Home now....

for the next 48 hours, then we are heading to Seoul, South Korea.

The flight from Macau back to Shanghai was quite non eventful. The airport lounge was quite nice; clean, well layout, food and drink were plentiful. As to food, mostly the fusion type pastry the Chinese accustomed to: curry pie, BBQ pork rolls, steam buns, fried noodles and rice. Liquor was free flowing, not like the restriction of most airport lounges. I was amazed seeing lots of highend shops in the waiting area post the security check point. It had Cartier, Ferragamo, Bally, etc.

Our seats on the 757 back to Shanghai was funny. It was just next to the door!!! The door which in any Western airline, would not put a row of seat there - you know for evacuation! The flight attendant had trouble closing the door because we were sitting there! Someone from the airline management was trying to squeeze two more seats rather than safety. Silly. Before taking off, we moved to safer seats.

Very funny though, I saw the same group of people that I flew down with from Shanghai on Wednesday; they were all shopped out and had big bags of gifts.

It was so convenient having an airport at Macau; no need traveling to HK in order to catch a 2-hour flight. If I were to fly from HK back to Shanghai, need to be 1/2 hours before the ferry to the Macau Ferry Terminal, with luggage. Then thru immigration, fight with people to get on the ferry to HK; then an hour ferry ride, upon arriving to HK, the water at Victoria Harbour is so rough, you get dizzy as your stomach being bounce up and down. Then fight with people to get up 3 long flights of elevators to HK Immigration. Wait to get thru, if there were Chinese tourists, even longer time, then you wait for the luggage to be brought up from the ferry. After all this, I would have been half way home. Now, walk from the HK Ferry Terminal to the Hong Kong Airport station, 15 minutes. Then you have to pay HK$100 for the Express Train to the airport before you can check-in. Line up again for seats at the airport counter. Catch the train to the airport; by then, the flight from Macau to Shanghai would have been landed. So, not really worth our while to use the HK airport. The Macau airport is only a stone throw away from the Macau Ferry Terminal. From my parents' apartment to the airport - 20 minutes. If we got there an hour before hand, that's plenty of time.