Macao

After postponing it for 2 weeks, Magda, Ruby and I finally made it to Macao!  Now that the add/drop period is over, it's official that none of us have Friday classes, which is much more conducive to sightseeing.  Therefore, we met bright and early at 8:00am Friday morning at the University MTR Station.  We took the MTR to East Tsim Sha Tsui, from which we knew we could walk to the China Ferry Terminal.  I had looked up the map on Google the night before so I thought I had a pretty good idea about which way to walk, but Magda was dead-certain that, not only did she know where is was, she had even been there before!  Needless to say, we followed her for a good 20 minutes until we reached the water.  Unfortunately, her memory was a little foggy and she accidentally took  us to the Star Ferry Terminal.  All of the ferries for Macao leave from either the China Ferry Terminal in TST or the Hong Kong-Macao Ferry Terminal near the airport.  Since we had walked quite far out of our way, that put us close to an hour behind schedule.  Nevertheless, we did find the correct place, and we bought our tickets for the 10:00am ferry.  I had pictured a ferry like the ones I've been on before:  small, open-air, with a deck on the top and/or sides.  Instead, this thing was more like an airplane.  We had assigned seats, which were exactly the same as the ones in the economy section on any airplane, and the stewardess kept coming by to ask if we wanted tea or coffee.  There wasn't any going up to the deck to have a look.  Thankfully, I had a window.  Magda had brought some sliwka from Poland for us to try and, unfortunately, I thought the golden rule for eating chocolate on an airplane (Don't do it!) didn't apply to boats.  Nothing much happened, but we all felt a little queasy when we finally arrived in Macao.

The fresh sea air perked us up quite a bit when we left the boat and, right off the bat, we saw one of the places in Magda's guide-book:  the Fisherman's Wharf.

Literally, that was immediately after getting off the boat.  We hadn't even gotten to the immigration office!  Well, that was the next stop.  We all got through quickly and without a problem, then went to exchange some currency.  Hong Kong Dollars to Macao Dollars is almost a 1:1 conversion so it's extremely easy.  In fact, most places in Macao even accept Hong Kong Dollars, though not vice-versa.

Next, we took the bus to the Largo de Senado, the center of Macao's historic district, and where 90% of all the historic sites are.  It felt so strange to see the 16th-17th century Portuguese architecture decorated for Chinese New Year.  The topmost sign says "Feliz Ano Novo Lunar!"  (Happy Lunar New Year).

All of Largo de Senado was covered in Chinese lanterns and lucky door decorations.  At least in my mind, "Eurasia" had a whole new meaning:

We did manage to take a few group shots thanks to a nice Korean girl that we kept running into throughout the day.  Macao really is just that small!

It wasn't long before we found St. Dominic's Church, another famous Macao landmark:

Then we continued along the road, where we passed several souvenir shops.  All the typical Macao souvenirs are food so many of the store-owners gave out free samples.  Between the Chinese almond cookies, pepper-pork, and coconut ginger, I think anyone really wanting to save money could make a meal off of samples alone.  Finally, all the tea shops and antique stores gave way to Macao's most well-known landmark, the Ruins of St. Paul's Church, which was destroyed in a fire in the 1800s:

After visiting St. Paul's we took a quick detour for a less-touristy look at the island.

Once we found a small Chinese shrine, we knew we had come to the right place:

Because, like Hong Kong, Macao is very mountainous, there are several places where you can get an arial view of the neighborhoods.  The spot we found had us peeking just over the rooftops in a quiet suburban neighborhood.

From there, we went to the Mount Fortress.  It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like:  a fortress on top of a mountain.  If you want the best view of Macao, though, this is the only place to get it.

Next, we walked to the south-side of the island to Penha Hill, the old Protestant District when Macao was still controlled by the Portuguese.

Our main mission was to find St. Lawrence's Church (I know, so many churches, right?), but along the way we accidentally stumbled upon another famous site:  Theater Dom Pedro V.

As for this car, we just got a kick out of it.  Nothing else really.

We got a little turned around, but St. Lawrence's eventually showed up.  It was the back entrance so we didn't notice at first.

Of course, we quickly found the front of this beautiful 450 year old church, complete with red door decorations for Chinese New Year:

There were even Chinese lanterns hanging from the chandeliers.  No matter how much it feels like Europe, I guess Macao doesn't want visitors to forget that they are  in China.

Our next stop was actually a World Heritage Site called The Mandarin's House.  If, when you hear the word "Mandarin," only people, languages and oranges come to mind, let me refer you to Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_%28bureaucrat%29.  It does a good job of explaining the significance of Mandarins in old China.  The Portuguese officials had to deal with the Mandarin representatives of the Chinese emperor when negotiating trade and when trying to gain favor with the local Chinese.

Anyway, the point is that the Mandarin of Macao had an amazing house built that is still the largest private residence on the island.  Of course, now it is broken into rent-able rooms, but most of the house is still open to the public.  Even it was decorated for (you guessed it) Chinese New Year.

The entrance is in the traditional Guangdong garden style, but much of the house is actually a combination of Guangdong and European architecture, making it one of a kind.

To make a long story short, if anyone ever wants to buy me a house, take The Mandarin's House into consideration.  I wouldn't say no!

We left Penha Hill around 4:00pm, and decided that we felt a little hungry.  Ruby, who has been to Macao before, knew about a famous snack shop where we could try some of the Macaonese specialty snacks.  So, we followed her:

In about half an hour, we arrived at Margaret's Cafe e Nata, and the line was huge!  We met a guy from California named Izumi, who had just started working in Hong Kong a week ago.  He took a group picture for us, and ended up joining us for our afternoon snack since he was there by himself.

Magda and I "reserved" 4 seats while Izumi and Ruby ordered some Portuguese egg tarts (mmm!):

After that, we said goodbye to Izumi because he had to go meet a friend, and we set off even further south to see A-Ma Temple.  Along the way, we got a good view of Macao's harbor:

We walked through some expensive private neighborhoods:

And we passed the government consulate:

Eventually, we found the 600-year-old temple to the Chinese goddess of the sea, Mazu, who is said to protect fishermen and sailors.  The Portuguese were the ones who named it "A-Ma Temple."

We stayed there until closing time then took a bus back to the central district.  Our final destination was a small quiet garden that combined Chinese and Portuguese elements.  It was night by the time we arrived:

We decided that Macao's biggest attraction, gambling, wasn't really for us.  I've always heard Macao called the "Las Vegas of Asia," but I don't think it fits.  While I've never been to Las Vegas, my understanding is that the town mostly grew up around the casinos.  Macao is an old city with its own unique fusion of cultures.  Gambling may provide much of the revenue for this beautiful island, but I think it's a by-product more than anything else.  Still, that is part of Macao also.

By 9:30pm, we were all so tired.  We took the next ferry back to Hong Kong and tried to sleep along the way.  Since we hadn't had dinner by the time we got back to TST, we looked around for a restaurant and just shared one small dish between the 3 of us.  After that, we took the MTR back to campus and then walked to our rooms.  Therefore, after about 14 hours of almost nonstop walking, I had the pleasure of walking uphill for half an hour back to my dorm room.  When I finally took my shower, and went to bed, I was beat.  I didn't wake up the next day until 11:30am.  It was really fun, though, and Macao felt so different from Hong Kong.  I'll definitely be back.