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Published: January 14th 2007
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Ruins of St Paul's
Famously known as a symbol of Macau, the facade used to belong to the Church of Mater Dei built in 1602-1640 and destroyed by fire in 1835. After the fire, only the facade remained standing. Macau became a colony of Portugal after the Portuguese reached Macau in the early 1550s. On 20th Dec 1999, Macau was returned to China, and ever since, Macau is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
Prior to 2006, the last time I visited Macau was in 1997 with my family and grandma. We only spent 3 hours in Macau, as we were on our way from Zhuhai to Hong Kong. It was a pity, as Macau is a fascinating place which has an unique mixture of Chinese and Portuguese heritage. Hence, in 2006, I decided to visit Macau and spend a longer time there to explore its historical sites and new attractions. Unexpectedly, the city is so attractive that I visited it 3 times in 2006! Another reason for my multiple visits is the introduction of a direct flight between Singapore and Macau by Tiger Airways (a budget airline). Since Hong Kong and Singapore are both my hometowns, I frequently travel between the 2 cities. In the past, I flew directly between Singapore & HK. Now, I can fly from Singapore to Macau via Tiger Airways, and the combined fare of the Singapore-Macau air ticket and
the Macau-HK ferry ticket is cheaper than the fare of Singapore-HK air ticket!
I visited Macau for the first time in 2006 with my dad. One week later, I visited Macau for the second time, this time bringing my 2 friends from Singapore. In December, I visited Macau for the third time with my whole family. Each time I visited Macau, I went to new places and saw new things that I had not seen in my previous visits. Although Macau is small and compact, it has definitely a lot of things to see and experience. I took many photos during the 3 visits, but I didn't have the time and mood to organise them and upload them, until now....
First visit 18th May (Thu) - I flew from Singapore to Macau in the morning. At Macau, my dad fetched me from the airport and we checked into a hotel. After that we explored the downtown area of Macau, including the brand new Sands Casino... (The casino reminds me of the casinos I saw in Las Vegas... Very grand and very luxurious) We were also lucky to enter the Macau Museum for free, as 18th May
Ruins of St Paul's 2
The back of the facade (There's a staircase leading up to an observation platform) was the international museum day.
19th May (Fri) - My dad and I explored the other parts of Macau, including the Macau Tower and Taipa. Macau Tower was exciting because there's a transparent panel on the floor of the observation deck. Those who have phobia of heights will die of heart attack if they look down through the panel... We also explored a couple of temples such as the famous A-Ma Temple and the huge and impressive Kun Iam Temple. In the evening my dad and I went back to HK.
Second visit 28 May (Sun) - After bringing my 2 Singaporean friends around HK for the past few days, I decided to bring them to Macau today. In the morning, we were very unlucky. First, when we reached the Macau ferry terminal, the queues at the immigration control were LONG... It took us almost one hour before it reached our turns. Later, we took a bus from the ferry terminal to downtown, but our bus crashed into a taxi on a flyover. (Thank god we were not injured.) We alighted, and we waved our hands to the passing buses, but none of the buses stopped for
Ruins of St Paul's 3
A good example of "East meet West". (The temple is dedicated to Ne Zha, a Chinese god with 3 heads & 6 arms, and is located right beside the ruins of St Paul's. On the left of Ne Zha Temple, not shown in this photo, is a section of the old city walls, built as early as 1569 to defend the Portuguese settlement.) us. To make things worse, it was raining. In the end, we had no choice but to take a cab. When we finally reached downtown, we thought our bad luck was over, but we were wrong. Out of a sudden, it was raining cats and dogs and lakes and oceans... Even though we had umbrellas, we were still drenched from head to toe. To make things worse, Joanna had a urgent need for a toilet, but we couldn't find any toilet in sight. We went to the tourism centre cum gallery below the ruins of St Paul's, but the gallery was regrettably closed. In the end, we went to the Macau Museum. There, we took off our shoes and socks, and we managed to squeeze a substantial amount of water from our socks!
When the rain lightened, we walked around the fortress garden and downtown Macau. Later we had lunch in a Portuguese restaurant. In the afternoon, we visited the bronze goddess of mercy, the Sands casino, Fisherman's wharf, A-Ma Temple, and several churches in the old historic area (which was recognised as an UNESCO heritage site). Later, we tried to take a cab back to the ferry terminal,
Ruins of St Paul's 4
Behind the facade is an underground museum and the archaeological remains of the old College of St Paul. Here is a view of the preserved remains from the upper floor. (Despite a rule banning the throwing of coins, people still throw coins onto the rocks hoping that some divine power will grant their wishes...) but we couldn't find an empty cab. In the end, we took a bus, and when we reached the ferry terminal, we ran all the way from the entrance through the immigration to the boarding wharf... (Our ferry was departing at 1745 and we reached the terminal at 1735!!!)
Third visit 15th Dec (Fri) - I went to Macau again, this time with my sister. My sister was the only one in my family who had not visited Macau in 2006. (My dad and I visited Macau in May, and my mum visited Macau in March with her friends.) When we reached Macau, my parents were waiting for us at the airport. It had been a long time since the 4 of us are together again. (The last time when the 4 of us were together were more than 2 years ago.)
We visited the usual attractions, such as the ruins of St Paul's and Mount Fortress. At night, we visited 4 casinos! We visited the oldest (Lisboa), the largest (Sands) and the newest (Wynn and Galaxy). My favourite is Wynn, because the casino looks very similar to the Wynn in Las Vegas, and also because my
Mount Fortress
Built in 1617-1626, the fortress was the city's principal defence structure . It was equipped with enough ammunition and supplies to endure a siege lasting up to 2 years! family won some money from the jackpot machine in Wynn!!!
16th Dec (Sat) - In the morning, we had breakfast in a traditional porridge stall. Later, we went down to Coloane, an outlying island south of Macau. (Due to land reclamation, the 2 outlying islands, Taipa & Colane, have been merged into one island.) There are some historical Portuguese sites and Chinese temples in Coloane. According to a friend, some of the sites in Coloane were used to film the popular Korean serial "Gong - Princess Hours"! In the afternoon, we went to Taipa for lunch and shopping. To our pleasant surprise, there was a rose exhibition in the Municipal Garden and along Avenida Da Praia in Taipa. Later, we went back to our hotel to collect our luggage, and made our way to the Ferry Terminal to catch the ferry back to Hong Kong.
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thats good
Thats really cool