Grinder backpacking Asia

Quote: JimRockford

Sounds like a great adventure. I've spent a lot of time in Hong Kong and other Asian cities on business, but it was mostly long days of work.

One tip. Get the address of the place you are staying written in the local language. Hotels often have cards at the front desk. If your hostel doesn't have one, get a local to write it for you. Carry it with you when you're out and you can always get back to your bed by showing it to a cab driver. It always seems taxi drivers are the least likely to speak English. Have fun and keep the posts coming.

Getting back to the hostel is no problem actually. Finding it the first day was a bitch and a half. I know the exact route to the hostel as it is only 2 blocks from the subway.

Yesterday we did a lot of walking. First we went to this restaurant about 10 minutes from the hostel for breakfast. I had a pineapple bun which are always yummy and french toast. Then french toast was weird though as it was two pieces of bread with peanut butter in the middle which was then made into french toast. It was really good.

After breakfast we took the subway to the Chi Lin Nunnery. On our way there we found the Nan Lian Gardens which were absolutely beautiful. We walked around the gardens and took some pictures. The place was so peaceful, we both said we would love it if they had tea for sale and we could just sit on a bench and enjoy the scenery. Here's some pictures:




Eric and I.

I seem to blink in most photos.


After the gardens we walked down the street to the Nunnery which was also very easy on the eyes. We walked around and checked it out. A lot of the place was a no picture zone because people were praying.



Took this picture very discreetly cause I wasn't really supposed to.


After the Nunnery we took the subway to the Star Ferry cause Eric didn't get to see the harbour earlier in the week when I went. Problem is I remembered the wrong station and got us lost for about 30 minutes before we figured out what I had done. We eventually got there, had some ice cream and sat for awhile looking at the skyline cause our feet hurt from walking for 6 hours.

We went back to the hostel planning on sleeping for a few hours, that turned into 5 hours. At about 11 pm I went and got us food, we ate and I fell asleep again by 1:30. I guess I was tired. Woke up today around 8 and went to the restaurant I got the wrong sandwich and soup earlier in the week. I made sure to use numbers to order and got exactly what I wanted. I tried the tea and it was beyond undrinkable. It was such a strong flavour and had a chalky texture to it. I couldn't drink it. I'm not sure what we plan on doing today for our last day in Hong Kong, tomorrow we take the ferry to Macau.

This thread is awesome. Keep it coming.

We went in search of a post office this morning to mail a painting that Eric bought at the market earlier this week. After finding it about 20 minutes away they made us wrap it in paper like a birthday present before they would ship it. Funny part was he bought it for $220 HKD and it cost $213 HKD to mail and wrap.

We went to the Ladies market around 1 today which is the marketplace in Mong Kok. They don't just sell ladies stuff by the way. A lot of travel sites say it's the best one in Hong Kong. It's almost right across the street from our hostel so I've been 3 or 4 times this week. I've only bought two things but it's a nice place to walk around. So we walked around and Eric bought a bunch of stuff both for gifts and himself. We then went to this sushi place we had been earlier this week. All the food comes around on a conveyer belt and you just take what you want as you go. They have three different colour plates that vary in price. After lunch we went back to the hostel to relax.

A couple hours later we walked to the Temple Street Market about 30 minutes away. The market is very close to the Mido Cafe that we had breakfast at a few days ago. We walked the whole market buying nothing. We found a bar called VIP bar which looked sketchy as hell and I didn't want to go in but Eric convinced me. Turned out to be fine and we had a great time as they had video game dart boards that registered your throws for you. We played Cricket darts which neither one of us had played before, it was a lot of fun. We had some beer and snacks and then headed back to the hostel. We stopped at a bakery and a street meat place to grab some dinner.

Tomorrow morning we are taking the ferry to Macau bright and early. I am procrastinating since I don't want to pack. I am looking forward to playing some cards and collecting some chips over the next 4 days.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us, PG! Looking forward to the reports from Macau!

Good luck. I guess it can be said that you will be playing Chinese Poker.

As to wrapping and shipping, did you ask at the hostel about that. I would think they wuold have experience at it.

Great trip report! HK looks really cool and interesting. That park was beautiful. What would you say are some of the more major culture differences you've noticed?

Too bad to hear you didn't like HK style milk tea. Every place does it a little different. It's brewed extra strong with a blend of black tea leaves. At busy HK style cafes they hire a "water bar" master that only brews tea and coffee and cold drinks.

