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Ola readers.
Todays adventures took me to the Special Administration Region (SAR) of Macau.
It was an early start. The pick up time for this tour was 7:30am. Another day without a sleep-in. Ah well could be worse. I could be getting up early to go to work.
I was up around 6:30am to get ready. The bus arrived around 7:40am. We had a few hotels to do pick ups along the way.
By the end of the pick-ups we had around 24 on the tour. The mix was American, Australian (the largest representation), Malaysian, Chinese, Portuguese (I think. They could have been Brazilian, else I'm way off the mark), Welsh and yours truly, the lone Kiwi.
As per usual the age bracket was considerably older than myself, bar the couple of young (and attractive) Chinese girls. However the age wasn't a barrier as for the most part the group was actually a lot of fun and easy to get a long with.
We were given the low down by the tour guide (who was really only the drop-off guide) regarding passports, boarding procedures etc.
We were heading to the ferry terminal to take one of the catamarans to
Macau. Macau like Hong Kong is a self administering region of China. Both were previous colonies of other countries. Hong Kong a British Colony, Macau a Portuguese colony. So we were heading to another country. Like all overseas travel it requires you to pass through immigration, complete arrival / departure and health forms and have the customs offical give you the stamp of approval.
We arrived at the Ferry terminal around 8:10am. The tour guide arranged our tickets and bid us farewell at the immigration desks (we were to get a Macanese guide once we arrived in Macau). We could have made the 8:30 sailing but our tickets were for the 9am sailing so we had to sit around the departure terminal for a short while.
We boarded the ferry around 8:50. Seats were pre-allocated. It was a pretty random seating with many of the couples split up.
This actually wasn't a bad thing as it got different members of the tour group talking. I was seated next to Ken, a retired gentleman from Port McQuarie NSW. He and his wife were taking in Hong Kong after being in China before heading home.
Ken and I got along well. He
was well traveled and had visited NZ on a couple of occassions and was highly complementary. NZ is one of his favorite countries. He was also a rugby (and general sports follower) like myself) so we immersed ourselves in conversation which really helped pass the time of the hour long boat ride.
The Catamarans are fast ferries and cover the distance very quickly. The South China sea which we cross to Macau is a very busy shipping lane. With Hong Kong having very free trade arrangements it is a main hub into Asia.
The water is very brown and polluted, hardly surprised when I counted around 25 large container ships moored offshore and countless others in port. I was reading that if you see Oysters on menus over here you should ask where they come from. If they are local don't touch them as they have been taken from the polluted waters and can make you sick.
We docked in Macau around 10am and it took around 20 mins to clear customs and enter the country.
We were then taken to our awaiting bus to give us the grande tour of this former Portuguese colony.
Like Hong Kong the majority
of the population is Chinese, although locals proudly consider themselves from Macau and not China. They have even given themselves (and their cuisine style) a name. Macanese.
The Portuguese arrived in Macau in the 1500's. They originally arrived my accident. They needed urgent repairs on a sail boat. They docked at a place they thought was a town. It was actually a Taoist temple occupied by local fisherman sheltering from bad weather. The Portuguese wanted to know the name of the country. The fisherman not being able to understand Portuguese (as you would expect) thought they were asking the name of the temple so they responded A-Ma Gao (meaning A Ma Bay and A-Ma Temple). The Portuguese interpreted as Macau, which subsequently stuck.
Following the landing more Portuguese arrived. While trading was a welcome opportunity the primary reason for arriving was to bring missionaries to spread the word of the gospel (Roman Catholicism).
The country itself is only approx 7 Kilometers long, by 4 Kilometers wide so it's not that big, but boy does it cram a lot into that space. It was originally 2 islands Taipa and Colane. They have since reclaimed the land to join the islands together.
The island is now referred to as Col-Tai.
The city has 2 distinctive parts, simply the new city and the old city.
We were first taken to the waterfront to view the Statue of Guan Yin. The statue is a hybrid of a traditional Buddhist god and Mary (in recognition of the mixed beliefs).
