me that wanted to see what would happen. Would our stuff be ok? Would it be there when we got done? Would some of it be gone and stolen? I figured time would tell and we left our bags and went inside.
We spent almost two hours in that bar drinking Budweiser and eating local bar snacks that included dried squid, various meat on sticks, some roasted veggies and peanuts. Our host was gracious, kind and introduced us to his family. We talked through translators on our phones and made the most of our evening. We were told several times our money “was no good” at their bar and we would enjoy the food and drinks free of charge. We felt unbelievably humbled by the generosity and couldn’t say thank you enough. It was our host’s birthday that night and celebration was the theme of the evening. The atmosphere of the bar was so relaxed. The staff was at their leisure but still got us everything we needed in a timely manner. We’ve noticed that many times about restaurants and bars here in China. The staff is very relaxed and at ease, and yet the food comes fast and bills are easy to pay. If you need a server you simply call them over with a wave of your hand. You order through your phone, pay through your phone and the entire process is so streamlined it lends itself to making the jobs of restaurant staff easy. Tipping is also non existent here in China. Waiters and staff don’t work for tips but the service is never bad. Rhys and I go out to eat almost every night and never have we had a bad experience with service. This bar was no different. We were served quickly the entire time wanting for nothing.
As the time we spent with our host drew to an end he walked us back outside so we could grab a DiDi. We stopped by the chair I had cautiously placed our groceries two hours prior, and to my amazement they were still there, undisturbed and exactly as we had left them. I looked at Rhys and said “that would never happen in America.” We both agreed and marveled at the safety of our new hometown. Our host then walked us to wait for our DiDi, he spoke to our DiDi driver to make sure we were taken care of and we were on our way back home.
That night demonstrated to me what it can be like to live in a society where I don’t have to worry about being robbed or taken advantage of. It showed me how much mental space I give to thinking about personal safety. When you live in a country where those crimes are virtually nonexistent you can give that mental space to other things. I had never realized how much mental real estate was given to safety and how freeing it would feel to reclaim that space. In America I would worry all the time about personal safety and the safety of material possessions. Getting to the car safely was a worry I no longer had, thinking about if I needed to walk with my keys in my hand so I could get in my car faster to avoid being robbed in the parking lot is not a thought that ever enters my mind here in China. Thinking about how I wear my hair and if someone could grab my ponytail from behind is not a thought I have here in China. Being anxious about wearing my earbuds when I am out and about on the street is not an anxiety that I have here in China. I do not fear that the person walking down the street towards me is armed and might shoot me, rob me or take advantage of me. I do not fear mass shootings here, I don’t fear guns in the general population here. America is a great many things and great in many ways- but when it comes to personal safety I simply feel safer in China. To be honest, this has been true about all of my experiences abroad. America can be a dangerous place and that fact makes me sad for my home country.
We went to Macau somewhere in there. Racing our way there as we made it to our train seats about 2 minutes before the train pulled away from the station. It takes about three hours to get to Macau via train. The journey seems shorter while you are on it as the train travels through the whole city and there is so much to look at. We sat sweaty in our seats, thankful we had made it there by literally seconds. We settled in the the journey to a new place.
Macau is a city like no other. We stayed at the Hotel Guia in downtown, not far from the hotel Lisboa. We spent Friday night exploring the downtown area and immersing ourselves in the lights and sounds of Macau. This Portuguese influenced city is beautiful in its own way. It sparkles at night, glittering with the lights from the casinos. There is much more of a western influence and English is spoken more widely. The buildings are a mix of western style with Chinese style. Walking down the narrow streets you can see and feel the colonial impact in the city.
In Macau they do what I’ve been calling “the hand thing” which is where they use their entire hand and arm to point, gesture and welcome you into spaces. Its a gesture that seems to say “welcome, come this way” and I wish I could describe this gesture better, it’s best seen in person. But imagine an open palm, fingers together and your entire arm moving in a sweeping movement. They use it everywhere. We first noticed it at the bacc tables. When Rhys and I would walk by and empty table the dealer would immediately use their hand in a sweeping motion over the table to welcome us to the table. It would happen over and over again as we got close to open tables. Dealers that were previously motionless came to life with this gesture as patrons walked by. This is the same motion we would see as we walked on to the casino floor, sweeping hands showing us the way to go. We’d see it exiting hotels and entire motion dedicated to showing guests where to go and how to get there. It was quite the experience to be guided around and welcomed by “the hand thing” and so unique to Macau. I became so use to seeing and experiencing “the hand thing” it became strange to walk into hotels and casinos and not see it. Too many times Rhys and I realized we were being guided by a small army of staff leading us around the hotel/casino with “the hand thing” it was amazing.