Pg, do you have pics of inside the hostel. Would be interested in seeing those. Also, how much was room?

In your other trip reports you would break down costs. You should do that on this one too unless of course you don't want to share the costs.

Quote: GWAE

Pg, do you have pics of inside the hostel. Would be interested in seeing those. Also, how much was room?

In your other trip reports you would break down costs. You should do that on this one too unless of course you don't want to share the costs.

I'm definitely curious about both of these as well. I've never stayed in a hostel but assume I would if I backpacked Europe or Asia, etc. I'd be curious to see what the cheaper dollar still gets you.

Quote: Romes

I'm definitely curious about both of these as well. I've never stayed in a hostel but assume I would if I backpacked Europe or Asia, etc. I'd be curious to see what the cheaper dollar still gets you.

I showed wife these pics and such and she would love to do this. She also loves camping and such. I told her I am willing to go to Hong Kong but no way in hell I am staying there. I need a real hotel with no one else in my room.

Pg, you should find one of those "hotels" where you sleep in a pod like in 5th element.

FleaStiff I didn't look into it at all because I wasn't shipping anything. Eric figured out what he wanted to do and then I just tagged along for the walk.

Romes the park really was. There are so many beautiful green areas in the city. As far as cultural differences there weren't that many. People from Hong Kong are very kind, very Canadian I should say. 😄 I found that people don't worry about things like burping In public, slurping food or chewing with their mouths open. A big one is in restaurants you don't get your own table a lot of the time, they will sit small parties together because the restaurants are so crowded.

Ya I was definitely not a fan Konbu. It was so overpowering but it was more the chalky texture that turned me off.

GWAE I have no problem breaking down the rough costs of the trip I just didn't think to do it because I am not keeping track of how much I am spending on food, transportation etc.

I spent about $2000 HKD (roughly $360 CAD) in six days in Macau which includes everything including the hostel. The hostel was $740 HKD ($132 CAD roughly) for the six nights. My flight from Winnipeg to Hong Kong was $1140 CAD with free baggage check. Right now I am on the ferry to Macau that cost $155 HKD ($28 CAD). After each country on the trip I will give a breakdown of expenses.

I also spent a few bucks before the trip. $96 for travel insurance, $20 for money belt, $40 for travel towel (quick dry), laundry kit and travel shampoo. So I was in for about $156 CAD before the trip.

As far as the hostel I was very pleased for $22 CAD a night. I get your need for your own room. I am assuming from your posts over the years that I am a decent amount younger than you. I don't mind sharing a room to save some money. I've never seen 5th element.





The bathroom has the shower and the toilet I just would you use the bathroom in the morning before anyone had showered. Otherwise the floor and toilet were wet.

When we got off the ferry we took the 5 minute walk to Casa Real Casino where we are staying. It took us about 20 minute to find it which isn't terrible. We checked in but they said our room wouldn't be ready until about 12:30 so we checked out the casino. It's an extremely different atmosphere than I am used to in North America. It's 80% baccarat, 20% I think the game was Sic Bo and they had 1BJ table with a $100 minimum. We walked around checking out the whole place and I eventually played 5 hands of BJ, winning 3 (1 BJ), losing 1 and pushing one for a whopping win of $220 after keeping my chips.

We then were able to check in and napped for about 90 minutes. We are staying at a four star hotel and it is glorious especially after the hostel for the last 6 nights. The beds are so comfy and the shower is absolutely amazing. The water pressure is one of the best I've ever had. To compare it more to the hostel, the bathroom is about 80% of the size of our hostel dorm was. All together we are paying $489 CAD for 4 nights here.

We are heading out to do some chip collecting of the casinos in Macau. We will be heading to a restaurant called A Lorcha for dinner as long as we can get a table. It's amazing Portuguese home cooked meals we have been told.

Man, I'm all about not over spending on hotels but no thanks on that hostel. Probably great when you're under 30 and have a budget though.

Good stuff so far, keep it coming.

Quote: BTLWI

Man, I'm all about not over spending on hotels but no thanks on that hostel. Probably great when you're under 30 and have a budget though.

Good stuff so far, keep it coming.

Don't get me wrong I love a nice hotel but to spend $100 a night on hotels for a month gets expensive. Hostels are just somewhere to sleep. A means to an end.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Don't get me wrong I love a nice hotel but to spend $100 a night on hotels for a month gets expensive. Hostels are just somewhere to sleep. A means to an end.

