Once I was comfortably seated in my aisle seat on the plane however, an old lady came by to claim the middle seat next to me. Then she turned to me, and asked, in English, "Young man, can I switch seats with you?"
I was in the aisle seat. Caught by surprise, I hesitated, then sputtered, "Uh, well... no!"
She was displeased and turned away from me. By then, I had recovered, and was having second thoughts about refusing so quickly and decivisely. But before I could respond again, she turned back to me and asked, "Where are you from?"
"I'm from the US," I responded in Mandarin.
"Oh, I am too!" She said, in Mandarin as well. "I have a passport! Let me show you!"
"Uh okay, but I believe you. Anyhow, I'll let you switch seats with me if you still want."
"That right! Yeah! You know, you did the right thing. You know why? Because I'm older than you! Yeah, you should always give up your seat to the elderly," she lectured.
"Uh huh, nice for you to say," I thought to myself.
She continued on, "Actually, the reason I want the aisle seat is because I need to go to the bathroom often, and it's just more convenient. So it's good for you that you're in the middle seat now! Now I won't be in your way!"
"Thanks..."
"And See!" She pulled out her passport. "I'm an US Citizen, just like you!" She flashed a wide smile.
"That's great, but it has nothing to do with why I decided to switch seats with you," I responded.
"I know that! I just wanted you to know, so you know how similar we are."
Indeed. A few minutes later, a guy came by and kicked her out of the row. Apparently she had the wrong row number altogether. I went back to my aisle seat, but did feel slightly bad that the quirky old lady had to sit back in the middle seat, especially if she has to run to the lavatory all the time. So I ended up getting an aisle seat for her anyways by switching my seat with the guy who had the aisle seat in her row, and then switching my aisle seat with her middle seat. To me, it really didn't matter that much since the flight was short and the seats in business class were large, so one couldn't feel squished even in the middle seats.
Anyhow, once in Macau, I arrived with no itinerary, and no map. In fact, I realized that I also arrived with no ATM or credit cards, which I had left in Taiwan! Distraught, I searched through my bag and tried to find locate what resources I had. Luckily, I found some emergency cash in USD, and exchanged them for some Macanese Pataca. However, I had no working phone in Macau, and I needed to call home to have a chance at getting access to capital other than the couple hundred USD and 600 RMB I had on hand. Fortunately, I found free wireless at the airport and called home to Taiwan via Skype, to arrange for transport of those cards.
The next issue is I had no idea where I was going, but it didn't matter; Macau was small, and I had about a day to wander around. So I decided to hop on a random bus at the airport, which gave me a quick overview of the city. After riding leisurely for about half an hour, I got off at the final stop took me to to an underground bus terminal. Coming back above ground, I was greeted by this massive building:
I ended up at the Zhuhai / Macau border building, which was a good place find since that's where I need to be to get out of Macau in the evening.
I bought a map, and then oriented myself properly. Most of Macau was to the South of where I was, and I could stroll thru Macau Peninsula in a day. It was nice to be free of the shackles of planning, once again going somewhere without any schedule, any itinerary, or any idea where you are.
Wandering around Macau was not easy, however, especially with my big pack, which included not just what I needed for my trip out to Western China, but also whatever I wanted to bring back to Shanghai and the US, since I was not going to get a chance to go back to Taipei until next year. So I dropped off my pack at a hotel (which I negotiated that for 10 patacas, about 1 USD), and then headed out to see Macau. Wandering along random streets, I came to a wide open square with several colonial buildings:
I have no idea what it's for (part of the problem is that the signs tend to be in Portugese instead of English, so if I can't read the Chinese, it's difficult for comprehension), but it was much more impressive of a find when you wander into it, rather than treat it as a tourist destination to visit.
Next, I managed to wander into a garden open to the public, free of charge:
Beautiful. I continued heading South, now perhaps a bit Southwest. There was some ruins there, which turned out to be the Ruins of St. Paul, a burned down cathedral of some sort:
Next to the ruins, was a fort. The stairs up to the fort were interesting:
It appears the ramps were designed so that cannons can be wheeled up to the top of the fort. I found cannons on the top level, a couple aimed at the Grand Lisboa, a hotel/casino with striking architectural features:
After coming down the fort, I wandered towards the casinos, to what looked like downtown Macau... or rather, somewhere in the middle of Europe!
Except for all the Chinese, I might have thought I somehow wandered onto the wrong continent. After passing by the "downtown" area, I spotted the Clube Militar, which I had heard once was a club for Portugese officers, but now a classy restaurant.
Unfortunately, I had no time to dine, and moved onwards. Next, I decided to take a look at the casinos, figuring I might as well, since I was in Macau. Entering the Grand Lisboa, I discovered it was decorated in grandiose fashion, as one can imagine, due to all the money it must win from its patrons.
I took a look inside, but every game I saw just looked way too easy to lose money on, so I didn't even try.
And so I headed back to the hotel and grabbed my pack, and then walked back up to the checkpoint building to Zhuhai.
Crossing immigration, I arrived at Gongbei Station (拱北口岸) and bought a bus ticket to Guangzhou. Buses came every half hour or so up until 11pm, so I decided to wander around Zhuhai a bit.
Zhuhai seemed like a nice to chill in, and I had heard there was an area called Lover's Road (情侣路) which was good to stroll around at night. The street had a pedestrian sidewalk right by the ocean, with views of the lights from the skyscrapers in Zhuhai and Macau:
There were in fact many couples sitting by the waters, and of course many people selling Polaroid photos. Though I had a camera, picture-taking at night was difficult, and I decided to let them give it a try for 5 RMB:
Results are so-so. And so then I walked back to Gongbei Station, and took a 2 hour bus ride to Guangzhou to rest for the night, before taking off for Chengdu in the afternoon.
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