After a few photo's we then headed to a sweet shop. Apparently Hong Kong people will often come to Macau just for it's sweet treats. Local delicacies include Almond cookies, Husband and wife cakes, Pork and Beef Jerky and Portuguese egg tarts (more on these soone).
We were greeted with tastes of man of the morsels. The pork Jerky was really nice as were the almond cookies. I purchased 2 different bags of chocolate sweets (which I have no idea what they taste like) and a box of Almond cookies to take back to NZ (hopefully I can get the cookies through customs. Many of the Aussies didn't think they'd get it into Australia. Bio-security NZ website didn't indicate i'd have any issues. So I guess i'll find out soon enough).
We were then taken to the Oldest Taoist temple A-Ma to have a look around.
Front of the A-Ma
There are beggers on each side of the steps.It was pretty hot and sticky by this stage. It must have been close to 30 degrees and the humidity was getting up there).
The temple was quite different to those from Japan. It had many different prayer areas and had a "look out post" feel about it due to the vast numbers of steps and maze of different areas.
I walked into the small (very small only a couple of shops) township by the temple. 1 of the shops was selling the Portuguese egg tart the guide had told us about. He assured us that we would like it. I brought one for HK$6 (about NZ$1.33). They are the size of a savoury and look just like a mini quiche (they even came out of a pie warmer. The filling is like an egg custard (slightly more scrambled egg texture). It tasted delicious. I had to agree with the tour guide. Ken and Pat (Kens wife) brought a couple to eat for supper tonight.
We had a couple more stop before lunch. As per most other tours there was the obligatory stop at a jewelery shop. The guide only wanted the stop to be 5 minutes (Proving I guess
that this is one of those "must do's" even though no-one wants to do it things). He encouraged anyone who was interested in buying to be aggressive with their bargaining. I didn't get off the bus. I was all Jewelery shopped out from previous tours.
Judging by the quick turn around others were happy to get back on the bus afterward.
Because we still had a bit of time to kill prior to lunch we went to the Macau Tower. This is easy to describe. It's Auckland Sky Tower. It looks identical. It even has AJ Hacketts bungy jumping. We were here for about 45 mins.
I went up to the bar in the main hall and enjoyed a beer with the 2 American's in the party. They were both retired and well traveled (Steve I think his name was, was formerly a major developer of Boeing planes. He is a wizz Mathematician). They too were highly complementary of NZ. I'd even heard them talking about how much they loved NZ to some of the Australians (I particularly enjoyed that just quietly).
We headed to the Holiday Inn hotel for lunch (this is part of the tour and included
in the price). It is a really nice buffet meal. It is a mixture of Western and Portuguese (or more correctly Macanese) food. Whole cooked sardines were even on the menu. I gave those a wide berth, but our Portuguese colleagues thought is was Christmas and got right amongst them.
We had lunch for an hour and I sat with Ken and Pat and we discussed world affairs, family and generally the solving of the worlds problems. They were a great couple and I enjoyed the company.
Post lunch started at 2:15. We headed out to the old city. This is the original Portuguese settlement and where the head of government used to be.
Old city has a lot of Portuguese influence. Narrow streets, Churches, cobblestone paving and the shops had a different look and feel.
We saw the remains of the original Catholic church of Macau. It was built in the 16th century but was burnt to the ground (accidentally) in the 1800's. All that remains is the stone frontage. The various carvings and statues were explained in great detail by the guide (He seemed particularly passionate about this part of the tour).
We then wandered through Old
town and took in some of the sites.
In the centre of Old Town there is a montage of pictures about Tiananmen Square. I was really surprised at this. China does not identify with the events of the Tiananmen Square massacre, you cannot talk about it. Apparently in China you can be arrested for discussing it. Now that Macau is under the ownership of China I wondered how they got away with it.
