by Bart Key
About a year later, Li invited just me to lunch at the Jade Palace. After an incredible meal with some great wine, he took a moment to briefly mention another possible business connection. Perhaps my family would consider leasing to him ferry rights from several of our other terminals allowing him to provide ferry services to and from his Macau terminal. His ferries would be smaller and faster than ours and luxuriously outfitted like those he currently operated out of our Hong Kong terminal. His fares would be higher than ours as his intention was to cater only to well-healed gamers. He had no intention of trying to compete against us for other traditional traffic. I knew from the moment he described his proposal that the two of us would be able to work out the details to our mutual satisfaction. So I told him we had a deal but he could anticipate that the leasing charges for using our terminals would not come cheap. He laughed and said he figured that would be the case.
After lunch, we hopped unto an elevator up to a floor where he had a private suite, changed into swim suits and spent the remainder of the afternoon down at the resort’s huge pool drinking more wine and admiring the scenery. In early evening, we climbed aboard one of my family’s choppers and flew back to Hong Kong. Then for the first time in months, the two of us partied in Hong Kong’s wilder district until just before daylight. Neither of us managed to make it to work the next day until early afternoon.
•
As Sur had anticipated, the Jade Palace drew gamblers from all over Asia and other parts of the world as well. Almost immediately after it opened, my architects started designing a small indoor arena which would be connected to the rear of the casino. When constructed, we would have a large venue for both entertainment and sporting events.
My college days at CU and Stanford were only distant memories now. In the years since I had moved to Hong Kong, I had built three successful companies for Sur. The first two had been preludes to the Jade Palace which now housed one of the finest casinos on the planet. While I had worked long and hard to make Sur’s projects come true, it hadn’t been all work and no play. There were many good times along the way especially those I shared with my best friend Chen. Life was good.
And it only got better when my bachelor days came to an end. I met my bride Lan at a charity function hosted by Chen’s parents. She was his second cousin and her family resided in Singapore. She was several inches shorter than me, had long flowing black hair, an alluring smile and a hearty laugh. I was smitten from the moment I laid eyes on her. We were alike in many ways. Chief among them was that we were both very private and preferred to stay out of the public eye as much as possible.
Lan had a college degree in art appreciation and was always pulling me aside to show me examples of contemporary Chinese art. I had never shown much interest in art but when I was with her, I at least acted like I did. She got a kick out of my condo, teasing me that it was the perfect bachelor’s hideout what with all the gym stuff and sports gear strewn all over the place. She was somewhat of an athlete herself having been a member of her college swimming team. In a race across the length of my club’s pool, she beat me handily. I loved it.
Her family, like Chen’s, was extraordinarily wealthy. Her dad was in the shipping business which transported goods all over South Asia. Despite our mild objections, her family planned a lavish wedding in Singapore. Traditions are very important to the Chinese and a lucky day was selected for our marriage date. The wedding ritual included a traditional tea ceremony which was attended only by family members and the wedding party. This was followed by a traditional wedding banquet to which more than two hundred guests had been invited. For her entrance into the banquet hall, Lan had changed into a traditional all-red gown and, when we entered, everyone stood and applauded. After everyone was seated, eight individual courses were served. As the bride and groom, we were expected to visit each table during the event and make a toast. Both of us had to take tiny sips at each stop to avoid becoming inebriated. At Chinese weddings, money is the traditional gift. Our invitations had specifically requested that any monetary gifts be donated directly to Lan’s favorite charity which benefitted handicapped children in Singapore. Suffice it to say, the charity did quite well that year. Sur, Ward and Cory were in attendance as was my mom who was getting on now in years. For his wedding gift, Sur gave us a small luxuriously outfitted yacht.
Not long after our engagement, I disclosed to Lan that Sur was the secret owner of the three companies I managed. She had no problem keeping this secret and wasn’t the least bit concerned that I was not a billionaire as many in Hong Kong business community thought I was. I did assure though her that I was far from being a pauper. She cracked up at hearing that and said the only thing she cared about was me and being with me. What’s more, she was more than wealthy enough for both of us. I loved her so much.
When we returned from our Hawaiian honeymoon, Lan began looking for a larger place for us to live. Although I would no doubt miss my condo as it was convenient and had a lot of memories, I knew it was time to move on. After about a month, she found what she was looking for. It was a very large home tucked up in the hills within a very exclusive and private enclave. She already had dozens of ideas on how to redo the place both inside and out. Whatever she liked, I knew I would too. The only thing I requested was that a small basketball court be constructed behind the swimming pool in the very large back yard. She thought that was cute and sometimes would come out and shoot hoops with me.
