Macauvegas

---

Like Malacca that we visited in Malaysia, Macau is known for its Portuguese history. It was run as a semi-autonomous Portuguese colony for more than four hundred years until it was handed over to China at the same time as Hong Kong ten years ago. These days its better known for its imitation of Las Vegas as a glitzy casino heaven. We were interested mostly in the former but also curious about the latter so took the ferry from Hong Kong over to explore for a couple of days.

Our first impressions when arriving on a dreary & drizzly afternoon was that Macau wasn't all it was cracked up to be. We didn't do much that afternoon and evening (apart from Phoebe wolfing down the biggest pasta bake you've ever seen) and left our exploring for the next day. No-one seemed to smile in Macau, least of all the staff at our hotel, and we played a game '10 points to someone who can spot a smiling person' for a solid fifteen minutes before anyone scored. Perhaps they'd all lost big at the casinos the night before.

Soon things began to improve though as we found our bearings and walked around the old part of the city. Most of the streets are poky and narrow with brilliant sounding names like 'Calçada de Santo Agostinho' and 'Rua Do Dr. Pedro José Lobo'. Only 2% of the population these days claims Portuguese ancestry but the influence is still very strong. We went to a few landmarks including a couple of churches from the start of the Portuguese era and the more famous ruins of St. Paul's church. The museum inside the old fort had all sorts of odd and interesting things - Phoebe was especially impressed with an old video of crickets fighting to the death while their trainers urged them on. This used to be a big pastime with a lot of money at stake - a prize fighting cricket was worth a fortune! Every trainer had their own secret diet to make his cricket stronger and when a top cricket died its owner would entomb it in a little box carved out of stone or marble.

One of the things I'd most been looking forward to about Macau was the Macanese food with its blend of Chinese and Portuguese influences. Interesting dried meat products were on sale everywhere as well as delicious egg tarts that we had developed an obsession for in Hong Kong. We had one brilliant lunch of soups with Portuguese spiced sausage and bread (finally some friendly staff as well) and a not-very-Macanese but still very, very good Italian meal. Macau is definitely a good place for eating.

Near our hotel was one of the biggest and most well known casinos in Macau; the Grand Lisboa. It was an impressive building if you like glitzy neon lights - shaped like a giant bulb with shoots growing out of it. We suggested to Phoebe that we should go and double-or-nothing the rest of our trip, but she wasn't so keen on the idea. Checked out the lobby anyway - not surprisingly it was garish to the extreme with gold, jewels and cut glass everywhere, as well as intricate ivory carvings and a Qing Dynasty bronze horse head apparently worth ten million dollars. Just a little ostentatious? It was amusing seeing the number of expensive jewellery and boutique-y gift shops clustered near the casinos to snap up any happy winners on the way out.

All in all we enjoyed Macau a lot. Next stop would be a brief day-and-a-half back in Hong Kong - the end of our time in Asia before flying to the Middle East for the next part of our trip.

---

Photos

St. Paul's Church
Only the facade remains

Remember roll-ups?
These ones are made of meat

St. Augustine's Church
though pretty similar to three other old churches we looked at

The Grand Lisboa
make your fortune here

Comments

[christine giles]

Wow
YOU are going to be awestruck by beauty +soul of middle east.I didn't realise u were going to travel so vastly.congrats!x Ac