Macau, Hong Kong

We arrived midday at Macau International from Bangkok, to considerably cooler weather and a welcoming breeze.  Interestingly enough, we flew there on a Macau Airways plane, which was being leased to AirAsia.  It appears all the hype surrounding the buildup of the gaming industry on the island was ill-founded, and the airline reportedly was losing money flying its own routes.  Taking an airport shuttle to downtown Macau, we noticed all the construction-at-halt on the southern stretch where the newer casinos reside, and surprisingly few occupants.  Downtown Macau was much busier, though cramped.  We spent a single night exploring the city, and saw most of it in that time.  There were a few interesting sights, including the famous facade remaining from a church that had burned to the ground many 
years ago.  We watched the sun set with the locals from a quiet public park on a hill a mile or so from the center.  The food was decidedly disappointing, billed as a mixture of Portuguese and Asian flavors, yet wholly uninteresting and mostly bland.  We bedded down in a cramped dormitory bunk to the tune of $30 -one of the most expensive nights of the trip.  The following morning we had no reservations about moving on to Hong Kong, and boarded the fast ferry for Hong Kong Island.  We found slightly better value for the next night's accommodation, near Hong Kong's Time Square, and rooted out some very good food among the alleys downtown.  

Our last day we moved to the Marriott (where far too many nights at the Miami JWM had earned us free accommodation for our last night) and spent the day exploring the upper reaches of Hong Kong Island, and then on to Kowloon for the night market and later a front row seat to the nightly light show from Hong Kong's towering buildings.  On that last night, we had the first steaming-hot shower in nine months, and I spent the better part of 30 minutes scrubbing my feet free of nine months of hard wear -the sandals, filth, and heat had painted my heels black, and it cost a great deal of work, and even more skin, to regain their natural color.  
 
For good measure, we took a second set of long HOT showers first thing in the morning, before catching the train to Hong Kong International.  Our flight transferred at Beijing, where we raced through the monstrously enormous (and eerily empty) airport to catch our connection, making it to the tarmac bus just in time.  After 12 hours, we caught first site of the north-western seaboard, and I filled our final hour identifying landmarks as we tracked the coast toward home.  It was in the moments following touchdown, as we shimmied to a halt that this giant sense of finality came over me.  We were done.

We raced through the airport, collecting our bags and impatiently answering the questions posed by the customs officer as he flipped--for ages--through the gnarled pages of our passports.  Once through, we sped to the exit, where Tatyana's folks were waiting with the car.  As we drove into the city, my mind was numb to the many thoughts that peppered it at the edges.  So many things to do now.  So much to do to get our lives back on track.  Jobs.  A place.  People to see and stories to tell.  But for right now, I think for both of us, there was only one thing that mattered.  Only one thing to do.  "Mom, take us to Gordo's.  I really need that burrito."

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