I asked the guide. He said the montage was there to educate the Chinese (50% of all tourists to the region are Chinese. In fact the closest Chinese province is just across the river. No more than 100 meters from the edge of the city) on that event as the will never learn about it in China. He believed over time as China adds more influence it won't be allowed to remain.
Most of the old buildings still remain, however the shops that now occupy them are anything but old. Starbucks, McDonald's, Gucci etc have all made their homes in the town.
At about 4:15 we jumped back into the bus. We were headed for what is now the biggest tourist attraction in Macau. The Casino's. Macau
is Asia's Las Vegas. In fact Macau is bigger (in casino numbers and economy) than Las Vegas. Macau has something like 46 Large and small Casino's. Pretty impressive for such a small country. The annual turnover is 14.5 billion US dollars. Las Vegas is only 6.5. Many of the American Casino's are also here like MGM, Wynn, Sands and the Venetian.
The Sands cost 1.5 Billion to build. It recovered the full cost within 4 months. Thats incredible.
We visited Wynn casino. We only had 35 mins which was probably enough because in that time I blew HK$250. 1 slot machine I stuck in a $100 note. Pushed the spin button twice and it was game over. Blimey.
Thankfully the real cost was only NZ$55 well within the budget I had set myself.
We boarded the bus around 5pm and headed back to the Terminal to catch the 5:30pm sailing back to Hong Kong. One of the other cool things about Macau is the bus park at the Terminal. It is right beside the starting box for the Macau Grand Prix held every November. The roads still have the grid lines on them. This would be a great place to
watch Formula 1.
We breezed through Immigration and boarded the boat. I spent the boat ride home planning tomorrow's activities. I am now on free time, pretty much for the first time on the whole trip. I have 2 days to fill.
Looks like I'm going to see a Tailor 1st thing and then head out to the world famous Ocean Park.
After disembarking back in Hong Kong we were dropped back at the hotel at around 7:25pm.
I'd already decided I was going to have dinner in Downtown Hong Kong. I jumped into a taxi (my first for Hong Kong) at around 8:05pm and asked to go to the Hard Rock cafe (it wasn't where I wanted to go, but it was the only restaurant I could remember and I knew there were other restaurants near by). The driver didn't speak any English and had no idea where the hard rock was. He dialed a number on his cellphone. Listened for a bit, then handed the phone to me. The woman at the other end where I wanted to go. She then game be the street (or suburb, not entirely sure) of where the restaurant was. The driver then
set us on our way. I don't know why, but bus and taxi drivers in Hong Kong all think they are bloody Micheal Schumacher. They drive like a bat out of hell and you experience plenty of narrow misses and hard braking at the lights.
The driver dropped me off somewhere in downtown. It certainly wasn't the hard rock cafe. Never mind it only cost me around HK$40 (around NZ$9) so it was really cheap. The meter even virtually stops when you are at lights.
I wandered around the streets looking for a nice restaurant. The people (especially the young people) come out at night. The streets were packed. I got harassed countless times by Indian men trying to get me to go into their suit shop or buy a copy watch. They are really persistent to a simple no thanks doesn't get rid of these guys. I got pretty shitty and a couple of them got some pretty choice words about what I thought of them. I'm not normally bothered by street sellers after being in Thailand, but these guys were another step up on the "pain in the arse" scale.
I found the Murphy's Irish restaurant. I felt
like a steak and enjoyed a beer and Sirloin steak at the restaurant. So far food has been quite expensive . The meal was more than I would have paid at home at around NZ$55 (including tip) but I could have gone to a local Chinese joint and paid not much.
I called it a night after that and headed back to the hotel. I had a quick JD's and coke at the bar (again real expensive at around NZ$14 for the drink) before heading back to the room to provide you with this update.
Tomorrow is not yet set in concrete, but I am keen on getting a suit and really want to see Ocean Park. So watch this space to see where I end up.
Great to see Queensland beat NSW in the State of Origin too. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find anywhere that had it on.
Until tomorrow
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