Denied! And BUNS!

I hesitate to tell this story, for it necessarily makes me appear quite irresponsible, but the humour of it all is too much to keep to myself.
For the May Day holiday, a group of us planned a trip to Macau. Tim and the Irish girls were to jump off the Tower, we would see Cirque du Soleil, and then dance the night away.
I used my smart HK ID card to exit Hong Kong, but when I reached Macau immigration, they required a passport, which I had left in the safety of my apartment.
Upon hearing this news, a uniformed officer quickly escorted me into the questioning room where despite my pleading, I was told that I must go back to Hong Kong. I was unable to reach my friends by telephonic communication, which upset me greatly, so my new Immigration Officer friend took me outside and I told Joan and Tim the whole story. I’m pretty sure Tim was laughing when I turned around and went back to the Holding Room to hang out with the drug dealers. I wanted so badly to ask the guy next to me, “What are you in for?” but I figured something would be lost in translation. After about 45 minutes of being detained, another officer escorted me onto a HK-bound ferry where he made sure I did not attempt to flee.
Calculations revealed that I would not have time to go back to HK, collect my passport from my apartment, and take another ferry back to Macau to see Cirque. As my heart sank, I remembered that I have an awesome roommate. Kazumi met me at the ferry with my passport and after profuse thanks, I ran back and managed to jump on the next ferry. It was in fact the very same vessel, for when I boarded one man said, “Hey, it’s you again!” and another said (in Chinese), “That’s the white girl who speaks Cantonese.” Yes, I practice at any and every opportunity.
I arrived in Macau for the second time that day 45 minutes before the start of Cirque. I met the group and we took a couple of taxis to The Venetian to see Cirque du Soleil’s “Zaia." It was spectacular, as expected. And all the music was LIVE. Hong Kong severely lacks in the use of live music anywhere, particularly for stage performances. It was grand.
After the show, we went dancing. I found some single-serving dance-floor friends and immediately impressed them with my Cantonese, which according to the most attractive one was “so (expletive) good!”. It's really not, but I'm not going to kill his dream.

I got back to Hong Kong at about 4:30 the next afternoon after sleeping in one of those Japanese pod things. I rushed home and immediately back out to catch a bus to the ferry pier to Cheung Chau. Yes, it was the day of the world-famous BUN FESTIVAL. I met Matty, Meaghan, Chris (juggler, not gym guy)and Lawrence to go to the island. There, we walked around to view the spectacle. Unlike my deportation adventure, I have photographic evidence of this escapade (they don’t allow cameras in Immigration Interview Rooms).

Above: The BUN TOWER!! In Cantonese it is roughly "Bao Shan" or Bun Mountain.

Some of us with the BUN TOWER!: me, Matty,Meaghan, and Lawrence
The BUNS close up.

A busy BUN bakery. The line to this place was epically long.

There is a purpose to this festival. It involves a god of the sea and eating the essence of the buns. Clearly, I'm an expert on this. Here's some video footage of the main event:

Yes, so they climb up the tower and throw as many buns as possible into their dorsal bags. This is why I love Hong Kong. And of course, we each ate a bun. I chose a fresh one rather than one that had been sitting out for several days for the gods to eat. Proud, Mother?

They also had Cantonese Opera:

Lion Dances:

And it was a public holiday for Buddha's Birthday, so some Buddhist stuff:

But the ubiquitous BUN remained the hero of the day:

They had special ferry services to accomodate the 20,000+ people who went to Cheung Chau (the island usually has only about 2,000), so I didn't get stuck this time. Elvis joined us later and we visited Mah Mah again. No pictures because she was already in her pajamas. In line for the ferry home:

These giant papier mache guys were there too: