Paralysed in Macau

Last week, I was in Macau to run the Macau Marathon. And after the race, the plan was that I'd catch a flight to Singapore to join Mia, JJ and my sister, Bridget, for a short holiday. Mia ran the Singapore Marathon on the same day I ran Macau.

I shared a room with my friend, Teo, in Macau. At a cost of about RM630 per night, it was an average hotel with the hardest mattresses I've ever encountered in my history of sleeping in hotels. The hotel did not have wi-fi, and although they had internet connectivity via a phone cable, I did not bring along my notebook.

Although I brought along my cellphone to Macau, I did not have the so-called roaming facility. So my phone was as good as dead in Macau. I was trying to inform Mia of my arrival in Singapore that evening, so although I was unable to use my phone, I decided that I could at least communicate via emails. I happened to know that Bridget's phone had roaming facility, so she could be contacted via her cellphone in Singapore. I didn't think she'd actually check her emails, but what I could do was to leave a message through my niece, Mona, via facebook. Yes, folks, it is much faster to contact teenagers via facebook when compared to emails. After all, I'm guessing Mona spends probably up to 23 hours a day on facebook, if you know what I mean. If there is a sudden outbreak of nuclear war, I'd reckon she would try to save her cellphone first before anything else, because of course she would die a natural death without her facebook, you see.

Anyway, Teo and I walked to the nearby shops looking for an internet cafe. We found none! It felt like eternity, but actually it was just a few days without internet connectivity. I felt paralysed and miserable in Macau.

Somehow I can't remember how we modern folks became so dependent on the internet. Just a generation ago, people worked in the office equipped with manual type-writers. They didn't even have desktop computers, let alone internet connectivity. They did not have air-conditioners; merely ceiling fans, and they relied heavily on paper weights to keep all their documents in place. Most of the cars they drove had no air-conditioners too. And of course they had no cellphones. Yet they survived their days, months and years.

Try preventing yourself from touching your cellphone for just 3 days if you can. I bet you'd feel paralysed and miserable too!