Not too long after Lan and I were married, Chen found Ting, his future bride. She was a bank executive he had met at a charity event and wasn’t part of any Chinese aristocratic family. This bothered Chen’s mother a little even though she herself had been an outsider. But once she met Ting, all her worries disappeared. She welcomed Ting into the family and congratulated her son on at long last giving up his bachelorhood.
Truth be known, during our bachelors years, Chen and I were pretty wild sometimes. Those days would be behind us now. I had high hopes however there would be many great times ahead for the four of us. Lan and Ting became good friends almost immediately and took great delight in reigning in these two former bachelors who would just get into trouble if they were allowed to get loose.
Chapter 24
Taking It Easy
Once the Jade Palace opened, it was finally the right time for me to kick back and give my lieutenants much more free rein in managing my companies. They were all the top of their games now and I had great confidence that my companies would continue to prosper greatly under their direction. Recently, David kidded me that the current value of my investment portfolio just by itself would probably qualify me as being the world’s wealthiest person. If true, it really didn’t mean that much to me. Maintaining my privacy was much more important.
So after all these years, I found myself in a position to journey forth and smell the roses for a while. And who better to do it with than my three amigos. To get things rolling, Jeremy reorganized the office so that his staff could carry on in his absence except for reviewing and approving payment of my person expenses which he would continue to do during his free time while on our travels. Before setting off, the four of us hung out at Wild Beach for a week where we discussed our bucket lists and made plans for our first year’s meanderings.
Soon we were in the air heading for a three month trip to Australia and New Zealand. After renting a truck and camper unit in Sidney, we traveled north to the Gold Coast and stopped to enjoy surfing at several of its world class surf spots. We also took time to sightsee in Queensland where we hiked in Daintree National Park, took a boat trip to Fraser Island and snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef. After working our way back to Sidney, we flew to Tasmania and backpacked the Overland Tract. Then it was off to New Zealand where we trekked through beautiful rainforests, walked along glaciers and hiked up volcanic peaks. Some nights we would sleep in camping huts or cabins along our way. When we returned to Guanacaste, we were exhausted and
exhilarated. After a month’s rest, we took off again, this time for six weeks of touring China.
And so it went for years. During our global wanderings, I ceased being the boss. We were just four guys, not as young as we used to be, enjoying the hell out of life with the means to do it first class. Since Cory had become so adept at picking up tabs, he was elected to continue doing so wherever we went. Though he constantly bitched about it in his own profane way, we knew he really didn’t mind. Jeremy took care of all our reservations through his staff in Guanacaste. Our jet crews became experts at knowing when and where to stop for refueling, maintenance and crew rests. When we arrived somewhere we planned to stay for a while, the crew would fly to a nearby airport and wait for our call to come pick us up.
•
During the years I accompanied Sur on his business travels, we rarely ever played tourist. That’s changed now. All of us are eager to visit the beautiful and wonderful places around the globe including many of its great cities like Jerusalem, Rome, Paris, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Beijing and St. Petersburg just to name a few. We walked up to and sometimes within some of the world’s greatest archaeological treasures including the Egyptian pyramids, Machu Picchu, The Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat, the Parthenon and the Taj Mahal. My favorite was the Coliseum. I imagined myself as a gladiator who fought other gladiators in front of huge crowds there. I learned that successful gladiators often became rich and were widely admired while those who lost were more than likely grievously wounded or even killed. Compared to these contests, my taekwondo bouts seemed like kids’ play. I had eventually stopped doing that when it became all too evident the bouts were starting to take a toll on my body.
Winter sports was something else all of us loved. Each year we would spend weeks skiing or snowboarding at one or another of the great winter resorts in Europe, Canada, Chile or the United States especially in Colorado. Jeremy, of course, was just as much of a hotdog on a snowboard as he was on a surfboard. Sur too was his usual daring self and sometimes suffered through awful falls but as usual was never seriously hurt. One favorite thrill was when we were dropped off by helicopter at the top of some Canadian mountain and skied down its powdered wilderness slopes. Except for Sur, we were somewhat terrified of course but we never let that stop us. When one of us would fall and tumble into the deep powder, it was a real struggle to get back up again. But once you succeeded, you could reach full speed again very quickly and laugh at the thrill of the challenge.
Witnessing great sporting events was high on our list as well. Over time, we attended two summer Olympics, one winter Olympics and several Stanley Cup finals. We had fifty yard line seats at three Super Bowls and a number of NFL playoff games. Every year we attended at least one World Series game and once we joined David and Pierre in attending the final match of the World Cup. Both of them were soccer freaks and knew the names of most of the players on both teams. They were such fanatics that they now owned their own team which didn’t win much but that never seemed to bother them. A couple of times their and Ward’s friend Gustav joined us on ski trips in the French alps. Gustav, who had skied a lot as a young kid, was quite good and totally fearless on the expert slopes.
