I didn't take any photos of the 13-hour flight, namely because I was on an aisle seat (by choice), so no window views, and frankly, it would have been kind of boring looking down at the Pacific at night when we wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway. The inconvenient departure time of 1:50 AM actually makes very good sense in retrospect: the flight attendants served dinner (shrimp and scallops in a light curry sauce with white rice and other side dishes - much better than domestic flight food!) around 3 AM (6 PM Taipei time), then turned off the lights for several hours to help our bodies readjust. I managed to get a few hours of sleep, but I also had time to watch the new Star Trek prequel movie on the personal entertainment system embedded in the seat ahead of me. I have to agree with Chrissy, it was pretty good, even knowing little-to-nothing about Star Trek.
When we got to Taipei around 5:30 AM local time, Susan and I wandered around a good portion of the airport, mainly looking for a currency exchange so we could get some NTD for a snack. Along the way, we found free internet stations (which we promptly used to reassure the folks at home that we had survived the long flight), seemingly endless duty-free shops, and some unusual exhibitions:
When we got to Taipei around 5:30 AM local time, Susan and I wandered around a good portion of the airport, mainly looking for a currency exchange so we could get some NTD for a snack. Along the way, we found free internet stations (which we promptly used to reassure the folks at home that we had survived the long flight), seemingly endless duty-free shops, and some unusual exhibitions:
This one was pretty cool - there's calligraphy all over the model plane
Hello Kitty-themed everything was a little frighteningFinally, we found a currency exchange, which was conveniently downstairs from a small food court, so we enjoyed some xiao(3) long (2) bao (1): small dumplings with savory soup inside.
Yum.After that, Susan and I met Austin in the gate waiting area, then it was back on to another plane for the 80-minute flight to Macau. I managed to get a couple photos of Taiwan, which left me with the impression of vast swathes of greenery, even after a powerful typhoon swept through just days earlier. I'm definitely planning to go back sometime this year, maybe while my family is visiting.
Not gonna lie (shoutout to the SCHOLAR kids and RAs!), my first impressions of Macau were...mixed. As we approached the southern portion (Coloane/Cotai), it was pretty cloudy, but we could see fishing boats in the water and there was also a lot of greenery. However, that soon gave way to reveal a massive urban-industrial complex, including two smokestacks (later found out it was the power plant) and a full skyline of skyscrapers.
Pretty, from a distance
Not so pretty -_-
After passing through customs, where we met Holly (one of the MPI ETAs), we were greeted by Eve, one of the ELC staff members, and Erica, an ETA at MPI last year. A chartered university bus took us to UM, where we dropped off Austin and Holly because they would be living near campus, then Eve told Susan and I a lot about Macau as we continued over the bridge to the peninsula. Squeezed between the glittering hotels and casinos were dank, crowded buildings and narrow streets, something like NYC's Chinatown but even more confusing because there are almost no street signs or address numbers on the buildings. Finally, we made it to the Horta e Costa district and up to our apartment, Queen's Court 12/A.
Eve helped Susan and I get Macau bus passes, which are super convenient because then we don't have to carry around exact change for the bus fare, and we also get reduced fares for using the cards. She shepherded us back to UM, where we got to see the ELC itself, plus our little ETA office, room 110. This cute little sign next to the door greeted us:
Susan and I checked email and sent notes home, but didn't stay for long, instead opting to head back to Horta e Costa so we could shop for daily necessities like sheets and pillows. Incredibly, it took us nearly two hours to find those two things, hopping from the convenience store across the street to two Royal supermarkets, to several furniture stores, etc. I'm still amazed we didn't just get completely lost wandering around the neighborhood, because we had no idea where we were going. Between the two of us, we had enough Chinese (most people understood Mandarin) to ask where we could get sheets and pillows, but somehow no one seemed to know where we could purchase such items, as if everyone else simply brought old ones with them when they moved in or made their own.
Finally, we asked the Queen's Court security guard, who directed us to a Sanmu grocery store two blocks away. I say it's a grocery store because that's its main function, but in reality it's more like a department store, with groceries on the first two levels, then all sorts of home goods on the third level, even irons/ironing boards, pots and pans, school supplies, and bras/t-shirts. Happily, we found sheets and pillows galore, so we were able to make our beds and collapse in them for our first night in Macau.
Not gonna lie (shoutout to the SCHOLAR kids and RAs!), my first impressions of Macau were...mixed. As we approached the southern portion (Coloane/Cotai), it was pretty cloudy, but we could see fishing boats in the water and there was also a lot of greenery. However, that soon gave way to reveal a massive urban-industrial complex, including two smokestacks (later found out it was the power plant) and a full skyline of skyscrapers.
Pretty, from a distance
Not so pretty -_-After passing through customs, where we met Holly (one of the MPI ETAs), we were greeted by Eve, one of the ELC staff members, and Erica, an ETA at MPI last year. A chartered university bus took us to UM, where we dropped off Austin and Holly because they would be living near campus, then Eve told Susan and I a lot about Macau as we continued over the bridge to the peninsula. Squeezed between the glittering hotels and casinos were dank, crowded buildings and narrow streets, something like NYC's Chinatown but even more confusing because there are almost no street signs or address numbers on the buildings. Finally, we made it to the Horta e Costa district and up to our apartment, Queen's Court 12/A.
Eve helped Susan and I get Macau bus passes, which are super convenient because then we don't have to carry around exact change for the bus fare, and we also get reduced fares for using the cards. She shepherded us back to UM, where we got to see the ELC itself, plus our little ETA office, room 110. This cute little sign next to the door greeted us:
Susan and I checked email and sent notes home, but didn't stay for long, instead opting to head back to Horta e Costa so we could shop for daily necessities like sheets and pillows. Incredibly, it took us nearly two hours to find those two things, hopping from the convenience store across the street to two Royal supermarkets, to several furniture stores, etc. I'm still amazed we didn't just get completely lost wandering around the neighborhood, because we had no idea where we were going. Between the two of us, we had enough Chinese (most people understood Mandarin) to ask where we could get sheets and pillows, but somehow no one seemed to know where we could purchase such items, as if everyone else simply brought old ones with them when they moved in or made their own.
Finally, we asked the Queen's Court security guard, who directed us to a Sanmu grocery store two blocks away. I say it's a grocery store because that's its main function, but in reality it's more like a department store, with groceries on the first two levels, then all sorts of home goods on the third level, even irons/ironing boards, pots and pans, school supplies, and bras/t-shirts. Happily, we found sheets and pillows galore, so we were able to make our beds and collapse in them for our first night in Macau.
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Love the pillowcase!!
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