Shanghai, Three Gorges Dam/Yangtze River Cruise and Macau with the Thai girlfriend

[Bangyai]

Great pictures as usual and one hell of a state room.

All I can say is that if ever you feel the strange urge to adopt a 54 year old son ...... look no further ...... I'm the one .

Looking forward to traveling together

[S Landreth]

^That was a nice room/view.

Adopt? No,………..maybe you could be a younger brother (never had a brother). Hell, I’m only a year older than you.

We just got into Macau so I haven’t enough time to load and post pictures (the girlfriend and I are getting into the heated pool, in our room ). But wait till you see where we’re staying here. The place is beautiful.

[S Landreth]

Last night we made it into Macau and today we visited A-Ma Temple, Penha Church, Macau Museum/Mount Fortress, Grand Prix & (Portuguese) Wine Museum, Ruins of St. Paul, Fisherman’s Warf (which is dead), Macau Tower and the largest Casino in the world (the Venetian).

A-Ma (a Taoist) Temple (if you’re able to rub the handles and are able to create ripples in the water, you’ll be brought good luck). Built for the Sea Goddess: Macau A-Ma Temple

Penha Church

Macau Museum/Mount Fortress

Grand Prix & (Portuguese) Wine Museum

Ruins of St. Paul

Fisherman’s Warf. The place is dead (a lot of empty shops) and will be rebuilt (?) within two years

Macau Tower (where you can Bungee Jump)

The Venetian and we were told it is the largest Casino in the world.

[gusG]

But wait till you see where we’re staying here. The place is beautiful.

We's awaiting!

[S Landreth]

^I will be posting about the resort we stayed in tomorrow when we leave.

Last night we went to see The House of Dancing Water . It was a great show and I would recommend it to anyone (family included) who visits Macau.

I want to apologize for the pictures, but no flash was allowed (better pictures are in the link above).

Last year while in Hong Kong the girlfriend said she wanted to see Macau and I told her that I thought that the big attraction was gambling and that she might not be interested in seeing it; because she doesn’t gamble, but when planning this trip we set a few days to visit.

After the show last night we visited the Grand Hyatt’s casino.

The girlfriend won 271% of the money she went in with, I left with 41% of the money I went in with.

Today we visited two casinos, the Venetian and the Sands.

She left with 66% of the money she started out with and I left with none of the money I started out with.

Venetian

Sands

[S Landreth]

^ That's a great stateroom. How many days cruise?

It was a 4 night 3 day cruise and with the next visit to China; hopefully with Tibet included, the girlfriend would like to do a cruise from Chongqing (where we disembarked this trip) to Shanghai (Victoria Cruises | Chongqing to Shanghai).

Chongqing People's Liberation Monument

We arrived in Hong Kong via the ferry this afternoon. I was told by 2016 you’ll be able to drive over a bridge to Macau from Hong Kong.

A little about the resort we stayed at while in Macau. It was the Banyan Tree Macau Hotel. As I understand the resort is a year old and is just beautiful. One of the managers came to speak to us and said they designed it for relaxation. They did a fine job.

The resort is connected to the Galaxy and they do share some of the same facilities like the pool/casino/shopping mall. You don’t have to leave the building to enjoy your stay here in Macau. The Banyan Tree has a great Thai restaurant.

Some pictures

The Thai restaurant and food

[gusG]

Holy shit Batman.

[jizzybloke]

adopt a 54 year old

.maybe you could be a younger brother (never had a brother). Hell, I’m only a year older than you.

I always had you down as a lot younger than that for some reason SL.

As always lovely thread with very nice pictures!

[S Landreth]

^Thanks

Today we visited the Big Buddha (we’ve seen it once before and it hasn’t changed) before visiting the Soho area for dinner (Hong Kong SoHo district).

Soho

[Bangyai]

Thanks again for sharing these great pictures.

I've never been to Macao so I found those ones very interesting. I'll start saving now and try to go there for a visa run one day although Ms Bangyai and I will probably be staying at Le Pavement Suite at the Hotel de Footbridge. ( Not as swanky as it sounds but within my budget ).

As for your night shots at The House of the Dancing Waters ( of which there are two in our small house ) I don't think a flash would have helped that much as the distance might have been too great. A bigger aperture might have helped although with a lot of point and shoot cameras the choice of aperture can be limited , ( only two settings on my Sony ).
I recently bought a lightweight tripod to help out with night shots so that I can have a longer shutter time with less risk of blur but I havn't tried it out yet so I don't know if it will help or not.

