Hong Kong Day 2: Macau

Well, today was fun. Visited the old portuguese colony of Macau. For those not familiar with the little city, it was ceded to the portuguese by the old empire as recompense for the losing some war, but has since been returned to the chinese government. Like Hong Kong, it holds Special Administrative Region status, ie the communist government hasn't run over its existing government with a steamroller. The reason for this is that Macau is the Las Vegas of China. Much of it retains its portuguese character. All signs have both traditional chinese and portuguese on it. There also remains many classic portuguese style buildings such as several churchs and a lot of old housing. Some of the old buildings have since been modernised to house stores, restaurants etc, but the exterior is mostly restored.

We arrived by ferry from Hong Kong, a trip of about 50min, not a long trip but one which takes you to another country and all the bureacratic rigamorale with immigration and customs. Quite a pain, got stuck in a queue with hundreds of other people for what seemed like forever, but was only about 25min. Mainlanders can be such a pain. Having breached immigrations and customs, we wandered out to the bus terminus. Here there are only a handful of public buses and they have to fight their way through the dozens of casino shuttle buses that block the area. There are at least 5-6 buses for each casino here all waiting to whisk you off to lose your hard earned cash. We jumped on to the shuttle to Wynn's casino, which I might add completely blows Star City out of the water and into orbit for sheer elegance and grace. The lobby to the side entrance of the place is very understated, with a pair of angelic statues fronting the entrance. It's the chandelier that is amazing. Wandering around to the main entrance and lobby to the casino itself is a display of incredible size. In the middle of the room is a dome easily 10m across. Above it is a domed roof about 15m across. The dome on the ground is engraved with the twelve constellations, Aries and the others, but also with the images of the animals super imposed on it. The dome about is even more amazing. The twelve animals of the chinese zodiac are...how can I say...emerging from it. They're not flat but actually erupt from the dome. The truly amazing thing is that both domes are designed to open. The upper dome is designed in 12 "petals" so that each petal retracts into the roof while the lower dome retracts into the floor and some show is exhibited, unfortunately, the domes were under repair today (bugger!) I'll save further comment until I upload the pics.

Next were the new and old Casino Lisboa. The old one is probably the oldest casino in Macau. The new one is across the road from the old. Nothing too impressive either one, if anything the new one reminds me of a shopping centre. The lobby looks very cheap, but it did have some interesting antiques.


Lunch came up, and we went to one of the most respected noodle shops in the city. So respected that the Singapore government issued a special invitation to the owner to travel there to perform their noodle making techniques. Pictures and descriptions of the food to follow. A stroll through the, thoroughly packed, streets and alleys of Macau we sampled such things as the local almond cookies, which I might add, are deliciously light and powdery. As well as some fresh made pancake like treats and some local durian and some sort of odd fruit that looks like garlic in a passionfruit shell but tastes like yakult. Odd yet deliciously refreshing. No pics on these since we scoffed them too quickly.

Following lunch, we took a stroll (or a hike if you ask my sister) up Fortress Hill part of the original defences of the city. Visited the museum there, lots of interesting stuff and antiques there. I learned where the english pronounciation of "tea" comes from. Yay for me!

After another little stroll, followed by a quick trip back to the ferry terminal to catch another casino shuttle we arrived at the Venetian casino. The largest casino in Asia. Within lies a replica of Venice, an enormous arcade filled with shops, bridges, walkways and a replica of the waterway replete with gondola and gondoliers, all westerners to keep in the theme and some of who can sing! Lots of entertainment to see, such as statue impressionists, jugglers, stilt walkers as well as a little song and dance show with some nice operatic performances. After an hour or so here, it was dinner time. Rather than describe the dishes, I'll upload some pics and comment on them then.

After the rather filling dinner, another nice stroll to another casino for a brief respite. I lost HK$40, but my sis won some. Then back on to the ferry for another 50min trip back to HK and a 15min wait in immigration. Some stupid mainlander had something wrong with his passport or entry permit or some other piece of bs paper work, the customs officer gave him a talking to, while i was stuck waiting. I even jumped to another queue but by that idiot officer was finished the equally idiotic mainlander so I went back to that queue...idiots... Leaving the terminal, we dived 3 floors underground to reach Sheung Wan MTR terminus for a 20 min ride back to Quarry Bay.

Tomorrow, shopping... then lunch with cousin(s) [someone's probably gonna make a comment about the vast numbers of cousins that I have] followed by who knows what the hell.