asianadventure: Birthday weekend in Macau

I never thought I'd be spending my 60th birthday in an exotic location!
Jeff and I took the turbojet catamaran ferry (red boat in the photo) to Macau on Saturday morning. The ride takes about an hour: it's comfortable and not too rocky. Unfortunately, our guide book (lonely planet) did not tell us that if you use Visa, you get a 30% discount on a round trip ticket. It also neglected to tell us that seniors over 60 get a 10% discount. We discovered the savings reading some literature at our hotel in Macau, so on the way home I got my first seniors' discount!

Arrival in Macau is not breathtaking, however, the new Science Museum, designed by I.M. Pei, is easily viewed from the ferry terminal. We will visit it on our next trip.

We stayed at Pousada de Mong Ha, a beautiful, quiet hotel run by the school of tourism. The staff were so young and eager to please!http://www.ift.edu.mo/pousada/eng/index.htm

Like HK, Macau is a Special Administrative Region of China. HK became part of China in 1997, and Macau followed in 1999. It had previously been a colony of Portugal, which set it up as a trading centre in the 16th century. The main draw for us was the Unesco World Heritage site in the centre of Macau. The site is actually a small (walkable) district of linked squares with 17th-19th century Portuguese official buildings and churches. The buildings are painted bright colours, and looked impressive in the bright sunlight. The pedestrian mall is newly re-tiled, and from above the main square looks like wavy pavement. Neat optical illusion!

The most impressive Portuguese site is the remaining facade of the Church of St. Paul. The church was designed by an Italian Jesuit and completed by early Japanese Christian exiles and Chinese artisans in 1602 - globalization thrived even four hundred years ago! The entire church except the front facade was destroyed in a fire in 1835.

We sat at the bottom of the steps to the ruins and watched a young troop of lion dancers perform.

Aside from the colourful entertainment, we also pigged out on the treats that were for sale on the main street leading to the town from St. Paul's. The hawkers were all over the road giving out samples of freshly baked almond cookies, slices of sweetened beef and pork, and the local specialty Portuguese egg tarts (yum yum yum).

Macau is also famous as a furniture-making centre. We saw a nice armoire at one store and will probably order it (online, of course) if I can find the business card...

Whenever Jeff and I travel, he takes a photo of me at the local library. This picture was taken at the City Hall archival library. The guard gave me a very dirty look when I picked up the sign.

Since we were first-time tourists in Macau, everyone suggested that we have dinner at Fernando's on the beach. I was despairing that it would be an overpriced, tasteless, touristy place, but we were quite surprised at how low-key and good it really was. Our hotel provided us with a shuttle to the restaurant - it's about 45 minutes away from Macau centre - it's actually on the last connected island that is still part of Macau. (Since our boxes hadn't arrived from Toronto yet, I was still wearing my old jeans and lululemon jacket).

Some other observations about Macau:

Casinos - Macau is the Las Vegas of China. The hotels/resorts are as over-the-top as Vegas. The Chinese are big-time gamblers, but they are not at all interested in entertainment. There is only one hotel (The Venetian) which has a permanent (Cirque du Soleil of course) show. Sorry to disappoint my mother, but Jeff and I steered clear of the casinos. Here is a link to photos of the largest one, the Grand Lisboa, which seems to loom over the whole city, and is a not-too-attractive backdrop to the historic centre http://www.grandlisboahotel.com/

Flores Garden, Guia fort, and Guia lighthouse - Flores Garden is Macau's "Beaver Lake". There is a cable car that takes you about halfway up the hill, and then you can follow a shaded path to the old fort and the lighthouse. Tai Chi is very popular in the park, as well as Chinese dancing. The photo of Jeff is taken inside the air raid shelter (1931) in the fort. Note the bamboo scaffolding on the fort.