The Flaneur: Down and Out in Macau | Nowhere

Midnight, the Hotel Lisboa. I’m $100 HKD up and feeling pretty good. I buy a pack of Chinese Marlboros and smoke as I watch a parenthesis of Mainlanders gambling at a baccarat table. The slouching drunk man at the parenthesis’ center is flanked by two porcelain-skinned women in pearls and skin-tight mini-dresses.