Advertisement
Published: August 14th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Wow Macau has a lot more things to do than I thought (gambling). We saw a ton and I feel exhausted. We took a ferry which I thought was going to be a really quick trip. But I actually had to go through immigration and customs, getting more stamps on my passport 😊 The ferry ride was an hour long and it was really comfortable. There were about 6 or 7 columns of seats, with 2 in each column. And the seats were really comfortable. I thought you would be able to walk around on the deck, but no 😞 you couldn't.
The ferry station was kind of similar to an airport. But it was also a mall. (there are sooo many more malls in Hong Kong and Macau then I had thought originally, they are everywhere, literally everywhere.) And as soon as we got out of the station we decided that instead of taking a taxi, we would take this one vehicle...
It's a bike with a carriage on the back. The driver pedals and we sit nice and comfortably behind him. (I have a picture to post later) It's a much slower mode of transportation but it
was perfect for seeing a small island like Macau. He took us to a bunch of cool sights and it was nice to not have to rush to everything. We saw the A-Ma temple which is the oldest in Macau. It was built in 1488 during the Ming dynasty to worship Mazu, the Sea goddess. We were so lucky because as soon as we came out of the temple, there were performers starting the traditional dragon dance. There was a small percussion group making a tribal beat and there were dancers under a long dragon costume (2 per dragon), moving up and down making it look like the dragons were dancing. We were lucky because apparently they don't do this everyday but only every once in a while. The dragon dance is usually done at festivals or other traditional celebrations.
The weather was fantastic the whole day in Macau. It was really sunny but not very humid at all and we got a nice breeze while riding.
We also saw the ruins of St Paul College, it's the greatest symbol of Macau, the first thing Chinese people think of when they hear the city's name. Only the front
of the building is leftover so it just looks like a lone wall standing there. They built a staircase up the back of it so you can stand in the window of the wall and get your picture taken. It was originally a cathedral built in honor of Paul the Apostle.
Then we saw the St Dominic Church of Macau. It was a beautiful Catholic Church and on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors, had a mini-museum of Christian artifacts.
So far of what I've seen, Macau is even more influenced by Europeans (the Portuguese), than Hong Kong. Macau was such a fascinating blend of East and West. Seeing huge, modern skyscrapers, temples, and churches within a couple minutes of eachother. We told our driver (bicycler?) that we wanted to see the historic side of Macau, so he took us past all the skyscrapers/casinos (they were cool to see) and onto a historic path through the old Macau. We also saw the Macau museum, which showed how the Portuguese first came to Macau and settled there.
We also went up in the Macau tower. It was 338 meters (1,109 feet) tall and we went up to the
main observation deck, and from it you can actually see mainland China because Macau is so close to it. I didn't know this at first, but apparently you can pay to bungie jump off the top of the tower. I found out you could do this when I saw a person hurtling down to the ground right by the window I was looking through : P.
At the end, the driver dropped us off at a great Portuguese/Macanese restaurant. It was really quiet and a nice place to getaway from the crowds downtown. After that we did some shopping and walked around the small local shops looking for souvenirs and trying to get a feel for the local life. One more hour on the ferry and we were back in Kowloon. Tomorrow we're taking a taxi to the main island of Hong Kong to see Victoria Park/Harbor and some other shopping/sights.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.04s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0196s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb