Blogs from Macau, Asia - page 26

Checked out of the hotel, left our bags with the concierge and got a taxi to Coloane. We had breakfast at Lord Stow’s Café and did a walking tour of Coloane Village, a little fishing village on the southern tip of the island. We saw Sam Seng Kong Temple, Igreja de Sao Francisco Xavier, Tam Kung Temple, Tin Hau Temple, and walked through a Macanese cemetery on the hillside. Got a taxi to Parque de Seac Pai Van and the free shuttle up to a replica of a royal Chinese palace complex. We walked up to the top of the hill to the statue of A-Ma, the largest statue of A-Ma in the world, made completely of white jade, though some say it’s granite. The view was amazing and we could see the Macau airport from ... read more

Said goodbye to Kazumi and got the TurboJet to Macau, about an hour ride on a hydrofoil. It was like being in a jumbo jet that rides on the water. A travel office tout at the terminal got us a deal at the Hyatt Regency on Taipa, so we ended up there. Checked into the hotel and walked into Taipa Village. Had lunch at Cozinha Pinocchio (Portuguese food) and then did a walking tour of Taipa Village, full of very pretty, Portuguese colonial architecture. Stopped at Pak Tai Temple, Nossa Senhora do Carmo, the adjoining Carmo Gardens, and the Taipa Houses Museum, a row of five restored colonial-era houses on Avenida da Praia. Went back to the hotel for our complimentary drinks in the lounge. We went across the street to check out the Greek Mythology ... read more

Arthur meets me in his car for a weekend in Macau - we head to ferry terminal (and back again for my passport) and we’re met in Macau by a stretch limo and we’re shown the sights briefly before the driver takes us to the hotel. The Mandarin Oriental is a five-star hotel which is owned by the same company as many of the casinos in “Macau, the Vegas of Asia”. An ex-Portuguese colony, the region makes over half its GDP through tourism and gambling, and it seems Arthur’s family are quite high in the pecking order for handling this revenue stream. After abandoning our luggage at the hotel Arthur, Bill and I head to the museum of motor racing, a tribute to the annual Formula 3 race which takes place on the streets of the ... read more

macau for a $1? holy cow, macau! when i travel i don't just go to that place to visit the tourist spots.......... or just to capture everything that caught my eye on camera................... it isn't just admiring the place.........it isn't just collecting coins or ref magnets ................ it's experiencing the culture, rubbing elbows with the locals, getting lost and finding your way AND! most importantly, tasting the food! macanese food is characterized by the spiciness of portuguese cuisine, the dominant use of paprika, curry powder and the like...quite an interesting combination...a combination of chinese and portugues cuisine...uh-huh, east meets west... .... here are some of the food i tried while in macau......... did you know that i got my roundtrip airfare to macau for $1? yes, you ... read more

Macau, China: Nov. 27-29 We travelled overnight on a bus full of beds (In all my travels, I had never encountered such a bus before). It was much more bearable than the 10 hour torment I had envisioned. We arrived at 5 am in Shenzhen and took the next couple hours to figure out how to get to the Port as we had no guide book and it is near impossible to get around China otherwise as next to no one speaks english and everything is written in Chinese but we persevered, got on a bus and hoped that at some point it would end up at the Pier. It did about 2 hours later after what could be called the extremely scenic route of Shenzhen. We arrived in Macau and were charmed by its ... read more