Miss Macau

This is the pageant winner!

Here is opening entertainment at Miss Macau. The show was quite a production with pyrotechnics and special lighting. There was even a shower under which the contestants had to walk during the swimsuit competition!


Kim with new haircut with bangs and wearing what David likes to call the zebra dress.

So, the bangs are interesting. I've already made adjustments to them since taking this photo. The hairdresser insisted the poky ends and random-looking stray kind of strands at the end were intentional, but I cut some of those weird ends the other day. Kind of strange, and this wasn't a cheap salon....well at least it's a change of a look for me. It's looking a little more normal since I personally evened out the bangs a little more.

We returned Monday from Macau, where on Sunday night, we witnessed the first Miss Macau pageant to take place in 11 years. We were seated at the VIP section at the Cotai Arena for the event at the Venetian Macao. We watched as 10 of Macau's pretty and brave young women displayed their talent and bodies for all to judge. The entire event, of which David's company was a sponsor, was spoken in Cantonese, so we had to guess what was going on at times. Talent portion ranged from typical singing, to bad singing, from dancing to yoga poses, Chinese calligraphy and cooking on stage. Wow. The hapa-Chinese girl, half Chinese and half Portuguese, a quintissential Macau girl, was favored, but shockingly, she won 2nd place (runner up) (we later heard through David's Cantonese-speaking interpretation that she stated during some interview portion that she always comes in runner up during competitions, and never wins, so she jinxed herself). Don't worry, she won the "Best and Most Fashionable and Glamorous Hair" (or something like that) category! A pure Chinese contestant won the night, as well as the most photogenic competition. As a VIP, we got to eat little chocolates and cookies as well as champagne (yum), and then after the event, were were treated to a Cantonese banquet dinner at 10:30 at night.

Macau, in the few times I've traveled there, is a glum and grey 1 hour ferry ride away from Hong Kong. But once you arrive, you can ride one of many brightly painted free shuttle buses that take you straight to your casino (some are painted blue and say Venetian, some are painted red and say Wynn). Then you get to the hotel and the rush of mainland Chinese that keep streaming in is quite shocking and amazing. There is a constant noise while waiting in the lobby, the buzz of all their voices. The suite at the Venetian is large and spacious. The shopping is plentiful and set along the manmade canals and under the painted sky of the Grand Canal Shoppes. I believe I read that the Venetian is the world's largest hotel, with 3000 rooms (I might be wrong on this statistic, but this is what is in my head). It is so large, spending a day there is barely enough to scratch the surface.

After the Ms. Macau event, I called it a night at midnight and slept in the comfort of the large bed, while David stayed up and gambled a few more hours with associates. We managed to jump into the pretty pool Monday morning for just a few minutes. It took like 10 minutes to walk to the pool...such a large place can be tiring! David found it boring, lacking the strippers and pro football players one might find at the hotel pools in Vegas....here we got Chinese men in speedos doing their morning tai chi and exercises. You look up from the pool and see a large crane and another building under construction, which will be residential suites. Next door you also see the new Four Seasons hotel tower. After getting showered up, it's another grey ferry ride (this is no Hawaii Superferry) back to Hong Kong.