Me gracefully diving into the langham hotel pool

Woke up early listening to the calming sounds of pokerstars beeps and andy playing a session. Think I eventually got up about 11-12. We got on the train and went to Hong Kong island to check out the peak, which is a massive lookout over Hong Kong/Mongkok. There is a tram thing that goes up a steep hill which took about 20 minutes. It was a good experience. We got some photos of the smog. On the way down we ran into a group of 7th day eventists/mormons from the USA which was cool. It was funny listening to them refer to each other as “sister” and “elder”. I might become one.
After we got back we went to the temple street markets again and bought some watches. They are not bad l0oking, just need to adjust the size of them slightly. We also had dinner in an outdoor restaurant where I ordered some sea snails. They werent too bad, kinda like an oyster except stronger.

When we got back we had a look for the $6,000-ish I had earlier misplaced in the room. Well not misplaced, but left in my laptop bag earlier that day like the life fish that I am. We had no luck finding it so I reported it to the lobby security staff, and then to the police station at around 1am. The police/hotel staff reviewed the security tape and saw that the housemaid had made up our room as we were gone, so its pretty obvious where the money went. It was our word against theirs with no proof so theres not alot I could do. Ended up wasting like 3 hours at the police station until 4am getting a report translated. They wanted to come back up to the room but I couldnt see the point, so I let it go.

Money is the root of all evil anyway rite??

I had played a 3500 hand session until 3am the night before, so once again it was hard to get out of bed in time for breakfast. All I could manage was 2 bowls of cereal and some yoghurt, which I was severely regretting after we left our room and got onto the 1 hr ferry ride back to Hong Kong. It was a million times rougher than when we came out the other side and I was feeling really ordinary. I almost had to reach for a sick bag but kept it down. I kept myself busy taking awesome photos with Andys camera while he blogged. Once we got through customs we had another excellent feed at a place in the ferry terminal, which I badly needed. I got thai noodle soup with sausages or something like that. We got a taxi to the Langham hotel, which was great. Mongkok is the suburb we are in and it is apparently the most densely populated place on earth with 131,000 people per square kilometre. The streets were obviously packed, with lots of shops crammed next to each other selling everything you could imagine (we saw a shop that seemed to only be selling ladders?).

Once we got into our room we tested out the internet connection then went to the 41st floor which contained the health centre. It was very impressive. We firstly did a gym session while looking out over the city, and got some great photos. After that we headed to another part of the floor and went in the heated pool. Andy and I had contests over who could swim under water the longest. After the pool we headed into the locker rooms which are awesome in themselves. There is a guy who works full time in there, just doing stuff like replacing towels and drying the floor after people get out of the shower. It contains lockers, showers, changing areas, a part with mirrors which has sinks and hair dryers and shaving gear, a 40 degree spa, a sauna and a steam room. Also you can just put on a robe and walk around which is cool.

I didnt know there was a difference between a sauna and a steam room. I thought a sauna was sposed to be steamy. Anyway we gave it a go and lasted about 2 minutes. It was just a really unpleasant heat, not good at all. We hit the steam room after that which was slightly more bearable. At least its kinda a nice heat. We stayed in there about 5 minutes.

We headed back to our room for an online session and got room service, and around 8pm we went to the markets, firstly the “temple street markets” and then the “ladies markets”. Which are supposed to be the best and busiest markets in Hong Kong. It really reminded me of the Bangkok markets, selling the same kind of stuff anyway. One massive difference between them is that they do not seem to hassle you to buy stuff here like they do in thailand. The shop owners pretty much just stand around and let you look at stuff. There is still the somewhat painful negotiating though. I bought a poker belt and some bracelets, and Andy got a hoodie, underwear and a couple of T shirts. No doubt we will be heading back over the next couple of days to get more stuff. We bought some cokes and stuff from the 7/11 and then came back home, where I played another session and Andy went to bed.

