Last Full Day of Macau

So this morning was presentation day! Yining and I were on the same panel which was nice because we were sure to hear each others presentation. We were on a panel at 11:00 in room 1302. We decided to skip the 9:00 panels and work on our presentations and make sure we were ready. So we got up at 7:30 and showered, got all pretty, and worked on our papers. We walked over to The Venetian and found our room. We sat through the last few minutes of the panel before us and then set up our room. At 11:08 we were worried. At 11:22 we were pretty sure no one was showing up. Our third panel member didn’t even show up. However, people did eventually show up at about 11:28. So we did end up giving our presentations and I got several questions about my research and was told it was interesting. Hooray. I also met a woman from Sydney who will be near me (in Semarang) while I am living in Indonesia and we exchanged information. That was very nice.
Then ICAS 8 was over for us. Both sad and happy really. Sad because I did learn some things, meet some lovely people, and have had a lovely time in China and will miss it. Happy because I am beat! So much so that Yining and I had another sort of relaxing day today. After the presentations we walked back to our hotel room and changed into shorts and t-shirts. It was too hot to be dressed up in our presentation outfits on the walk to lunch. We decided to make our way over to the City of Dreams which is located next to our hotel room for lunch.

Hey look! Blue skies!

We ended up having lunch at Hard Rock Cafe Macau. Why? Because it was tasty, that’s why. Also because they had a pretty good lunch set deal that included a salad, french dip sandwich and chips for me and half a huge chicken and chips for Yining, and a soda. My sandwich had super bread. Made me happy and filled me up. Yining’s chicken was seriously HUGE. I had a bite and it was nice as well. I also added a green tea panna cotta for 20 MOP or $2.50 US. It was very yummy. Incredibly smooth. Also the restaurant was just fun and it made me think of my dad who got me a Hard Rock t-shirt from the middle east which I love. We were then going to go to the giant panda park but it was closed for some reason today. BOO. So we went back to the Sheraton and I got some gifts for people. We then sat around in the hotel and watched a British dance show. Not very active or exciting but it was so wonderful just to rest a bit after a stressful morning. Also being in the room prevented us from spending anymore money. Which is always good.

Happy in Antonio’s

Especially since we had a last special dinner plan. We decided to bookend our trip with fabulous Portuguese food. This time we went to Antonio’s in Old Taipa. Antonio’s is a Portuguese restaurant and Antonio, the chef, has a michelin star under his belt. It was very good. Anthony Bourdain recommends it. I ate the same food as Anthony Bourdain. This fact makes me very, very happy. I ordered the tenderloin in a Portuguese style fried with garlic and white wine served with Portuguese smoked ham, a fried egg, potatoes and pickles. It was amazing. The sauce was so good I could have licked it off the plate. However this was a rather fancy place. They spoke excellent English and our waitress kept calling us “madame”. They even had their own brand of bottled water. So I did not lick the plate. Probably would have been rude. It was very good and I really enjoyed it… however, I liked A Lorcha so much more. The vibe was better and much more relaxed. The bread they gave us before the meal was miles above the bread at Antonio’s and my food was actually cheaper and superior at A Lorcha. If you’d like some Portuguese food in Macau my official recommendation is for A Lorcha. Make a reservation and enjoy some glorious bread and some wonderful food.

My lovely tenderloin from Antonio’s

And a note about Macau, I’ve found a lot of the cab drivers don’t know the Portuguese names for streets. Having the characters written down in a notebook has been wonderful for us. It made getting to and from A Lorcha and Antonio’s much simpler. Although after realizing how close the walk from Antonio’s was (much shorter than the way there) we probably could have walked back. Oh well. We did walk around Old Taipa a little bit before hoping in a cab. We went in and out of several bakeries and a super cute little shop. It sold items with the most adorable pandas. The father panda always looked so mad and I could not stop laughing at him. I almost got an adorable shirt with the angry panda and his wife panda holding a tray of egg tarts. They were also standing in front of St. Paul’s. It was adorable. A bit pricey though so I settled for a magnet with the angry panda in a bubble bath with a little ducky. It is wonderful. Silly angry panda. I’m still laughing.

Soda Pandas! Angry Laundry!

And that concludes our time in Macau. Right now we are in the hotel room watching Bunheads and packing. Well ok I’m on the computer but I was packing. Tomorrow we will get up, check out, head to the ferry terminal, and get our tickets to the Hong Kong airport. Our flights leave at the same time, around 14:00. Yining is going on to Shanghai and I will be heading back to Honolulu by way of Korea. Back to life, back to reality.