Blogs from Macau, Asia - page 8

Day 429: Tuesday 1st September - Leaving China but not leaving China I have a two hour bus journey from Guangzhou to Zhuhai which is the city on the border with Macau. Macau, like Hong Kong, is classed as a special administrative region, so whilst it is part of China it is administered almost like its own country. Therefore, there are immigration controls whereupon I get stamped out of China, walk through the building and get stamped into Macau, without technically leaving China!! Macau is its own separate state in all matters apart from foreign policy and defence and like Hong Kong was handed back to the Chinese by the Portuguese in the late nineties. Nothing much is meant to have changed except there is a different country overseeing matters, and its relative independence to govern ... read more

Hallo there! There is a large chunk of information I out of my bog at this moment, that’s the things we saw and did before we left the car. In all honestly I must confess that I don’t recall most of it without a map and without the pictures I took, which stayed behind when I left my computer in the car. I deemed the computer too heavy to carry along, based on my previous experience a year ago. What I’m writing about Laos leaves out all the glitz and splendor Ann has related in her latest website addition under the heading Laos and for anyone interested in the incredible things that await the curious traveler in that country I strongly suggest you look up www.vrolijksontrek.com. So I take up the story after we left the ... read more

Taipa es la más pequeña de las islas pertenecientes a la región administrativa especial de Macao. En Taipa contrastan las construcciones que aún permanecen de estilo colonial portugués y algunos templos tradicionales chinos, con otras nuevas construcciones, así como los nuevos complejos hoteleros y casinos, ya en Cotai, el itsmo que conecta Taipa con Coloane. La comida riquísima. ... read more

Only forty kilometres from Hong Kong, Angela and I decided a day trip to Macau would be an interesting diversion, and so we made our way to the dock to catch a high speed ferry. First established as a trading post in the sixteenth century, Macau, or Ultra Marino as it was then called, became a colony of Portugal in 1887, remaining so until 1999 when it was finally handed back to China. Our journey there took one hour and as we sped along, I began to watch the in-sail-entertainment. It was a Japanese television program which pitted man against bear. They were not fighting each other in the traditional sense, but were battling it out in a furious hotdog eating contest. At first the young Japanese man seemed to be doing well, using the two ... read more

There are many more things we could have done in Hong Kong, but we couldn't resist to the temptation to go and visit Macau. Macau is mainly known for its casinos. When you arrive in Macau, free shuttle buses are waiting for you to bring you straight away to a casino. Instead we consulted our little pocket guide and paid a few pennies to take bus 10A that brought us to the centre. We discovered the very nice 'largo Senado' a beautiful square where the Portuguese influence is very present. Portuguese is still the official language together with Chinese (cantonese?) in Macao, but very few people can speak it and as they don't speak English either, we had a lot of fun. The Portuguese left many nice churches, the most impressive one was however being destroyed ... read more