Thanks for the pictures! That's about what I expected, and I agree with you... Just a place to sleep really. And if you're traveling with a couple friends then perhaps you could even get 1 room with 3-4 beds to yourselves.

You mentioned the room wasn't ready so "we" hit the casino and "we" did this or that. I thought you were traveling solo?

Quote: Romes

Thanks for the pictures! That's about what I expected, and I agree with you... Just a place to sleep really. And if you're traveling with a couple friends then perhaps you could even get 1 room with 3-4 beds to yourselves.

You mentioned the room wasn't ready so "we" hit the casino and "we" did this or that. I thought you were traveling solo?

Nope travelling with my buddy Eric. He just got to Hong Kong late cause he booked the wrong flight from Cambodia. He was at a poker series in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

I was curious, and perhaps a bit confused, by some currency references. A quick search (on the always reliable Wikipedia) tells me that the official currency in Macau is the Macau (or Macanese) pataca (sometimes capitalized as “Pataca” but then there is the change of alphabet to begin with.)

When one is using characters that I can read, pataca/Pataca is typically abbreviated MOP$ or just $. The currency is backed by foreign exchange reserves, with an obligation to redeem at a fixed exchange rate against the Hong Kong dollar, supposedly MOP$1.032 to the Hong Kong dollar. Another site lists the exchange as MOP$1.00 = $0.13 U.S.

So what currency is used in the casino, and what was the $100 minimum on blackjack like in a currency we understand? Of course, this question derives from that post I made with comments about having to purchase a $1000 souvenir chip in Chile while the gaming tables were closed.

This I can answer for you Doc. Macau casinos are always dealing in HK dollars unless it says MOP on the table. At most everywhere HKD is accepted at par with MOP, with change also given in HKD. You lose a little bit but it's convenient for the tourist not to have to change currency since MOP is worthless anywhere outside of Macau.

Casino will take both HK$ and Macau$. What u bet and what u get back. But usually HK$ .

Quote: Konbu

This I can answer for you Doc. Macau casinos are always dealing in HK dollars unless it says MOP on the table. At most everywhere HKD is accepted at par with MOP, with change also given in HKD. You lose a little bit but it's convenient for the tourist not to have to change currency since MOP is worthless anywhere outside of Macau.

Do they keep two sets of chips, or can you simply request either at the Cashier? If so, is there an opportunity for some FOREX AP'ing of the currency spread?

Thanks for the quick responses, Konbu and speedycrap. So that "$100 minimum" blackjack table was really about the same as a $13 (U.S.) minimum table -- do I have that right?

What are the minimum chip values in play in those casinos? Will PG be bringing back souvenir chips to post for us that have values in the range of just better than a U.S. dime (i.e., a HK$1 chip)? I checked the MoGH chip guide, and it shows MGM Grand 5 HKD and 25 HKD chips, apparently worth about U.S. $0.64 and $3.22. Also showed $5 (err, $0.64) chips from City of Dreams.

Ayecarumba, I understood (misunderstood?) Konbu to be saying you could buy in with either currency and get the same chips for the same nominal number of dollars/pacata, with the casino absorbing the 3% loss if you had pacatas. I did see two different "100" chips in the chip guide with one allegedly being Macau and one allegedly Hong Kong currency, but that may have just been what was reported by the person providing the image or assumed by the web site manager.

My memory is that tables are strictly HKD only unless it has a MOP sign, but I could be mistaken and there could be 2 sets of chips. I doubt the casino would be so nice as to absorb a 3% loss. There would be plenty of people that would take advantage of that arbitrage.

When u put down your bet, the dealer will tell u.

Any tables that accept MOP have two sets of chips in the tray. One that's HKD and one that says MOP on them.

Also Doc I am bringing back chips between $5 and $25 HKD because some casinos like Sands don't have their own chips lower than $25. They use Venetian and sands cotai chips for the $5 chips.

Not much to report from yesterday, won at every casino we played sides at while collecting chips. Way to many casinos are SJM which I knew but still saddens me. They should each have to have seperate chips IMO. We found a great poker game at Babylon Casino. It was the first day they were running cash games. We played 25/50 with businessman and locals and I got crushed lol. I ran the worst I have in a while. Oh well the game was great whether I won or not. The other four players were really bad. I was down about $8000. Going to go play 25/50 or 50/100 later today at City of Dreams. $8000 isn't hard to make up at those stakes.

