Looks like all sorts of funny incidents happened in my life
while I am travelling. I was going through my own posts this month and I can
see most of these are my travel stories! LOL.
We were visiting Macau and Hong Kong sometime in the year
2008. We had to take a ferry to reach Macau from Honk Kong. This is one of a
kind ferry though! We were asked by the local guide at Hong Kong to get down at
the last stop and a driver would be waiting at the terminal for us with our name.
It’s actually difficult to follow the English that a Chinese
origin person speaks. But we did catch the word ‘last stop’.
The ferry was supposed to stop at two terminals. We got down at
the second one. It was sometime around 7 or 8 in the evening local time. By
that time we had got a message from the driver that he was waiting outside for
us. We came out and started searching for the placard with our name. Didn’t see
any familiar name. Those days there weren’t Matrix cards (at least we were not
carrying any!) My phone was on international roaming. But in the roaming things
were also funny that time. I was using a pre-paid connection that time. I could
send and receive SMS and ONLY receive calls and couldn’t do outgoing call.
Thank god we have better options these days with WIFI available everywhere.
We spent over an hour looking for the driver. If you have
visited this Macau you’ll know it’s a city of Casinos and tourists. Just
outside the terminalwas the runway of the only airport there. While waiting for
the driver we watched planes taxing in the tiny airport.
We sought the help of the tourist police there. He called up
the driver and some words with him.
What he told next caught us in surprise.
“Your driver is waiting
for you in Macau”
We were a little dumbfounded – where the hell were we if the
driver was in Macau!!!
“Is this not Macau?” asked my dad now sounding worried.
Mom was tensed so was I – where the hell did we come?
“This is Taipa!” said the police
Taipa, now where was that?
The police explained Taipa is another island in Macau about
20 minutes away from the terminal where we landed up. This is the place you get down if you are visiting MGM or Venetian.
He asked us not to worry
since he instructed the driver to pick us from our current position.
Thankfully, we didn’t land up in some weird place!
Have you ever been in such a situation? Reached somewhere
else by mistake instead of your destination?
Meanwhile check out a quick salad