[S Landreth]

I've never been to Macao so I found those ones very interesting. I'll start saving now and try to go there for a visa run one day although Ms Bangyai and I will probably be staying at Le Pavement Suite at the Hotel de Footbridge. ( Not as swanky as it sounds but within my budget ).

I think you’ll find they have something for everyone. In my last post; sometime later this week, I’ll post some information on things that might be of interest to some. I’ll include a couple things about Macau.

As for your night shots at The House of the Dancing Waters ( of which there are two in our small house ) I don't think a flash would have helped that much as the distance might have been too great. A bigger aperture might have helped although with a lot of point and shoot cameras the choice of aperture can be limited, (only two settings on my Sony ).

I recently bought a lightweight tripod to help out with night shots so that I can have a longer shutter time with less risk of blur but I havn't tried it out yet so I don't know if it will help or not.

I was thinking about getting a monopod for those types of shots (need a steady hand), then I could ask the girlfriend to carry it in her purse without getting too much grief.


This was our last full day in China and we’ll be visiting again within two years (if they open Tibet up for very small groups of different nationalities). While in Hong Kong we were at the Four Seasons Hotel.

This is a nice hotel in a great location, close to the subway and piers. We only ate breakfast at the hotel so I can’t comment on the food, but to say their breakfast/service was excellent.

[S Landreth]

While touring around China our guides answered and offered us information about some questions we had. Most of the questions were related to the cost of living in the cities we visited and I don’t know how accurate some of this information is, but found it interesting none the less.

While in Shanghai we were told the price for a high end apartment in a recently completed building was going for 110,000 Yuan per square meter (or 1,612 US dollars/sq. foot) and next month a new law would be enacted to stop the speculation on property in the area by requiring the (new) land owner to be a native of Shanghai.

The 110,000 Yuan/sq. meter building/s,……..

We were also told that the cost of living; in mainland China, was highest in Beijing, then Shanghai and then Hangzhou. The cost of living has sky-rocketed in Hangzhou because it has become a hot spot to vacation for Chinese as of late. We were told the area is having a problem attracting a better labor force because of the rising cost of living in the area.

About Macau and what gambling brings to their citizens,…a very low income tax, citizens get an annual amount giving to them yearly (it is a small amount), we were told an amount is set aside for each individual (little over five-hundred thousand people) which they can withdraw when they turn 16 years old, there is a zero unemployment rate and they get all the good jobs (there is a labor force of a little over 100,000 people that are allowed in to take care of the low service industry).

While in China I was fascinated with some of their structures, of course the Three Gorges Dam. It was massive. Also their bridges. Here’s one we traveled under while under construction on the Yangtze River.

A bridge in Macau. If you look closely at the picture you can see windows in the segments of the bridge. They will open the inside of the bridge to traffic during their Monsoon season, but will close the bridge to traffic when a typhoon hits.

While in Hangzhou we took our first taxi ride in a vehicle powered by electricity. We were told that the Chinese government was promoting these vehicles with discounted rentals rates and purchasing costs but they would never go much beyond taxi driver ownership because a lot of the Chinese use their cars as a status symbol (Hangzhou launches going-green pilot project with electric car rental service). I want to tell you, at some of the places we stayed I have never seen so many beautiful luxurious cars in one place at one time. They are still working out some of the bugs on these electric vehicles: Hangzhou Halts All Electric Taxis as a Zotye Langyue (Multipla) EV Catches Fire

Here’s a short video of small parts of the show we saw while in Hangzhou. Impression West Lake

It was a nice trip and we are looking forward to traveling in China again.

[Bangyai]

......(there is a labor force of a little over 100,000 people that are allowed in to take care of the low service industry).

Ah ha ........ at last. Something to exite my ' desire to work ethic ' which has been totaly moribund and dormant these ten years past. Now , when the chips are down and I havn't a baht to my name , I can look Ms Bangyai in the eye and say :

' Don't worry ..... be happy ! ' in the knowledge that there is an outside chance of a toilet cleaning contract with our name on it in Macou. No worries and pass the vixol.

Great thread and excellent pictures SL. What makes TD worth the reading amidst all the dross.