Hong Kong & Macau

I don't think I've ever had a greater culture shock than flying from semi-rural Cambodia to Hong Kong. I'm not sure culture shock is the right word, more "wealth shock". Cambodia is an extremely poor country - ruined by the Indochina War and years of endemic corruption - and Hong Kong is one of the richest places on the planet. What stands out to me is the efficiency of the place. Everything works, is on time, and is sparkling clean. There's very little crime. It's sort of like New York but minus the sense of fun.

I only had two nights in Hong Kong. The hostels there are terrible so I opted for a hotel instead, and not knowing anyone there, there's only so much flying solo you can do. On the Sunday afternoon I went to a nearby bar called Laguna. All the Filipino maids in Hong Kong (there are a lot) get Sunday off and legend has it some of them hit clubs and are keen to talk to Western guys, presumably because they would be good options for husbands. However what I found when I went to Laguna was an entire bar full of hookers. I guess when a place has a reputation like that it's not going to be long before hookers move in and take over. I did enjoy the other nightlife in the area though. I'm reserving judgement on Hong Kong - the hugeness of the city and the diversity of people make it a tough place to come to grips with.

On Monday I caught the TurboJet hydrofoil to Macau, accidentally buying a business class ticket for the second time this trip (the first was my Bangkok - Koh Samui flight). You're going to be hearing a lot more about Macau in the coming decades. Just like Hong Kong, it's a small region of China formerly owned by a European colonial power. In this case it's Portugal, not Britain, and the land was given to them by the Chinese (as reward for stamping out piracy in the region) as opposed to conquered (Hong Kong having been annexed by the British during the Opium Wars). Macau is now (also like Hong Kong) a Special Administrative Region of China, which means it makes its own decisions about everything except national defence and foreign policy. From a tourist point of view, it's a separate country.

Gambling is legal here and not in neighbouring Hong Kong or mainland China. As a result, this place is developing into the Las Vegas of the East. There are virtual carbon copies of big Vegas casinos - The Venetian, MGM Grand and Wynn so far - and even Vegas entertainment institutions like Cirque du Soleil are starting to move in. There's also a couple of original casinos such as the Grand Lisboa, a huge golden monstrosity towering above the city. I can't decide whether I like or hate the look of it.

What I don't get is that there are virtually no bars or pubs. This may reflect different priorities on the part of the clientele - the mainland Chinese are not big drinkers and a lot of them simply want to gamble.

I played poker at the Wynn last night - $HKD 25/50 NL, which is slightly less than $A 5/10 NL. I lost about $A 350. The game wasn't particularly good - there were a couple of moderately poor players on the table, but it's harder to exploit them 9 handed and I had a very good and aggressive Swede to my left. If it had been a table online I'd have left and sat elsewhere. Also of note is that none of the players at the table, as far as I could tell, were from anywhere in China (HK and Macau included). I guess this is all to be expected on a Monday night. There were some pretty big games going on for a Monday - $HKD 200/400, which is close to $A 35/70 NL. I would probably be willing to sit those games as I doubt the quality of play is any better, but if I withdraw enough money to play those big games, then I'm going to have to carry it around for the next month, which would be pretty bad.

Tonight I'm going to go play poker again, but not until a bit later. Liverpool v Arsenal is on at 3am here - a big game which is virtually must-win for Liverpool if they want to retain any serious hope of winning the Premier League. I'm going to find out where I can watch that (I hope the only answer isn't "in my hotel room") and then go and play poker until just before it starts. I might play in Grand Lisboa this time and see what that's like.