I tried duck for the first time and it was really tasty. We also had these crab/fish balls in a spicy broth that was excellent from a street vendor. Lastly we had really cheap yummy noodles and brisket soup at President Casino before going back to the hotel.

Are the girls at the lobby still HK$1,000?

Thanks for the info PG, I am enjoying it very mu h.

Too bad about your recent bad run. I hope it turns soon for you. Ade there signs on the tables that say, "Mandarin Only", like how tables in North America say "English Only"? I wonder because other players colluding, especially if the staff isn't strict about enforcement regarding the "foreigners", can be a problem..

Quote: PokerGrinder

Not much to report from yesterday, won at every casino we played sides at while collecting chips.

Nothing to report but ALL THAT CASINO ACTION!

Quote: PokerGrinder

Way to many casinos are SJM which I knew but still saddens me. They should each have to have seperate chips IMO.

Sorry if I'm having a slow moment, what do you mean SJM?

Quote: PokerGrinder

We found a great poker game at Babylon Casino. It was the first day they were running cash games. We played 25/50 with businessman and locals and I got crushed lol. I ran the worst I have in a while. Oh well the game was great whether I won or not. The other four players were really bad. I was down about $8000. Going to go play 25/50 or 50/100 later today at City of Dreams. $8000 isn't hard to make up at those stakes...

Running bad at a great game can be pretty frustrating, but like you said at least you found the great game. I'm actually curious how the poker is over there in general. Do you get treated differently being white and playing the game (in your opinion)? When you say $8000, 25/50, and 50/100 are you referring to Canadian dollars, or HKD? Was the purpose of this trip travel but also to make money/your living playing poker there as well?

Speedycrap I can't say I know one way or the other lol.

Aye no sign but it's Mandarin, Cantonese or English only. I don't worry about a loss, I lost less than a buy in for the game I was playing. Yes it's a decent amount of money but I don't worry about the day to day in poker. I can't, I would lose my mind if I did. As long as I am playing well and the game is profitable I'm happy.

Lol Romes we didn't play much in each casino just enough to get our chips. I think all together I was up about $1250 HKD on sides or something close to that. Better than losing but not exactly noteworthy.

SJM is a company that used to have a monolopoly on casinos in Macau until the the Macau government awarded licences to other companies in 2001. Now they own like 17 or so casinos and use the same chips in all of them.

The poker games are decent not great, definitely not what they were a few years ago. (From what I heard) They play smaller almost like online games. A lot of 3xing and sometimes 4x opens. The players for the most part aren't great. I played with one really good player today and one above average player on a full table. I was probably still the best player at the table and if not I was clearly the second best player.

They treat me no different cause I'm white. They might not talk to me though if they don't speak great English. I find that I am very quiet at the tables (which is way way way out of the ordinary for me) because of the language barrier. I am usually one of the chattiest players at a table. Poker is a universal language though, you don't need to understand the language to play the game. The limits of the game and my loss were in HKD. The whole purpose of the trip was travel. I plan on hitting a few casinos to grab chips and if I make a few bucks grinding poker than that's great but I don't need it. This is me taking a month off from "work" basically.

I don't know if you've been to Macao before, or whether your buddy has, but I've read that the Chinese government has cracked down on letting a lot of corrupt Chinese money hitting the baccarat felt in Macao.

My questions:

How busy are the casinos in Macao, especially as compared to pre-crackdown?

How are the American owned/controlled casinos faring?

Finally, I wonder how successful the attempts to root out organized crime there have been?

Are the casinos slow at the beginning of the week and busier on the weekends like over here, or is the pattern different? Weeknight poker players are a different level than weekender's.

Do they spread Omaha-8, or Stud games too? How about "Chinese Poker" or "Pan"?

Have you come across any Craps tables? What were the limits?

Are the words and numbers on the table felts in Chinese?

Quote: PokerGrinder

...They treat me no different cause I'm white. They might not talk to me though if they don't speak great English. I find that I am very quiet at the tables (which is way way way out of the ordinary for me) because of the language barrier. I am usually one of the chattiest players at a table. Poker is a universal language though, you don't need to understand the language to play the game. The limits of the game and my loss were in HKD. The whole purpose of the trip was travel. I plan on hitting a few casinos to grab chips and if I make a few bucks grinding poker than that's great but I don't need it. This is me taking a month off from "work" basically.

