Les vacances de M Eymard

Salut tous! Hong Kong is all Frenchified at the moment - it is of course "Le French May", but more importantly Romain is here to check up on us.

After an eventful Friday night at FINDS (at least one evening in LKF is obligatory for all visitors) I managed to stumble out of bed for early morning Pilates. By late morning, we were all packed and ready. Ross headed off to Hebe Haven for an afternoon's racing on Struan, and Romain and I caught the TurboJet to Macau.

I'm thinking of starting a new guide book series, for rookie tourists - it's based on the I Spy books of old. Your little book would list all the things you need to do and see there in order to justifiably say that you've "done" Macau. Think that we covered just about everything in our 30ish hours:

1. Eat an egg tart. Preferably a custard-y one rather than an omelette-y one.
2. Eat bakkwa (strange-looking but seriously yummy pork jerky type stuff)
3. Visit one of Stanley Ho's establishments with the sole purpose of losing some hard-earned cash. How handy that they readily accept HK$ as well as Macanese patacas. And despite what you might believe after watching Casino Royale, you can actually go into the Grand Lisboa in jeans and flip flops.
4. Visit something "cultural" - we chose the Guia fortress and lighthouse, atop the hill just behind our hotel.
5. Make a ruckus in the hotel pool by talking (gasp!) while elderly ladies and gents warm up, then do a slo-mo front crawl in matching swimming caps.
6. Guys only - try to look up girls' skirts when you go to the ruins of Sao Paolo cathedral. The elevated walkway is mesh.
7. Pay your respects to the saints whose reliquaries rest in the Museum of Sacred Art. Oh, and remember, if you are suddenly outside again, you've missed it. Maybe you blinked at an inopportune moment.
8. Spend as long as humanly possible at Fernando's. IMHO, this lovely Portuguese restaurant alone is worth a trip to Macau. Pick your bottle of wine, tuck into a beautifully fresh salad and a succulent grilled chicken, and relax.
9. (see item 9) Order an unknown drink ("spirits") from the waiter in the yellow t shirt, and try not to laugh as four waitresses smell your empty glass to try and guess what it was so they can tot up your bill.
10. Dip your toes in the sea - let's hope it's that colour because the sand is black (hence Hac Sa beach)
11. Make sure that you come up with a new pose for each photo taken of you - if you run out of poses, just jump in the air. You'll look energetic.
12. Avoid the crowd of paparazzi with their giant cameras who are following a mysteriously un-model like Chinese girl.