Jeffrey’s Journey

I’ll never be able to hear the word “typhoon” and feel the same again.

Yesterday morning, I got up at 7:30am and caught the 2nd Ferry to Macau. Going to Macau was on the top of my to do list while here in Hong Kong. Macau is a small island off the coast of China, originally settled by the Portuguese. Along with the Mediterranean flare in the architecture, the Portuguese language survives, if barely. Most people I met spoke Cantonese and English is less spoken here than in Hong Kong. Now the island is in the control of China categorized under the SAR (Special Administrative Region).

When I left for Macau, the typhoon warning was at level 1, the lowest level. By noontime in Macau, the typhoon decides it should become a threat and the level jumps up to 8. Now, this is no joke. The port authorities decides it’s serious enough to stop all the Ferries to and from the island… (shit!).

I’m stranded so I try to use the time wisely and make my way to the City Centre. I could only imagine how beautiful the city would look on a clear day because the Portuguese architecture was still stunning. It’s a mind-boggling thing, a Mediterranean flare in an Asian city. Anyway, I didn’t get far because all the shops closed due to the weather.

It was at the City Square where I met Jung, a 26 year-old Korean traveling alone like I was. We teamed up and decide to get some lunch to wait out the typhoon. Well, the typhoon was still very angry so we decide to go to Lisboa, the first casino in Macau. Macau is known for it’s casinos and there are plans of building the Venetian and Wynn here, according to an architect I met at the taxi line. Welp, after losing 100 Macau Patacas (roughly about 14 USD), Jung and I decide to get a cab to the Ferry station. The first cab we hailed refused to take us to the station because he said the typhoon has crippled all ferry transportation for the night.

It was at this moment a lady, no less than 45 years of age, approached us and told us to wait in the hotel we were passing. As we waited, we watched behind the safety and comfort of secure glass windows the different objects being hurled down the street by the winds. The lady was being very helpful and it spooked me a bit. She taught me how to dial my hostel to warn them I might not be back for the night among other kind gestures. It didn’t take me long to realize that she lost all her money gambling and she wanted us to help her financially…

Eventually Jung and I get bored so she eagerly helps us find this restaurant that’s no bigger than half the size of a standard dorm room. We all order a few dishes and beers and After a few hours, the news is beginning to broadcast pictures of people camping out in the ferry station because the station has shut down and people didn’t have anywhere to go or any way of getting to a hotel, all which was reminiscent of scenes from the superdome in New Orleans when Katrina hit. We now realized we were not going to get back to Hong Kong tonight so Jung and I paid the bill and I asked the shopkeeper where we could find a cheap hotel. She was nice enough to called the lady that lived upstairs who had an extra room to rent.

The room has double beds and a couch. While this is happening, I was thinking of how I can’t believe this is happening… I’m sharing a room with a guy that before this afternoon, I had never met, and a 45 year-old degenerate gambler. But she seemed nice enough… so we paid for the room too but made her sleep on the couch.

In the morning, typhoon was down to level 3, which meant the ferry back to Hong Kong was back and running. As expected, she asked us to pay for the ferry ticket back to Hong Kong. Long story short, she said her daughter would pay us back in Hong Kong but I assumed it was BS, but I paid for her ferry ticket anyway. I took a look at her face and said she was one of two types: 1) someone that’s not a good person 2) someone that’s desperate.

I really believed it was a nice person that was desperate. I wanted to believe it.

The typhoon was a blessing in disguise in many ways. True, had to pay for a night in the hostel back in HK that I didn’t use as a lot of other expenses, but I met a friend along the way. Today, Jung and I had some dim sum and went to the Avenue of Stars, the Hong Kong version of our stars in Hollywood. Shortly after, he left to catch his plane and I’m left with an unforgettable experience.