Thursday, July 14, 2011
As the bus pulls away from the Galaxy, the night is lit up by all of the casinos just like the Vegas strip. In place of a lot neon are LEDs which provide a brighter, more defined glow to the night. We cross the bridge into Macau proper. I am amazed at how clean the streets are and excited that so many shops are still open at that hour of the night. We get to Hotel L’Arc for the aforementioned after party. The entourage is led up to a huge room with projection screen. Several people start flipping through the electronic catalog of songs. The rest of us sit and chat to make the last few moments with the stylists last as long as possible with the fondest of memories. Champagne is provided to celebrate the end of a successful goodwill tour and toasts abound. Food and brought in immediately after the drinks, and the songs begin to pour out.
Speeches and grand gestures are peppered throughout the night. First, announcements and congratulations by the board members and founders. Business in China is done almost entirely outside of the office and entirely over cigarettes and alcohol. Tonight is no exception. Cigars and cigarettes abound, and the liquor flows freely among the senior members. Everyone is a bit delirious from fatigue, but the singing and merriment continues. The next gesture are medals awarded to the contestants and staff. In their uniform velveteen track suits, the medals look like they have placed in some sort of sport at the Olympics. Some of the girls play into the look by posing as if they just stuck it after dismounting the uneven bars. Willis, whose role has been stylist assistant and body guard, begins to serenade Michael, the assistant videographer, with a birthday song. The gesture is followed by sad goodbyes full of smiles and tears as we bid adieu to the stylists. They will be spending the night at the hotel and the day touring Macau before they fly back to Guanzhou.
The bewitching hour is upon us, and we say our goodbyes to our hosts. The bus leaves the twinkling lights of Macau behind as we roll up to the ferry terminal. This begins our long trip home. We manage to catch an earlier ferry to Hong Kong, but we have to go through immigration to leave Macau. Tip: If taking a ferry in Asia, make sure you know what your seat number is and keep you ticket accessible to you. We handed in our tickets altogether and ended up causing a lot of trouble with all of our luggage. Eventually, it all works out, and we pass out during the hour long ride between the islands. In Hong Kong, we end up having to fill out an additional form to enter the country. Immigration starts asking a lot of questions, and eventually, a couple of the entourage get held back a bit for small issues. We have plenty of time to get to the airport before the flight to Shanghai, so no one is worrying quite yet.
Nothing is open at the airport when we arrive, None of the counters are staffed, and it is little more than a couple of hours before our flight. We are a weary bunch of travelers already with two bouts with immigration already under our belts, and it’s not even 6AM, yet. A few minutes after 6AM, the counter staff begins to trickle in. I’m lucky to be in the beginning of the line and make my way through security and immigration with a few others. Boarding time is 7:25AM. There’s no telling if everyone is going to remember to look up from all of the great shopping in the Hong Kong airport. We actually start boarding early. Now, we start worrying that the rest of the group won’t make it in time.
After the last few stragglers make it through the cabin door, I shut my eyes. When I open them, we’re just about to land in Shanghai. Little did we know what the Chinese bureaucracy had in store for us as we deplaned. I had asked the counter staff back in Hong Kong if we had to worry about going through immigration and picking up our luggage for customs in Shanghai to switch planes. She was confident that we wouldn’t need to. To my dismay, she was half wrong. While we didn’t need to pick up the luggage, we had to go through another security screening (buh-bye nearly full bottle of water I just bought in Hong Kong) and immigration into China as well as immigration out of China. Instead of letting us through the most direct route into security, we are made to circumnavigate the arrival hall to arrive at the start. Immigration has but two employees and several planefuls of passengers waiting to make their connections. Luckily, because of a gate change, our boarding is delayed a few minutes, and the girls run off to shop for gifts again. The rest of the travel is uneventful, and I am thankful for that. We will say our last goodbyes at the baggage carousel at JFK. I have made some new friends and learned a great deal about the pageant world in China.
Stay tuned to see how the finals go in August. Want to learn more or volunteer at the pageant, checkout the website at http://misschinesepageant.com.
Stereotype Rebel 