macau

Posted on | October 13, 2008 | No Comments

today we visited macau for the first time ever.
after a false start, whereupon we arrived at the ferry terminal with no passports…and then discovered a shortcut back to the hotel through kowloon park….we were on the midday ferry.
it takes an hour-ish to get from kowloon to macau…the ferry really shifts along quickly.
there was NOTHING to see out of the windows….smog smog smog….so i actually feel asleep.

our first port of call in macau was the venetian….a brand new casino on the cotai strip.
surreal…..check out the photos.
gondoliers would burst into song around every corner.
we weren’t fooled though…the canals were a bright clean blue and the only detectable odour was the smell of money.
ceiling in the main entrance:

seriously….venice?

after a venetian coffee and a portuguese custard tart, we decide to leave venice and go back to macau.
easier said than done.
it was nigh impossible to leave the casino complex.
we wandered in circles and the shops and gondoliers and canals all began to look the same….all bathed in twilight under an impossibly blue sky (painted on the roof and cunningly lit to look like a perfect italian early summer evening).
finally we escaped.

we took a taxi to the largo do senado, the lovely senate square.
what pretty buildings, all very portuguese, and clean cobbled streets.
streets without cars on them are just so nice, as my husband remarked.

starbucks….they are everywhere:

we strolled around and then headed up the travessa de sao domingos …then past the consulate general of portugal (that is the colonial mansion i’d like to move into)….then up a truly steep and narrow hill to the fort.
it began to drizzle on us and out came the handy raincoats we bought in america!
opposite the consulate general:

at some stage we crested a little rise and this weird sight hove into view…it was like something out of a terry gilliam movie:

we got to the fort at the top, and there were great views….but it was too smoggy and rainy to get good photos.
we went right off the beaten path on the way back down and found ourselves in some very narrow steep winding back streets.
it was just on dusk and suddenly, there was no one on the street apart from us.
i heard someone playing a violin beautifully…and a church clock struck 5pm.
it was surreal.
high density living:

kilometres of hand-laid cobblestones:

a tiny pink temple…

spiral incense:

the altar:

i really enjoyed the contrast between the polished, highly finished wooden goods in the shop and the scruffy shophouse above.
as maurice said, isn’t it typical, the carpenters always have the worst houses.

we bought a sheet of the sticky sweet spicy dried pork that macau is famous for and strolled the streets, eating the stuff and drinking peach tea, for another couple of hours….lots of antiques and curios amongst the boutiques.
finally, we took the ferry back to kowloon and had a very choppy crossing in pitch dark, with plenty of people being sick all around us.
i was just beginning to re-consider the dried pork, when we arrived.

now we are back in the hotel and examining blistered feet (we walked simply miles and miles today) and having cups of oolong tea.
and i am going to have a piece of durian.

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