New Jersey: Game on in Atlantic City

Ep.56

12^th-14^th August 2012.

“Gambling is a SIN, Bet you can’t give it up!” – Old Proverbs. 

JFK – Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.

by Atlantic Ocean

Family time! On this New York flight, I have contacted my aunt and let her do all the planning. It has been months since I last visited them. At the beginning, I got no idea what are they preparing for the trip. And as the time closing in, Ii Petty said that both Ko Mike and herself has been granted to take their leave from their job, and Jade was, luckily, still on her summer holiday. And the big plan was; we’re going to try our luck and gamble at Atlantic City, New Jersey. Road trip, spend a night at the casino hotel, how was that sound? Challenging!

hug!

To my surprise, I wasn’t expected that my flight would be delayed for 2 hours from Hong Kong. Panic attack! I emailed Ii Petty, but as the matter of fact US GMT is like 12 hours behind Hong Kong. So, I hope she got the message right on time, otherwise, she will be the one who’s panicking if she couldn’t find me in the bus station in Philadelphia on the scheduled time. It might be lucky or just a coincidence. I did packed all my things in a backpack, since I don’t want to bring my suitcase on a greyhound bus trip from New York to Philadelphia, and I put the backpack in my big suitcase. I thought it would be much more easier that way. 

new tshirt

I arrived at the hotel at 4 pm. If only we left HK on schedule, I would be nearly arrived to Philadelphia by the time. I checked in and excused myself from the other crew. I dumped both my suitcases, changed into civilian clothes, took out my backpack and transfer all necessary things to my satchel. It was all done in less than 15 minutes. I rushed my way down to the lobby, where I still saw the other crew chit chatting and waved to them as I hit the elevator down to the exit. I could saw their jaw dropped and like “what is she doing? what made her so rushed?” written all over their faces. I got on the A line subway USD 2.5 as per normal, got off at port authority station in Time Square, squeezed myself through the hustle bustle of New Yorkers and even literally jammed my USD 20 bill to the ticketing machine. While I’m waiting for the bus, I tried to get wi-fi connection and contact Ii Petty. I hate being late, because I do hate those who are late, more so to make other people worry. 

big lunch!

I arrived Philadelphia greyhound station nearly 7 pm. Ii Petty got my message and she did the snack shopping *for the trip* before they picked me up at the station. We dine at a decent Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, exchanging information about our relatives *from me to them* and about how’s life been going *from them to me*. As I stated that I have got pretty damn fat, they ordered more vegetables rather than  meat for the dinner. And Ii Petty told me that Jade was very concern about me that during the snack shopping, she bought me all the healthy snack, low calorie or non-fat item. How sweet that is?? At the end of the dinner, as it was in a Chinese restaurant, they served us 4 fortune cookies. Each of us grabbed one and opened. What did I get? “You have a lively family” with a smiley emoticon. Yeah! 

lobby queue

The next morning, we woke up pretty early around 7 am. We took turn to take a bath and prepare for the road trip. New Jersey is just a state away from Philadelphia, on a regular basis, without making any stops, it would be reached in about 3-4 hours. After having our breakfast and load the bags into the car, including the cool box where ice durian and beverages were packed, we board the car and start the trip at about 10 am. We did stop several times on the way. The first one was at a gas station to refuel the car and toilet break, and the second one was at a mall along the way to grab some lunch and, of course, some window shopping which ended up with several shopping bags.

my lifeguard booth

I have always heard about this Atlantic City from my grandparents whenever they’re telling story about their trip to US. In a few minutes time, it would reveal itself before my eyes. Atlantic City is known for gambling, conventions, and leisure. The city also served as the inspiration for the original version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. As soon as it appeared, I could feel the excitement built up inside of me. It’s summer, beaches, and casino, baby! Too bad, I was on my period *hiks*, so no swimming but at least I could dip my feet at Atlantic Ocean, couldn’t I?

say hello to mommy

Before hitting all the shops around, or even the beaches, all we got to do is to checked in and drop our bags. I have never expected my aunt to be one of the gold members in a casino chain. Oh come on! She’s the baby of the family back there when…*wait up..that was like 10-11 years ago*. I’m quite sure that living here for more than a decade changed her in some way, better way. After we checked in, my aunt gave one of her membership card to me. She said, I could use it at the same casino chain when I visit Las Vegas next time. Roger! I got it auntie! Jade was too excited to go to the beach and Ko Mike was obliged to be her babysitter. As for Ii Petty and me we just take picture here and there, shopping here and there. I did play with Jade and dipped my feet into Atlantic Ocean while Jade was playing with Ko Mike. A secret family talk was shared between my aunt and me, right there on the beach. 

