Macao

The next morning, we took taxis to the dock where our ferry was. When we went to check in, there was a sign saying that our ferry had been cancelled. We were quite worried, since this was the leg of the journey where there was little room left for error. Oddly enough, we were able to still print off the tickets electronically from the machine, so we didn't know what was right. Then a man came over and told us that they had known for a month that our ferry wasn't going to run that day, but somehow the online system still allowed us to buy the tickets like two weeks prior to the trip. This was time number one of many when it paid off to be travelling in a group. He refunded our money in Hong Kong dollars and arranged for us to go with another ferry service on the other side of Shenzhen. The one catch was that our original ferry got us to Macao with about 3 hours before check-in; the new one gave us less than an hour of leeway. But with no other opinion, they piled us and all of our stuff into a minivan and we drove across town. The man that handled our situation even came with us, which he totally didn't even need to do. We got a nice scenic tour of Shenzhen and arrived at the new ferry a half hour later. The same man helped us get our new tickets and exchange the leftover money (the new ferry was cheaper) and then he disappeared. It was nice to be taken care of--good customer service can be hard to come by sometimes in China. The ferry ride was uneventful, other than that it got us to Macao significantly later than we expected. By the time we got on land and through customs, we had less than 15 minutes to catch a taxi and get to the airport. For the first time ever in China, I actually told a taxi driver to go fast (Macao used to be a Portuguese territory, like how Hong Kong used to be a British territory, but now both are Special Administrative Regions of China). Somehow, we made it and were able to get checked in ok. We flew one of the Asian equivalents of Southwest Airlines, (Thai) Air Asia and we actually got to the gate with enough time to stand in the long line, since everyone crowded the gate, wanting to be on first, because there were no assigned seats. From there, our journey took us to Thailand.



Jamie and I standing in front of our ferry.



The ferry wasn't so exciting, it almost felt like an airplane, but just on the water. Certainly the seating was like an airplane--no leg room whatsoever!



Waiting to get the next stamp on my passport, with the port of Macao in the background.



Somehow in midst of the craziness of hailing a taxi, I had time to take a few pictures in Macao--yes, those are fish hanging out in front of the restaurant.



Thailand, here we come!



Looking back at the airport from the airplane.

Next up, our interesting train ride...

rpm