I think that would be fun to play poker where no one else spoke your language oddly enough... another form of communication and a way to connect with people around the world through a shared interest/hobby/profession/etc.

Definitely shows you've been rounding a while. When I started putting in a lot more hours to AP I couldn't seem to separate vacation from work vacation. Everywhere I went I went mostly because of the free travel/rooms/etc/etc but of course that means a casino and of course I'll always seem to find a great opportunity while on vacation... and being an AP I simply can't ignore the call of some of these great hourly EV's =). I once went on vacation for a week and ended up putting in about 8-10 hours per day hole carding. When I got back I felt like I needed another vacation... Like I said good on you for being able to separate the two and enjoy yourself. It is essential to take that time to actually RELAX; It can do wonders for the spirit and the mind.

Mr. V neither of us has been here before. I heard that too in a bunch of news articles that I've read over the last year or so.

1) I have no idea before vs after the crackdown since I've never been here before. The casinos are all packed it seems no matter what time of day and it's mid week.
2)The American casino are bigger, nicer and seem to the busiest casinos in town. They are definitely taking the most action. Maybe not amount of players but definitely voume of play.
3) I'm really not sure other than what I have read. I don't run with the gangs anymore 😜

Aye I can't really say since we've been here for only two days and they were both weekdays. I'm assuming it gets busier on the weekends like in North America. They spread only NL Holdem in Macau. I have yet to see a craps table but I think Konbu said the Venetian and Wynn have one each but we haven't been there yet. The table felts have both English and one of the Chinese languages, not sure which one.

Romes it is. The game of poker speaks for itself. You don't need to understand the local language to play.

I totally agree, you have to be able to seperate the two. I'm finding it easier because I didn't bring a ton of HKD out here so the limits are a bit high to be playing on the money I brought. If I had brought let's say $100,000 HKD I would find it a lot tougher to not play more. I'm glad I'm not though cause it makes it less work and more relaxing as you said. We are doing touristy stuff today and don't plan on playing any poker until tomorrow.

Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for posting!

Ok so I just wrote up the last few days and then deleted it by accident. I will be doing a quicker version now cause it's late and I don't feel like recreating it.

So... We walked to old town Macau where the ruins of St. Paul's cathedral are and other historical sites. On the way (40 min) we stopped at a bakery that was selling egg tarts (round pastry with egg custard and finished off with melted brown sugar like a creme brûlée) and really thick spicy pork tenderloin jerky. It was possibly the best jerky I've ever had and the egg tarts are very tasty too. We stopped at Rio casino to grab chips and I won $1250.

We got to old town and walked through the markets to St. Paul's cathedral. It's amazing!

We spent about a half hour inside of the ruins and taking pictures.

There was a gift shop in the market which was perfect because I bring back snow globes for my little cousins from everywhere I go. Snow globes are tougher to find in this side if the world but I knew a gift shop for tourists would have them and they did!!! Mission accomplished.

We headed back to hotel and Eric thought he had a quicker route to walk from his prerouted directions on his phone. Turns out it wasn't quicker!!! We got lostish and then found our way but we had to climb steps up the side of a mountain for 20 minutes and then walked a winding path that didn't seem to lead anywhere. We got to a point in the road where one street had a sidewalk that started down towards the street but went away from the hotel and the other was a road with no sidewalk that went towards the hotel. I wanted to start descending towards the street, Eric wanted to go towards the hotel, I lost. We walked for 20 minutes not finding a way down the mountain and eventually ended up right above our hotel with no way down.
Nice view though.

We turned back and took the road I wanted to originally. It took us down to bottom but we were still really far from the hotel. After just over 2.5 hours we finally got to the hotel. We were sweaty, tired and our feet hurt,

I showered and then we cabbed to City of Dreams on the Cotai Strip. I played 25/50, it was a decent game and I made $5040. Eric signed up for and won the nightly tournament that only got 7 players. We then headed to the brand new Wynn Palace which is the most beautiful casino that I have ever seen. Wynn really outdid himself this time. They have cable cars that take you into the casino for free if you want.

We close to take one and when we got really high up both had mild freak outs cause we are both afraid of heights. I've gone on the Linq observation wheel with no problem but this freaked me out. Oh well, I survived.

Before we entered the casino Wynn has a ferris wheel made out of flowers in the lobby. Stunning to look at.

We ate at the noodle house and had amazing food. The design of the restaurant is really cool too.