along the bordwalk

When the sun set, we got back to our room, took shower and get ready for dinner. Call us such a spender, we did dined in the hotel buffet restaurant *by the way, the hotel we were staying at is Bally’s*, serves varieties of fresh seafood, including snow crabs and lobster, and desserts. I dare not to look at the bill. But I expected it to be more than USD 200. And paying that much, I blew up my diet! I just ate what I want until I cant stand straight up. After the meal, its gambling time. Jade was underage to enter casino. So, Ko Mike would be the one babysit her again. He gave us USD 5 to gamble. He was such a sweet guy, full of jokes. Ii Petty and I headed to the casino as Jade and Ko Mike headed back to the room. Well, it’s auntie and niece duo this time. 

wild wild west

Atlantic City is considered the "Gambling Capital of the East Coast," and currently has twelve casinos. Here’s the deal, I gambled few times already and I always play table, not slot machine. I just don’t know how it works, honestly. Ii Petty, on the other hand, knew only how to play slot. So my dear auntie kind of teaches me the idea of the rules and regulations playing slots this time. *wait a minute…it reminds me of something* Back there when I was around 10 year-old, it was also Ii Petty that taught me how to drink alcohol. It was Baileys with milk on the rocks. We had it while we’re playing playstation together, and the Baileys were from Ko Mike from his trip to Singapore. Damn! I got a good memory. And for the record, Baileys on the rocks with milk is still, until today, my favorite drinks that sometimes I sipped before I got to bed. Oh dear auntie, you taught me so many things in life. Drinking and gambling. 

our moh-ney!

shopping!

Back to casino, we started out on small machines with the USD 5 Ko Mike gave us. And I add up USD 10. We won, lost, won, won, lost up until we reached USD 30. So here we stood: we have doubled the capital. We moved on to the bigger slot machine with a big wheel above it called “Wheel of Fortune”. We put in the USD 30 ticket and we started again. Lost, lost, won, lost, and finally Ii Petty added a USD 10 bill again to the machine. I got no idea how long did we spent there already, but we won up until USD 80 and lost until nearly back to USD 33. I told Ii Petty to just stop if we lost this round, at least we got our USD 25 capital back. Square at 0 earning. And God always good, isn’t He? In the verge of desperation, that last round, we did heard “clink clink” sound, lamps blinked, and the wheel started to spin. We did hit the Wheel of Fortune and we got a chance to win the jackpot. Both of us screamed at the same time. People around the machine were just clapping and chhering for us as we hit the stop button. It stopped at… Okay we did missed the jackpot, otherwise, I would be somewhere else right now, enjoying my money. It did stop at the 200 part of the wheel. So we got USD 200 + our capital and added up by some other players money and we ended up got USD 266.59. Not bad! At least it covered up the buffet dinner just now. Hahahah! We print out the ticket and cashed it right away. 

more like texas

We were overjoyed and happily headed to our hotel room with our head held up high. *snob snob* I guessed that night the 4 of us slept with full tank stomach and happy mood. The next day itinerary that was very exciting for me and Ii Petty, but dreadful for Jade and Ko Mike: Shopping. The Atlantic City Boardwalk was the first boardwalk in the United States. The Boardwalk starts at Absecon Inlet in the north and runs along the beach south-west to the city limit four miles (six kilometers) away then continues one and one half miles (two kilometers) into Ventnor City. Casino/hotels front the boardwalk, as well as retail stores, restaurants, and amusements. The Boardwalk to me seems to e in some kind of cowboy film. The sea breeze blew onto your face and the beach atmosphere combined with the wooden deck under your feet? Beautiful! Ko Mike decided to do some tanning instead of shopping and it was our turn to take care of Jade. To bribe Jade, was an easy task, just treat her an ice cream and she will follow you. 

say hello to daddy

Atlantic City has many different shopping districts and malls, many of which are located inside or adjacent to the casino resorts. Several smaller themed retail and dining areas in casino hotels include the Borgata Shops and The Shoppes at Water Club inside the Borgata, the Waterfront Shops inside of Harrah's, Spice Road inside the Trump Taj Mahal, while Resorts Casino Hotel has a small collection of stores and restaurants. We did shop a lot, literally a lot. We even bought Jade a Halloween costume, as she requested, a Snow White dress from Disney store. She was so happy that she got what she wanted that she obediently and patiently accompanied this two ladies shopping around and taking picture around Atlantic City.

so true!

By the time of 4pm, the family of three accompanied me to the greyhound station near the Bally’s. I will take the greyhound bus from here to NY as I got to operate back at 11 pm that night. After buying the tickets, Jade continuously asked when would be my next visit. I told her it would be either end of the year or may be somewhere in between. But, I do promise her to be in Philadephia on her next birthday. As my bus depart, we waved hands and blew kisses to another. It was always hard to say good bye. But in the end, it has to be done in order to move forward. That was an awesome trip. Even though I’m not a good gambler, I guess my luck will always kicked in somehow.

“We bid good bye today, and tomorrow would be closer to the day we’ll meet again.” – Me.