Macau

Our Hong Kong resident visas got approved this past week, which meant that we had to leave the country and come back in. I don't really understand why, but that's the way it is. The easiest thing is to go to Macau... and even though Macau and HK are now technically the same country (China), you still have to go through immigration and customs and all that. I was not all that thrilled about the trip, as it requires ferries and I have done my best to avoid ferries for the past several weeks. Thankfully, I didn't throw up at all! Dare I hope that the second trimester magic has kicked in?

Here is the happy little man on the ferry from Mui Wo to Central. How could he not be happy with LarryBoy and Archibald in one hand and his "tools" (audio adapters) in the other hand?

And this is the inside of the ferry from Central to Macau. Kinda like an airplane. Thankfully almost as smooth.

I'm going to spare you pictures of Macau. Mostly because I didn't take any. We weren't there to be tourists and couldn't really be with a 2-year-old anyway. I find Macau fascinating because of the Portuguese/Chinese mixture... cobblestone streets and pastel European buildings among dirty high rise buildings with laundry handing out the windows and 7-11 on every corner. And then there's the whole thing about reclaiming a bunch of land in order to build more casinos and the ridiculous gambling industry. There are 1-3 ferries (that hold several hundred people) that leave every 15 minutes to go from HK to Macau and back. At least on weekends. That is a lot of people going to gamble!

(Or get new visas.)

Anyway, you'll just have to visit yourself one day.

We booked a hotel online (because doing just a day trip would have been fairly impossible for Josiah and I) but were unable to get something other than two twin beds. The front desk staff graciously upgraded us for free to a premium room with a king size bed. And bathrobes! I think it helped to have an adorable blue-eyed child with us. This was the view from our room...

And this is the zoomed-in view... an ocean view room! :)

Anyway, we checked in... spent time laying on the enormous bed watching TV... went swimming... and then went out to find dinner. We never found dinner (where are all the restaurants in Macau??) but we found AMAZING boba milk tea. We also found this in the stroller...

Out cold at like 6:30! This was the beginning of him getting sick. He didn't seem terribly sick, though we thought he might have a fever. The next morning we decided not to linger and headed back to Hong Kong. Our fever suspicion was confirmed as we went through immigration.

For those of you who have not traveled in Asia... many airports take your temperature after you pass through immigration. This all started with SARS and has apparently continued. They use infrared cameras to do this, so it is not invasive. Except if you have a young kiddo, someone walks up with a forehead thermometer. After the forehead thermometer, we got pulled aside and Josiah got thermometers in his ears. With a reading of of over 101, we got to sit and fill out paperwork. They wanted to know our contact info, where we had been the past 7 days, and what activities we had been participating in. They even asked if Josiah had touched any birds (Avian Flu). We got a special letter to take to the doctor and that was about it, thankfully. And since we don't actually have to go to the doctor, I'm sure we won't.

After all that, I remembered that had actually (like a good mother) packed children's tylenol and if I had remembered that and given it to him, maybe we could have avoided the fever detour. Oh well. At least we know what happens if you have a fever!

So we're home. Josiah is still not completely better, but I'm not that worried. Monday we have an appointment at the immigration office to complete the visa process and hopefully get our ID cards soon... so that I can go to the doctor. You know, just to confirm there's a baby inside me.

One last picture... The water between HK and Macau is full of small, uninhabited islands. This island, close to Macau, is simply being consumed. A large chuck has been cut out. Maybe to create all that new land in Macau for the new casinos? Bizarre.

(If you click on the picture to enlarge, you can see what I'm talking about better.)