We ran through Macau. Covering over 40 kilometers in a day and a half. We saw all the highlights. Downtown, the Cotai strip, we tasted Michelin rated dim sum and ice cream. We ate some of the best Portuguese food I’ve ever had and had Italian food for the first time in over a month. The assortment and selection of foods to be found there was endless and we tried to have them all. The city is hot. And it poured rain the second day we were there. Raining non stop as we tried to walk about seeing highly rated food vendors and ancient ruins. It felt like a blurr as our legs carried us everywhere in the city. We spent most of the day at the Cotai strip. Macau’s “equivalent” of the Las Vegas strip. I use air quotes because while these streets have similarities the strip in Macau is nowhere near equal to the one in Vegas. The strip in Macau is filled with some of the biggest buildings I’ve ever been in. In fact the Venetian in Macau is one of the biggest buildings in the world by square footage. It boasts the largest casino floor in the world, coming in at a whopping 550,000 square feet. Most of it filled with baccarat.
As we ventured around the strip we found baccarat everywhere. The stadium style of gambling was set up at nearly every casino and some of these spaces were so big and grand they reviled the biggest sports books in Las Vegas. And baccarat was always the game of choice. There was so much baccarat it became a running joke between Rhys and I. Some of the casinos seemed to be places just for baccarat. This was such a change from Vegas where bacc can sometimes be difficult to find. Here in Macau to say it is abundant is an understatement, it is THE GAME among gamblers there.
A new game we got introduced to was Sic Bo. A game of three dice that Rhys quickly started saying the name of over and over. As we walked around the casinos I’d hear him call out “sic Bo!” We came down an escalator and heard someone call out “ne hao!” to us and Rhys responds with “Sic bo!” we both giggled in our limited Chinese skills and how our responses to general things are so limited.
There are no pictures or having cell phones out on the gaming floors in Macau. With signs posted as you go through security to enter the gaming floor and at every gaming machine- it is a rule I had to be reminded of as there is so much to want to take pictures of. Each gaming floor is carefully sectioned off, usually with a partition of some kind, obscuring these massive gaming floors from view as you walk by. In some hotels you’d never guess that beyond the beautifully constructed wall there was a mammoth gaming floor just beyond playing host to hundreds, sometimes thousands of players. Rhys got carded a few times as we entered the gaming floors. I was told I look over 22 and was not asked to produce Id. Rhys was told he looks like Stephen curry and to show his Id lol.
Macau is hot. Hotter than Guangzhou. It’s humid and the heat got so intense it at times made me feel dizzy. The contrast between the outside and the air conditioned casinos is dramatic. With the AC blowing full force as soon as the doors open it is like being hit by a cool wind when you walk by. Sometimes the hotels and casino floors almost seem cold because the AC is going so hard. The streets of downtown Macau are narrow and densely packed with local vendors and apartments. The streets are not laid out in a nice grid pattern, they reminded me more of the streets in Barcelona. With dark alley ways, twisty, curvy roads that meander through the city. It can be disorientating trying to make your way around. Macau had been a Portuguese colony for over 400 years before it was given back to the Chinese in 1999. It was the last of the Western colonial territories in Asia and it blew my mind a little bit that the remnants of colonialism still existed well into my lifetime. I had studied colonialism in school and a part of me had always thought it was a thing of the past. Macau is a living breathing example of how recent that “past” really is.
I’d go back to Macau in a heartbeat. The city is vibrant and alive with activity. It feels like a celebration of culture and it’s pretty easy to get around and explore. There are so many places and things Rhys and I didn’t get to see in our short stay there, we will be back for more good times and exploring of this fantastic city.
