October 21 2009
Arriving in Macao
By: Shefali Pryor, Associate Principal Oboe
I woke up in Shanghai with a few hours spare before check-out. So, the oboe section went on an excursion to a reed making factory run by an Australian-Chinese man. It was really fascinating. The owner of the factory used to live in Adelaide but now lives in Japan and moved his business to China in order to expand it. The factory was really far from the hotel and the trip was a good demonstration of the nightmare that can be Shanghai traffic. It took us about an hour to get there. But being stuck in traffic is always a good way to see a city. I have been to Shanghai before – about two years ago – and I love it. It just has a good vibe. It feels as if people really live there. It’s got a great night life and great areas to walk around on foot.
For us oboe players, reeds are extremely important. Half of what we do is the craft of reed making because without decent reeds it can be very limiting for the way we can play. That’s why this factory was fascinating for us.
The trip back to the hotel was shorter – only 30 minutes – again, in the incongruities of Shanghai traffic!
It was wonderful to arrive at Shanghai Airport for our flight to Macao and have such a smooth check-in. Of course there’s always going to be a bit of waiting around at airports but this check-in was wonderfully smooth and organised.
We arrived in Macau at about 6.30pm. I have never been anywhere like this before! The lights and the buzz of the city are just incredible. However, it appears that smoking in hotel rooms in quite acceptable and arriving at our hotel and walking into a room smelling like cigarettes is not ideal.
So I quickly left my room and headed out with colleagues to a Macanese restaurant. The food was fantastic. It’s mostly Portuguese food with the influence of Asian spices. We had a speciality dish called Chinese African chicken. It was incredible. There was a large group of us at dinner. Beautiful food and good laughs made for a wonderful evening.
Following dinner we went to a casino called The Venetian which has a complex re-built section of Venice with a sky that looks like the afternoon going into twilight. It even has a small replica of the Piazza San Marco as well as canals! It was pretty funny. We then watched some people win money and lose (including me).
Macao is a really fascinating place with an amazing combination of cultures. The people seem very friendly and the taxi drivers are super lovely.
I’m having a great time on this trip. I like touring. We’re really lucky that we get to see amazing places through our job. Touring does come with particular stresses though. It’s hard moving around playing a new hall nearly every night hard and especially for reed players because the reeds change so much in different environments. But it’s fascinating and such a wonderful experience.
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