I got up kinda late and was feeling a bit under the weather from our big night at the wynn. We went to the pool/spa again and got photos of ourselves frollicking. We played online for a little bit and then started our last live session at Grand Lisboa about 4pm. We saw a couple of the regs, and ran into James again. We played until about 8pm and then headed out across the road to a small place for dinner. It was one of the best meals since we had been here. I ordered the same stuff as I did the first night (chicken noodle or something) and it was really good. It was right next to a TAB-equivalent where there were people shouting at the dog racing., it was a good atmosphere and only about 10 bucks AUD each. I have much preferred the small street places to eat over the expensive and often crap casino restaurants. It also seems like every time we eat in a casino restaurant they sit us in the back? Andy reckons its because they are racist. My theory is that we are TOO good looking, and they do not want us distracting the other customers…yep.

We got up normal time, had the normal buffet breakfast and then grinded online for about4 hours.

In the arvo we hit the gym, and chatted with the trainer in there who does nothing all day, after our gym sess we went out into the pool which was freezing and then got in the spa. The pool was cold, but it had a great view out over the city. We rocked out in the spa for a bit then went back, had dinner and then headed to the Wynn for the purpose of drinking and playing live.

We got to the Wynn about 8pm and put our name on the 14-person long waiting list. The guy said it would be about half an hour, so we went and got dinner. We hit one of the chinese restaurants in the Wynn and ordered Roasted Goose and Suckling Pig. We drank 2 “Macau Beers” which were pretty good, they tasted like pure blonde. After 40 min at dinner we rocked back to the poker room where we had missed our seat at the table.

This worked out great in the end, because we thought we would try out our luck with the waitresses and try and get some free drinks while we waited for the tables. To our suprise they were happy to serve us vodka and red bulls (x3) while we were waiting, but they said once we were inside the poker room sitting at a table they would charge us for the drinks. So while we were outside the room standing around, we would get drinks for free, but once we were inside actually playing the tables, we would be charged…..wat ever. After we had 3 very strong redbulls we sat down at the $10/$25 game which had opened on a new table for us. I had a brilliant idea to scam us free drinks, which was to get up from the table and leave the poker room and pretend I was still on the waiting list, and then get free drinks and then walk back in. It worked once before the waitress wouldnt give me any more. Oh well. I went and sat back down and we paid for the next round.

We were seated next to a white guy who I originally thought was a Pom, but after a guessing game he told us he was from Randwick who is living in Macau training horses. It was good with 3 Aussies sitting next to each other at the table. After a few orbits and a couple of drinks, Andy pointed out a bloke at the cashier who really, really looked like the Tv Star Poker pro, Phil Laak, Turned out it was. He had a lot of people watching him from the rail playing the high limit game. We sat out a few hands and went and introduced ourselves. We had a good 10-15 minute chat to him about a couple of hands we had seen him play and a couple of TV shows he had been on. It was cool to chat to him and he is a very friendly guy. Eventually we let him get back to his table and we got back to ours.

Back at our table over the next hour or two it was the best live game we each had ever played in. Lots of drinking and table chat, bluffing, and playing monster hands against each other. We had my AK vs Andys QQ, My QQ vs Andys JJ, Flush over flush, and eventually my top pair vs Andys pair plus flush Draw. (For more details on all of the hands visit andys blog - www.eurekakid.com). We were not at all concerned about the hands against each other as we are splitting our action anyway. It was a very quick and very fun 4 hours, where despite us both being quite drunk ended up having a great session with heaps of good hands. Eventually as we were about to leave I ran into Phil Laak again who was Cashing out of his game. I had another chat to him about what he was doing, what we were doing, and his new poker club in Hong Kong. During that 20 minutes he was running back to his table and playing hands in between chatting to me. In one of them he lost around $100,000 Hong Kong Dollars ($15,000 USD), but it didnt seem to bother him too much and he came straight back over to yarn to me. He said he may catch us again this thursday when we are in Hong Kong at his Club. It was a very fun night, and tommorow we have plans with our new Aussie friend James who is going to take us out for our last night in Macau.

Again we managed to get up at a reasonable hour and did the buffet breakfast. After that we decided to do something completely different and play some online poker, then followed that with watching a Cardrunners instructional video.

