One Night in Macau

Delayed post, but this week or so has been hectic with getting classes settled and traveling.

Macau…what an interesting experience. Getting there was a chore with our huge group of about 20. A lot of the morning was spent waiting around for others to come. Waiting at the train, waiting at the MTR, waiting at the Ferry stop, waiting…waiting…waiting. I pretty much spent 10am until 1pm (when we got on the ferry) standing around waiting. I don’t think I’ll be traveling with such a large group again, or at least for a while.

So finally we arrive in Macau! Only a 40 minute ferry ride (which cost about US$20) and I’m in another country. New stamp on my passport! The first sight of Macau was just a long bridge connecting the island to the mainland (one of the longest bridges in the world) and large casinos. We reach land, walk around, and it is a hodgepodge of old Portuguese architecture and then the fake casinos and attractions similar to that in Vegas.

A walk through Fisherman’s Wharf found a beautiful koi pond, a temple type building that was actually a casino, a military themed kiddie park, and Portuguese style buildings. The street performers perfectly exemplified the mixture: one group had a mime, 2 flamingo dancers, 2 belly dancers, and a mariachi band.

We walked along the coast and found a statue, but I couldn’t find out the cultural significance because the museum attached was closed on Fridays. Walked by the Wynn, which looked just like Vegas. The only casino that really looked like something new was the Casino Lisboa, which is the oldest casino in Macau. It has a very modest front building, but from the side you can see the Grand Lisboa which is a massive egg-like structure covered in gold sheath in the day and lights up entirely at night. It was the most impressive casino I think I’ve ever seen. Inside the limits were too high and they didn’t really have many shops or attractions so we didn’t see much.

We met up with the whole group at the Ruins of St. Paul. It was once the biggest church in all of Asia but burned down so now all that remains is the front façade and the stone steps leading up to it. It was really neat to see this touch of Europe in a small Asian country.

We found a small hotel room for the night, 6 people to 3 twin beds for US$10/each. Not the best of situations, but it was so worth it for the shower and bed. A quick run through the casinos for dinner and gambling yielded delicious pasta (real Italian pasta! Not just some asian interpretation of it!) and HK$300 in roulette winnings. That $300 pretty much paid for the trip. Love it!

The bars were too expensive for us in the casinos, except for ladies night with free champagne, so we ended up going to club 7-11 and playing 10 fingers in a park. I love that we can just drink in a park here. None of the Canadians, nor the Australian, had ever heard of the game. It was a really fun night where we got to know some dirt about each other.

The next day it was way too hot to do much exploring, but we did manage to find a small little Portuguese place for breakfast and then head to the Penhas Church and the A-Ma Temple. Both are huge buildings dedicated to the two dominate religions still prevalent in the nation. People here, when they win big, they share it with their religion. I saw in the donation bin $1000 Yuan bill, which is about US$150. I have never seen one person put in that much into church donation back home.

After the temple we took a bus back to the ferry terminal. Along the way we got to see more of the real Macau, not just the casinos and monuments. It looked like a fairly poor area. The strangest thing I saw was in front of some random building (could have been a museum or city building, really no clue) there were statues of 4 white people and 2 cows. There was one statue that was of a chubby guy with his ice cream cone. Why someone chose to immortalize this, I’ll never know. Maybe it’s their image of the fat American? Your guess is as good as mine.

Ferry ride back was uneventful and once we got back everyone went their separate ways. Best 2 day visit to another country that I’ve ever had. Well, maybe not as good as Mexico with the Earthquake kids in summer of ’06. But then again, this trip was practically free thanks to roulette.

Pictures: koi pond at Fischerman's Wharf, statue thing discussed earlier, portuguese architecture in the main square, Penhas church. More are on facebook, of course.

Upcoming posts: Typhoon in Taiwan, Day trips to Victoria Peak, Lantau Big Buddha and outlets, and Hong Kong Disneyland.