Taking a Gamble

I made a trip to Macau, which if reports are correct is the world's gambling capital.  I was making the trip principally to meet my sister in Hong Kong who was over for a holiday, but as I had a mate who I'd known for quite some time now, I thought it would be a good idea to pay him a visit too.

The flight from Clark to Macau is a little over an hour and cheap too.  On the first day I went for a wander around the Venetian Casino (or resort as they like to call them, thus trying to give some sort of legitimacy that the focus isn't entirely on the casino.  Which it is).  My mate Barry had worked on the Venetian and had even tried to get me job there some years ago but for some reason, my face just didn't fit.  It was Barry that also got me started with the same mob (mob?  A Freudian slip.  I'm sure they're not associated with 'The Mob' or organised crime...) in Singapore on the casino project I worked on there.

An artificial canal, in an artificial Venice, under an artificial sky,
in artificial light.

The Venetian, as the name implies, is themed around Venice.  The corridors of the shopping centre have canals running through them under an artificial sky, on which you can take a gondola ride (why would you?)  On one hand it's mighty impressive the scale of the development but on the other hand it comes across as being very, very tacky.  From the outside the building looks like something cobbled together from Lego.  Inside, the artificial sky, painted blue with clouds, is quite something (apart from the sprinklers sticking out of it which totally distract from the effect it's meant to convey) but with an artificial sky you get artificial lighting and after a few hours wandering around the place it feels quite claustrophobic and I couldn't wait to get outside into some natural daylight.  I don't think, other than the hotel, that the whole edifice has a single window.  I've heard that casinos never have windows (or clocks) as it gives the gamblers no sense of time and hence they continue to gamble until all their money is gone but this place has gone one step further and removed all the windows. 

The Main Lobby - I'm not sure Michelangelo would
approve of all the sprinklers sticking out of the artwork

I had a walk through the casino and it's massive.  Even at 8:00am it's busy.  But it's far from being the glamorous place that you would associate with James Bond, it seemed to me to be very seedy and sordid containing no joy or happiness.  Chain smoking (Chinese) punters with angry faces and still in their outside coats were hunched over the tables looking far from relaxed or having a good time.

I couldn't wait to get out.

Once outside, and blinking in the natural sunlight, I crossed over the road and paid a visit to the competing casino over the road.  Different theme but essentially more of the same.  

I went for a walk and to some exploring and found myself in the old town of Taipa.  This was more my thing.  An old Chinese town with remnants of the Portuguese influence and with plenty to see and photograph.

Violence in the Playground

I don't go out often in the evenings as I just don't seem to have the capacity for booze any more and my recovery rate is considerably longer than it used to be.  I just can't face waking up in the morning feeling like death and taking half a day before I'm even starting to function.

However, that's not to say that I never go out and I did a few weekends ago, ostensibly just for a couple of sun-downer drinks but it then ended up, as it invariably does, as a full blown session.

We ended up in bar (not too late) over the water which is open 24 hours a day and were at a table of around 8 of us enjoying some light hearted conversation and banter and a few laughs.

This guy comes in with his floosy and sits down at the table.  Not having met him before I commented that his accent sounded like he was from the same part of the world that I was from and he acknowledged he was from London.

He then started talking about football (yawn) and prattling on about West Ham.

Apparently, during some light-hearted banter he took umbrage because I insulted West Ham (I think I said "up the Spurs" or something equally nasty) and so he offered me outside in order, and I quote,  'to defend West Ham's honour' (I'm not making this up).  I told him disdainfully that I wasn't going to fight him over a football team that I knew nothing about and besides, I'd grown out of fighting in the playground over football arguments ever since I'd left primary school.  And furthermore, I mentioned that I thought that sort of football attitude had died in the 70s.  Which seemed to do nothing but inflame the situation somewhat.  Besides, I was very drunk and wearing flip-flops and didn't want to go home and bleed all over the bed sheets.  Or be responsible for him hitting his head on a kerb, dying and me having to spend 30 years (i.e. the rest of my life) in a Filipino gaol. Twat.  

And I just couldn't come to terms with the idea of rolling around in a pub car park over something I said about a football team.  And I told him so.  It was just plain ridiculous.  But articulate argument definitely wasn't his forte.  So I told him I was willing to apologise for whatever it was I had said about his precious football team if it would smooth the matter over and we could all go back to enjoying the evening.  But he wasn't prepared to accept that and just sat there scowling with a face like a slapped arse.

Eventually, the evening picked up and every one was merry again.

Anyway, at the end of the evening he came over and apologised to me but I could only grudgingly accept as he'd taken the edge of what should have been a great evening and I'm still stewing over the incident principally because a prat had decided to seat himself at our table and then acted like a moron.  

One of the best things about being in Asia is being able to go to pubs/clubs/bars without even a hint of the threat of trouble or violence.  It's a revealing fact that the first time I experience it in this part of the world is from a fellow countryman.  One of the reasons I'm in this part of the world in order to get away from dickheads like that.

Coffee Chaos

And so it drags on.  I thought it was all over and that my order of coffee had been distributed amongst the staff of the Customs and Excise Office, Manila (I had visions of them sitting at their desks trying to pry open the little capsules to extract the coffee) and that was the end of it: never to be heard of again.  But no.

I didn't give up immediately.  I went on-line to DHL Asia and found that I could chat with one of their representatives. They were most apologetic and promised that they would refer the problem back to the Philippines and the matter would be resolved and someone would be in touch.

But then nothing.  So I went back on-line and left a snotty message about appalling customer service and their indifferent attitude.  Again, the silence was deafening.  At this point I gave up and was resigned to the fact that unless I paid the exorbitant amount of duty I wasn't going to ever see my coffee.  And I wasn't going to pay, so I definitely wasn't going to get it.

I've also been to Singapore recently so I was able to buy it there more cheaply than if I paid the duty so I have enough supplies to be going on with.

Then a couple of days ago I received a phone call once again asking me if I was going to pay the duty??  It kind of caught me off guard as I'd written it off and it was now weeks outside the deadline they'd given me to pay up.  I explained that I hadn't received an explanation of why the duty amounted to 152% of the value of the goods - especially as the shipper had explained on their website that the maximum I could be expected to pay was 50%.  The women on the end of the line then asked if I was refusing to pay.  I said I was absolutely not refusing, it's just that I hadn't been given an explanation.  She said she would sort it out and get back to me.

Yeah, right.  I won't hold my breath.