In Australia the other week I got advised by a friend to buy some Siberian Ginseng, which are energy pills which are supposed to improve your mental focus and keep you awake. Well they failed miserably today, after we got back to the room and we played poker online I popped just as we started watching the Cardrunners video on Andys laptop. 15 minutes into that video and I was out like a light. I must have been asleep for at least an hour. Guess im still adjusting to the time difference.

In the Afternoon we got a taxi to the other Island and went into the Venetian casino, which is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia and the Fourth largest building on earth. It is also the biggest casino on earth with 3400 slot machines and 800 gambling tables and a 15,000 seat arena for entertainment/sports events (Wiki,2009). Apparently there is a golf course there and a putt putt course which we wanted to play, but we had no luck finding it. We did see lots of gambling, the food court, the stadium thingy, the indoor stream with gondolas,the fake sky, and far too many watch shops. Amazingly, the biggest casino in the world didnt have enough space for a poker room.

After we had enough of walking around the casino (its a big walk), we got a taxi back to the Wynn casino which we knew had a poker room. We eventually found it, through many hallways and tucked away in a back corner as usual. It was very busy and there were 13 people on the wait list before me, so we bailed. On the way into the poker room we saw a great show just inside the from door of the Wynn, where the roof opens up, and then a tree kinda, um, grows out of the ground and changes colour. Hard to explain but im sure theres a youtube video of it. (here we go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KelDyBGi1OU&feature=related)

Back at our home groud Galaxy Starworld, we got sat on different tables and played for a couple of hours. The games were alot better today because of a tournament they had held upstairs earlier in the day. I chatted to a guy from london who was sitting next to me for a while which was cool. No Gym today. After the live session we came back to the room and I read the NRL match reports and we watched a couple of AFL and Super14 games that were live on the “Australia network” tv channel. Its funny how the sport is televised better here than it is in Australia. After tonight we have 2 more nights in Macau then its off to Hong Kong for 6 nights, where we will do touristy stuff. I have to somehow fit in a uni assignment in there somewhere. It is 2am now and Andy, im not the only one who snores.

We got up at a good time and took advantage of the free breakfast offered at Starworld. It was pretty good, buffet style. The rest of the day we grinded the tables online and also visited the hotel gym. It was impressive, with new equipment and a trainer guy who was there to assist anyone in the gym. I was looking forward to having a swim in the outdoor pool, but it was closed because of thunderstorms. It might be a good view from the pool, if the smog/fog ever lifts.

In the evening we went to another strange chinese restaurant on the 2nd floor. It was a weird experience, almost the opposite of the night before. It was packed, and after sitting us down in a back corner, the waitresses didnt seem to have any interest in us whatsoever. After more language difficulties I ordered the pidgeon. It was okish, kinda hard to eat with chopsticks and not a whole lot of meat on it. Andy got lemon chicken and we also had rice with crocodile meat to share. Andys food took ages and none of it was that great. No tip for them.

After dinner we visited to local poker room (on the 2nd floor also), and played the 10/20 game. The poker room was less than impressive compared to Lisboa the night before. It only had 2 or 3 tables running, and it was very dull. The drinks are free just like in Vegas, but you wouldnt know it. In Vegas the waitresses are constantly asking players if they want drinks, but you practically have to beg to get one here. The poker was dull, again its a different type of game than vegas, no crazy players, just passive/boring players who love to see flops but dont really put in any more money unless they have a big hand. We definetly have a massive edge in the game but its very slow. 95% of the game involves being patient and waiting for a hand, which isnt a lot of fun when the rest of the table is chatting to each other in Cantonese. Anyway we played for a few hours and then headed back to the room for sleep.

After the cricket game, we pretty much headed straight to the airport. I spent the half hour on the way there madly sms’ing goodbyes to friends. We had an hour or so wait at the airport so we both played a quick online poker session.

The plane ride was long, I didnt sleep for more than an hour or so, I just spent most of it watching Quantam of Solace followed by Family Guy and Simpsons episodes. A girl called Mizu was sitting next to Andy, took a fancy to him and gave him her phone number. We arrived at Hong Kong airport at about 6am and went to the train terminal which we took to Kowloon station. The train was really good, fast and clean. The views of the city were great too. I originally thought it was just a foggy early morning but then realised it was just the pollution.