I had one of their set menus for just under $100 HKD. The prices were much more reasonable than I was expecting since City of Dreams food was way over priced.
Shrimp in scrambled eggs, chicken broth with pears, apples, pork and peanuts (weird but good) peeled marinated cherry tomatoes, peanut and spinach salad and fried rice with minced beed.


We then sat 25/50 for a hour or so but I was really tired and didn't feel like playing anymore. I won $25 lol ship it!!! I also won $140 screwing around on a slot machine while waiting for Eric.

We then tried to get a taxi to take us back to the hotel but none of the cabbies seemed to know our casino/hotel. They huddled together and then one of them took us to his friend who said he would take us. The driver said something about massage and we said no Casa Real and he said ok I take you to fucking (heavy accent and doesn't speak English) and now we are laughing cause he is making hand motions of sex and I kept saying no Casa Real casino. He finally realized that we weren't wanting to get laid and he said casino oh ok I understand. Gotta love that language barrier. They didn't know the English name of the casino so they thought we wanted a prostiute. Fun times.

Today was a very slow day, woke up late around 1. We got ready and then walked towards the Wynn area of the island. We grabbed chips at Wynn and MGM. I lost $600 between the two, oh well. We hit two other casinos but both were SJM casinos so no chips to collect. We then cabbed to a restaurant that comes highly recommended called A Lorcha. We found a cabbie to take us there but he didn't know where it was and didn't speak English. We directed him there with Google maps, telling him where to turn and whatnot. He was not impressed with us and didn't find the whole crazy cab ride as funny as we did. The whole time he was a having a full conversation in Cantonese that we couldn't understand. We kept saying that but he kept talking to us in Cantonese. We eventually got there and the restaurant was under renovation until tomorrow so we made a reservation and found a restaurant down the street. The food was great, it was a Chinese Portugese place. I had African chicken which is spicy very flavourful chicken on rice. I was very pleased with it.

We tried to get the restaurant to call us a cab but they kept directing us to the bus stop. We walked down the street trying to hail a cab but they were all full. We tried to get a hotel to call us a cab but they directed us to a spot to hail a cab. Not much help. We eventually got one after about 30 minutes and he knew exactly where our hotel was. Bonus!

I did laundry in the bath tub which was a very long disaster and I will never do it again. I have rope burn and a nasty blister from ringing out so many clothes. Now I'm just hoping they all air dry in the next day and a half before I go to Kuala Lumpur.

I happened to be looking at the Museum of gaming history chip guide for an old casino that used to be here and misclicked. Best miss click ever. I clicked on Lan Kwai Fong Casino which is owned by SJM but they had chips listed. So I looked closer and they are SJM chips but they say the casino name at the top. I hadn't noticed this when I stopped in the other day so I didn't grab a chip. I walked the ten minutes to Lan Kwai Fong and got a chip. Super lucky I found that by accident. I then did some research with different sources I use and they are infact the only SJM casino that doesn't use the generic SJM chips.

Tomorrow we are going to finish collecting chips in Taipa and Cotai before heading to A Lorcha for dinner. Other than that I will pack and get ready to head back to Hong Kong on Saturday to catch my flight. Might play poker but I doubt it.

Great trip and looks like a fun adventure! Nice that you made a couple bucks and surprisingly the cost of things over there doesn't seem to bad (especially at the Wynn)?

I guess Wynn copied the Bellagio water fountains? =P

Prices for food, transportation and hotel are all very reasonable. I can't complain. Definitely nice to make some money back from the fishies 😊

Quote: Romes

I guess Wynn copied the Bellagio water fountains? =P

Wynn built the Bellagio fountains. :-)

Congratulations on getting lost. It adds spice to your life. Callouses to your feet too perhaps, but it definitely adds spice to your life to take unexpected turns and see what awaits you.

If you are staying at a non-touristy local hotel, try to find something big and touristy nearby... a taxi driver will know something big and touristy and then you can say 'two blocks ahead and one block left' or something.

Lucky you PG! Out of the 9 chips I have so far, 8 were losers. Only $20 at each place but it adds up. Also have been to several others that had tables not yet open and the cage wouldn't sell me/only poker/shuttered.

I actually have no problem with getting lost. It allows me to see more of where I am. Yes my feet were sore but it was a fun experience.

We haven't had too much trouble other than the one cabbie not knowing our hotel. We are staying in a giant casino hotel across from the Sands.

