Macau
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
7
47
Trip End
Apr 30, 2009
Where I stayed
Macau,
Macau
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
After a short wait, we caught bus #2 for 2.50 RMB each and rode the bus for about 40 minutes before seeing the Macau (Gongbei) port entry point. With this being a vacation period in China, the line-ups to clear Chinese customs were substantial and it took us nearly 90 minutes to finally make it to Macau. In Macau we headed to McDonalds for some breakfast and to figure out how to find the SanVa hotel where we had made reservations.
There were a great deal of buses heading to SanVa and we able to catch one (Bus #3 for 2.50 MOP/each) shortly after leaving McDonalds. The cars and buses of Macau drive on the left-hand side of the road, but many of the roads are one-way streets anyhow. The bus winded down many of these streets in a very indirect path to where we wanted to go, but at least it was air-conditioned. The streets are also all labeled with their Portuguese names, which helped us figure out where to get off.
The SanVa hotel is a historical hotel of Macau, dating back over 100 years. It has not been renovated since around the 1930s, but was still in reasonably good shape. This was still our very first night without air-conditioning and there was an open roof that made it noisy and allowed many mosquitoes into the rooms. For the first time, I slept with insect repellent on, and so far I haven't noticed any new bites.
Macau Casino's
After checking into SanVa and enjoying a hot shower, Lisa and I ventured out to the streets of Macau. They definitely had a more European feel to them than the streets of the other Chinese cities we had toured and the prices of food and goods were also much higher than anywhere else we had seen in China. Macau is famous for gambling and we had read how prices can triple (or more) during peak times (Saturdays and any vacation time in China), so this all made sense. Fortunately McDonalds pricing, much like their food, never really changes much, so we ate their frequently. Some places took Chinese RMB at par with Macau Patacas (MOP), but other places refused to take Chinese money (despite it being worth over 10% more than Macau MOPs).
First we walked to the famous Casino Lisboa and then we made our way to the old St Peters church façade. Next we wandered up to the Mount Fortress, where it was a little bit cooler and provided a great view of the Macau sky-line. After this we meandered through the narrow cobblestone streets of the old-town, which was packed with Chinese tourists. It was a very hot day and I was glad to see the local 7-11 variety store carrying the San Miguel beer that I had heard about. I got a king can for 8 MOP and it helped cool me down immensely. I was too thirsty to judge whether or not this is the best beer of Asia, so I will reserve judgment for another day.
One weird thing we saw while walking around Macau at night, was the indoor ice rink and hockey exhibit at an amusement place for tourists. The ice conditions looked horrible and nobody was using it, although Lisa was very tempted to try it out. We walked through back alleys at night, but did not find any local food that we wanted to try out, so we ended up eating at McDonalds again. We were both well aware of the flight to Jakarta the following day and did not want our tummies to be upset with us.
The night in SanVa hotel was pretty uneventful except for when a Chinese family came in shortly after midnight. They screamed so loud that we could easily make out the conversation with our earplugs in. Lisa tried giving them a dirty look, but this did not seem to help. Next she tried the "shhhh" sign, which worked very well. I guess that sign works all around the world. We both managed to get quite a good sleep and were ready to check out the next day by noon.
We tried to figure out how to get to the airport by public bus. We looked at SanVa's instructions on how to get there from the airport and reversed the instructions and caught bus #18 (2.50 MOP/each.) This plan did not turn out as well as we had hoped and eventually we saw the bus drive past the airport turnoff and got off the bus. We spent quite awhile looking for another bus option, but even the airport bus (AP1) told us they did not go to the airport so we caught a taxi. The taxi ride cost 65 MOP, they charge extra for using the trunk here, but it was still very cheap compared to Toronto standards.
We made it to the airport by 14:30 and we were not allowed to check-in until 17:15, but fortunately this airport was not very busy. We found two seats, but we could not find any seats with electrical outlets nearby. Luckily this did not matter much since I had charged everything the night before, so we spent a bulk of the time watching Lost. Around an hour before we were able to check-in, we ate at the airport cafeteria (39 MOP each for French fries and a sandwich) and then exchanged the rest of our Chinese Yuan and Macau Patacas for Indonesian currency.
We had a bit of a scare while going through the airport check-in because we did not have a printed copy of the onward plane tickets from Indonesia. Fortunately we did have digital copies and once Lisa supplied the confirmation number of our tickets from Jakarta to Bangkok, we got past the problem. Another couple hours later and we were on the plane to Jakarta..
St. Paul's Cathedral