•
Signs of aging had begun to creep up in all of us especially in me, the oldest. But to our credit, each of continued to work out daily when we could and stay in great shape. None of us had any kind of gut or noticeable flab and, amazingly, we still all had full heads of hair. Jeremy still had his long hairstyle of the seventies but his face showed the effect of years in the sun. Cory still looked younger than the rest of us but you could tell he wasn’t a spring chicken anymore. Both Sur and I had some grey streaks in spots but he had far fewer wrinkles. For some reason, his skin had been less adversely affected by all the time we had all spent surfing in the sun. When we started our adventure years, Sur let his hair grow long and eventually wore it tied back in a ponytail. It enhanced his wizened look. Though we were older now, we continued to enjoy good health. In thinking back, I couldn’t recall a time when any of us had ever been very sick, not even from Montezuma’s revenge.
Being together most of the time had positive effects on our respective comfort levels. Jeremy now loved hiking in the wilderness and sometimes even lead the way. Cory enjoyed surfing so much now that he rarely returned to shore before the rest of us. He had picked up on Jeremy’s surfing lingo and now spoke his own version which was liberally sprinkled with bits of his raw humor. Sur and I began really enjoying live rock concerts we attended with Jeremy and Cory. The good vibrations were always enhanced by good weed which Jeremy always had on hand. And who would believe that the three amigos would enjoy attending live theatre with Sur. And we usually dressed up for the occasion to boot. Jeremy became hooked on reprised rock musicals such as “Hair” and “Grease”. When we attended “Jesus Christ Superstar”, Cory was visibly moved by the production. He told me later that he had grown up going to church every Sunday with his family and that the play had brought back some of his memorable Sunday school lessons.
When we began our adventure years, we were still young enough that we didn’t think twice about sleeping on the ground in a tent while backpacking, sleeping on cots while on safari or sleeping on mats in the bow of a small boat on a river adventure cruise. But as time moved on, we began to plan our activities so that we could sleep in nice soft beds at night.
Flying everywhere by private jet and staying at luxury hotels was hard to beat. On overnight stays, we might all share one large suite. But on longer stays, we all had our own rooms. Jeremy and Cory especially preferred this arrangement as each had hopes of finding company for the night should the opportunity arise. At breakfast in the morning, Sur and I could always tell when one or both had been successful as they came to the table bleary-eyed and smiley. As for me, I remained in my celibate mode but still did not necessarily consider it to be permanent. Jeremy and I had no idea whether Sur ever enjoyed any kind of companionship when he was away from us. Having traveled on business with him for years, Cory might have some idea but he was unfailingly tight-lipped about anything he knew concerning Sur’s private life.
•
Not to anyone’s surprise, my favorite activity during our adventure years was surfing. The Gold Coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands continued to be my favorite surfing venues even though most of the better spots tended to be crowded. During our years of galivanting about, we discovered some great new surfing places which not only were less crowded but sometimes all but deserted like some we discovered in the Samoan Islands, Fiji’s Tavarua Island, Siargao Island in the Philippines and Mentawi Island in Indonesia. Wearing full body suits, we surfed off the coasts of England, Ireland and Vancouver Island. But the older we got, the more cautious we became before paddling out into unknown and menacing surf. Sometimes would just sit on the beach and watch the younger generation get beat up. But other times, Sur and I would look at each other, throw caution to the wind and paddle out leaving Ward and Cory to watch the two of us get beat up.
People that we met over the years always found it amazing that the four of us were so close and yet so different from one another. A surfer, a warrior, a former professional soldier and a business genius, seemingly inseparable. The connection of course was Sur. He somehow knew how to tease out the talents each of us had. He also knew that he could trust all of us without ever looking back. He made us feel good about ourselves and clearly loved being with us just as much as we loved being with him.
Chapter 25
Bump in the Road
Toward the end of our adventuring years, the four of us were riding horseback together at the Bar 7 one day when I noticed that Sur was deep in thought and seemed troubled about something much like I’d noticed him experiencing in the past. At dinner that evening, he mentioned to us that he had recently acquired some firearms and wanted to brush up on his marksmanship skills at a nearby range. He invited the three of us to joi
n him noting that he had enough guns for all of us. To say we were dumbstruck would be an understatement but we elected to go along. I hadn’t been near a weapon since Vietnam nor had Cory. Jeremy had never even fired a gun and you could tell he was uneasy about the prospect of doing so. So each day for about a week we drove to the range and practiced shooting at targets with both rifles and pistols. It was obvious Jeremy was not particularly happy with the experience. He had gone along because he didn’t want to be the odd man out.