After getting off the train we had some communication difficulties with some locals but eventually figured out we had to get a bus to the China ferry terminal to get the ferry to macau. During the quick bus ride we saw alot of people who were working on the street wearing face masks. The driving seems to be slightly more aggressive than Sydney city, but no where near as crazy as Bangkok. They drive on the left hand side which has made it alot less confusing than our Vegas trip.

We arrived to the multi storey ferry terminal, and after many more communication difficulties realised we had to buy tickets, and take our own luggage on the ferry. It was very busy even though it was only 7am. I struggled to stay awake waiting the 20 minutes for the ferry and during the 1 hour ferry trip. It was tough to negotiate the language barrier all morning after not sleeping the night before and trying to find out hotel.

After getting to Macau we got a taxi to the Galaxy Star World casino and dropped our luggage off. It is a very nice casino, the lobby and outdoor parts are spectacular, the rooms are 5 star and it has 35+ floors with a bank/gym/VIP areas. Our room wasnt going to be ready for a few hours so we rocked out in the lobby and ordered a Ham and Cheese toasted sandwich. To our surprise it was served with a side of corn chips? I drank 2 cappucinnos which gave me a temporary lift. We still had a couple of hours before our rooms were going to be ready so we walked around the streets, we saw the Wynn casino, the MGM, a statue thing over the water and some fountains which I nearly got caught in. We took some photos and played on an outdoor gym. We made it back around 1pm and thankfully our room was ready.

After getting the lappys set up in our room, I had a quick sleep before we headed out for dinner which was an interesting adventure. We went into the Grand Lisboa casino, which was an absolute maze. We talked to 10 or more security guards asking where the restuarants/buffet was but none of them seemed to speak any english. Somehow we ended up at the door of a chinese restaurant and we were too hungry to look for anywhere else. We walked in and we were the only people there, although there were at least 8 waiters/waitresses who were talking to each other in chinese and giggling at us.

We picked out our things on the menu and Andy attempted to order a coke. They didnt understand at all, none of them could speak any english at all (apart from 1 or 2 who could speak a few broken words) and the conversation went something like…

Andy: Can we have some coke?
Head waitress: wat?
Andy: Coke…
Head waitress: *Points to another waitress* Do you think she is beutiful? *giggles*
Andy: Um, dont worry about it
Me: ….?

It was very weird but somehow we ended up getting cokes when another waitress came out and knew what we were talking about. As our food came out it was given to us by 2 of them, while another one gave us our drinks, while another one rearranged our plates, while another was bringing out knives and forks for us. The remaining 4 or 5 just stood around our table, still giggling.

The service and food was very good though, I got the Pork + noodles and it was massive. They continually filled up our drinks after we had taken a few sips and it was a fun and interesting experience.

After dinner we headed to another part of the casino and played about 2 hours live poker, before we made our way home via the supermarket to get some late night groceries + ice creams.

Goals for me and Andys trip to HK/Macau 26th Mar-6 Apr

- Blog every day

- Eat goat eye ball or something crazy

- Do NRL advertising in our jerseys/get noticed.

- Figure out what touristy stuff we want to do, then actually do it.

Poker

- Watch/discuss 1 instructional video per day

- watch andy play live high stakes

- average 2k hands online per day

- make an effort to review sessions

Gym goals

- gym every day

- get some PB’s

- do a single arm chinup

more to come…

edit:

- get drunk/play up.

- (Andy) Play live poker and dress up as a drunk/old person or something

Its locked in - flights are booked and my travel approved. Andy and I are going to Macau and Hong Kong.  On the 25th I will be going to Melbourne and from there to Macau. The plan is to stay 6 nights there and then go on to Hong Kong for another 5 nights (something like that anyway).
From the research we have done it looks as though the accomodation is pretty expensive and the rooms kinda cramped. As long as we have internet access and enough room for our laptops we should be sweet. The live poker scene should be an experience too, have heard some different things from the forums. The language barrier and the currency will make it interesting. Hopefully we can also get off our arse and be motivated enough to do some touristy crap too. Suggestions for touristy crap welcome.

R