I left Padang at 0830 on a short flight to Kuala Lumpur where I self-connected to Macau. I took a bit of a gamble with my self-connection allowing only 2h50 between flights. ETA coming from Padang was 1040 and ETD to Macau 1330.
Upon arrival at Kuala Lumpur the immigration officer greeted me with “Selamat Pagi adik, balik dari mana?” … basically Hello Little Brother, where have you come back from? So nice to be young again.
The flight to Macau was very different from Air Asia’s maid-and-worker flights to/from Indonesia. It seemed full of Chinese gamblers (from Malaysia and Indonesia) plus Malaysian hotel workers servicing the Macau casinos (we’re so multi-lingual and very useful to the industry).
We Chinese people are so competitive. There was a mad rush for the plane at the remote gate with people climbing over the cables demarcating the walkway for the sake of a shortcut, ignoring the whistles and commands of airport apron staff. Then circumventing the cones around the aircraft engine then shoving in the aisles. The flights with Indonesian maids-and-workers are more sedate.
Landing at Macau at 1715 I made my way to the small hotel called “Ole London” for a three night say. That should give me two full days to explore the former Portuguese colony that’s turned into the Vegas of Asia.