trekking macau

today, i experience yet another humbling experience that was made possible by being far, far away from home. i used to think those old SF chinese people were fools to wildly wave their arms at an approaching MUNI bus in a feverish attempt to stop it. come on, don't those people realize the bus will stop for them with or without them acting like headless chickens?

years later, my ignorance shames me. why? first, some background. i spent the day in macau today, a former portuguese colony and chinese SAR since 1999, or special administrative region similar to hong kong. one of our stops was the kartodrome, an outdoor 7-circuit go-karting heaven that was CLOSED for renovations. upon realizing the disappointing news at the entrance gate, we proceeded to our next destination on the island called taipa, south of macau. we figured we can walk to the sandy beaches of hac san, or blank sand in cantonese. on the map, it looked like a mile walk, two at most. 50 minutes later and 3 miles later, we started to question whether to continue walking through the dusty expanses of rapid building construction or wait for the next bus. being this far out on the island, in an area of sparse population, it was a gamble on whether it would make sense to wait for god-knows-how-long for a bus or to continue hoofing it. obviously, as lazy americans, we decided to wait for the next bus. our haggard bodies were relieved to see a bus peak its square face around the corner twenty minutes later. eyes affixed on the bus, thankful to be taken straight to our destination without anymore effort, we watch as the 26A zooms right by the three of us leaving us in a cloud of deisely dust. hmmm. guess we should've waved at it.