Quote: Konbu

Lucky you PG! Out of the 9 chips I have so far, 8 were losers. Only $20 at each place but it adds up. Also have been to several others that had tables not yet open and the cage wouldn't sell me/only poker/shuttered.

Where are you again? 9 new chips sounds pretty successful to me! I'm still up on sides but variance hit us today and I lost about $1000 HKD. I'm still up about $1500 HKD on sides and down about $3000 on poker.

Today was a simple day. We finished up the chip collecting by visiting the rest of the Cotai casinos and the few in Taipa. Lost a few bucks today on sides but nothing terrible, it was bound to happen with all the winning.

We had dinner reservations at A Lorcha which is a very highly recommended Portuguese restaurant. Problem was that no cabbies knew how to get there so we took a cab from Altira to Grand Lisboa, tried to get wifi but couldn't. Took another cab who we tried to explain how to get there but the language barrier was too tough. He took us to the Wynn where we knew we could get wifi. Btw cabs are beyond cheap which is why we didn't care about taking them over and over. At the Wynn we got google map directions. New cabbie didn't know how to get there, Wynn front door guy wanted to help but couldn't understand enough so he called over his friend. His friend explained to the door guy and cabbie what we wanted since he spoke more English and Cantonese. We were on our way finally! We got there a few minutes late for our reservation but that was not a big deal.

We both ordered the African chicken that was recommended to us by Eric's friend. It was amazing! One of the best tasting meals I've ever had. It's a very flavourful spicy chicken on the bone. The flavours were awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone who ends up in Macau. We got lucky and were able to hail a cab pretty quick unlike yesterday in the same
area.

We didn't end up playing poker tonight cause dinner went late. Eric is playing the deep stack event tomorrow night before flying back to Canada on Sunday. I'm headed back to Hong Kong to catch my flight to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow night.

As per Romes and GWAE's request here is my spending breakdown. My half of the 4 star hotel was $245 CAD for 4 night. I was up $1500 on sides and down $3000 on poker (HKD), I have $460 HKD worth of chips coming home with me. About half of those chips are mine and half will be reimbursed to me by chip collecting friends. My cash spent on food, transportation and souvenirs here is about $900 HKD give or take. I will be spending $155 for the ferry to Macau and I already have my plane ticket to Kuala Lumpur that cost me $808 HKD or about $139 Canadian.

I guess that's all for now. I'm not sure if I'll bother writing up tomorrow since it's a travel day. My flight gets into Kuala Lumpur around 1 am local time so I hope I don't have any trouble finding the hostel.

Thanks for the report! That chicken does look pretty good. Seems like things are a bit cheaper than I would have expected... only about $60 CAD per night in the hotel, and split that with a friend that's not bad at all.

Here's a question... I've heard in a lot of places overseas it's of poor taste to attempt to "tip" your service people, such as waiters and cab drivers. Have you been tipping them, or do they refuse it, or have you not because you knew the local custom?

Safe travels!

Quote: Romes

Thanks for the report! That chicken does look pretty good. Seems like things are a bit cheaper than I would have expected... only about $60 CAD per night in the hotel, and split that with a friend that's not bad at all.

Here's a question... I've heard in a lot of places overseas it's of poor taste to attempt to "tip" your service people, such as waiters and cab drivers. Have you been tipping them, or do they refuse it, or have you not because you knew the local custom?

Safe travels!

If you read my post the $60 a night was my half sadly not the whole total. We paid $490 Canadian for the whole stay, split two ways is $245 each. Still a really solid deal since two years ago a hotel this nice in Macau was easily $220-$250 USD a night. The hotels have gotten cheaper as the the place has gotten less busy.

I haven't been tipping because I knew that it wasn't a thing here. Some of the sit down restaurants charge a 10% service charge on the bill but tipping is not standard even if the service charge isn't there.

Overall everything is very cheap. I mean A Lorcha is a nicer restaurant and even so our bill tonight was $447 which included us both having the African chicken and a glass of wine plus the service charge. That's $77 CAD for two people to have a meal at a nicer than normal restaurant. Back home the wine alone would run $10+ a glass lol.

Is it tough to fly from country to country. I have never done so but for some reason I thought it was an issue to fly between 2 countries when 1 isn't your home.

No issues whatsoever. As long as you have a passport it's quick and easy. Also the Canadian passport is handy cause everyone loves a Canadian! 😂