Macau!

Okay, so I'm getting a little behind in my posts, but better late than never, right?  A few weeks ago, we had the Labor Day holiday in Hong Kong, so Brian and I thought we'd make the best of an extra weekend day and head to Macau to check things out.  It's only an hour ferry ride away, but we had only been there once before.  It was our first day in Asia, and we took the ferry to Macau solely because we needed to leave Hong Kong, then re-enter, in order to activate our visas.  So, needless to say, between the jetlag and the overwhelmingness of having just moved to Asia, that trip was a bit of a blur!

The weekend was great!  Hong Kong can get a little overwhelming for me at times - the buildings are tall, the streets are narrow, and the people are everywhere!  In Macau, the buildings were shorter, the streets were wider, and there just weren't so many people.  It was a nice exhale for the weekend!  We went on this trip not really having an agenda - we just wanted to get a feel for what Macau was like and hopefully win enough at the casinos to retire early (gambling is legal in Macau, but not in Hong Kong, with the exception of underground Mah jong houses).

Because Macau was a Portuguese colony, the architecture and food are somewhat of a blend... I had just landed from Germany on Saturday, and we were in Macau on Sunday, so it was kind of surreal for me - I wasn't quite sure WHERE I was, with all the beautiful European-style churches around me!

The Grand Lisboa Casino - what a fine example of modern architecture!  ;)

 

Brian in a walkway off of the main square... Asia, or Europe??

Our first stop was lunch... which was amazing.  We went to a Portuguese restaurant and had just absolutely delicious food.  Truly a highlight of our trip!

Brian's was pork with a fried egg on top - yum!

 

Mine was cod with salmon rolled inside

After lunch, we just walked around and checked things out.  It was hotter than blazes, so our pace was a bit slower than normal, and we made a stop at the Macau Museum for a few hours, mostly because it was air-conditioned (but it was actually quite interesting!)

Sao Domingos Church

Almost everything was in three languages - Portuguese, Cantonese, and English

One of the most famous sights in Macau - ruins of Sao Paulo church

Inside the Macau Museum - porcelain from Macau - looked so similar to the Delft Blue that I grew to love in Holland!

Okay... so this was an interesting one - champion crickets from cricket fighting - they even had a video of a cricket fighting tournament - who would have guessed?  :)

As I mentioned, it was hotter than hell, so Brian got this refreshing jelly-honey-coconut-tea - interesting combination!

New and old

O for Oliver from the top of the Macau Museum

After an amazing dinner, we went to the casinos.  Just like in Vegas, there are so many things to see and do.  One of the casinos had a huge butterfly exhibit in the lobby.  This one matched my dress!

We splurged a bit and stayed at the Sofitel - amazingly nice hotel with a fantastic view... I could get used to this!  :)

Our gambling was finished in about 5 minutes... seriously.  The table limits are way higher than in Vegas, so after 4 bad hands of Black Jack, we downgraded to slot machines.  We still had a fun night, but didn't quite double our money like we had hoped.

Much like the Bellagio... there was a pretty cool fountain show in Macau... although the music selection was a little odd - "I Need a Hero" was the song we saw.

There's the Portuguese influence... but it's still Asia.  These were fish drying in the sun, which later get packaged to be sold.  Um, no thanks!

Sunday morning, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel, and then went to the Macau Tower, home of the world's highest bungee jump.  One of my colleagues from the factories had just done this and I had seen the video of his jump.  My stomach flipped over just thinking about doing this!  :)

There was a platform where you could watch the people jumping from above - it's done in a few seconds!

Last stop before we left was this odd little area called Fisherman's Wharf.  There, they had built reconstructions of buildings from many of Europe's biggest cities... there was Venice, Paris, Amsterdam, Athens... but, the strange thing was, it was completely empty!  We felt like we had walked into a Hollywood set after filming.  It was really strange, and not nearly as cool as we had hoped. 

Venice, with Amsterdam in the background...

This felt strangely like my old home in Amsterdam...

Roman ruins... or not.

We had a great time together, and need to get a few more trips on the books for the coming months.  We will definitely return to Macau, not necessarily for the gambling, but for the nice break from the craziness of Hong Kong it provides.