Mehcau

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During a brief April holiday my friends and I decided it was finally time to check out Macau. It was only a short ferry ride from Shenzhen and, after finding all the affordable accommodations taken, took a day trip instead of spending the whole weekend there. Best decision ever.

Macau was meh. To be fair, we really didn’t plan anything. We boarded the ferry sometime around eight in the morning. The ride was pleasant enough until a baby in the dreaded crotchless pants took a runny dump two rows in front of us. The smell was horrendous and only made worse by the green herbal liquid the boat employees poured over it. Everyone was glad to escape, I mean, debark at Macau. We all figured things to do would smack us in the face when we arrived. Hong Kong is like that. You don’t need a plan for Hong Kong. There are awesome things to do around nearly every corner. But Macau was different. The only thing around the corner from the dock was a run down fireworks factory and a pharmacy.

We hailed a cab and I told him to take us to one of the most well known landmarks: The Ruins of St. Paul’s. I was kind of excited to see them. They looked so beautiful in pictures. Unfortunately they were much less impressive in person. The surrounding buildings were all very pretty but there didn’t seem to be much to do other than look at things. We wandered down to the town square to see if there was a tourist bureau or something. We found one, got a few maps, and tried to come up with a game plan. There was a fort that looked interesting so we headed that way.

Up, up, up we climbed until finally we reached….the place where a fort used to be. *sigh* There was a museum there now, one with an admission fee, and none of us was in the mood to pay to see Cro-Magnon era stone tools. We rested up there for a while, made up stories about monkey butlers that ransacked the fort (to make the place more exciting) then we headed back down to the city.

Ani had found a garden on the map that was supposed to have a famous fountain. The park was very big, full of elderly people, and not full of what I would expect a garden to have: flowers. There was indeed a very large water feature…with no water.

By fourish we were all tired of wandering around looking for something that might redeem our visit to Macau. We plodded back to the pier and grabbed the next ferry back to Shenzhen. This ride was blessedly free of poo.

I’m sure Macau has a lot to offer. They just keep it fairly well hidden. If there’s a next time, I’ll be sure to do more planning.

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Photos

The Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral
It looks way cooler in pictures than in does in person
From the left: me, Cara, Kim, and Mariam

Hi, Ani!
Ani never poses for pictures. He congratulated me on sneaking this one.

A Monkey Butler
Kim poses as one of the legendary monkey butlers that sacked the Portugese fort.

In the park
The excersise equipment was fun