Day 12: Macau
Trip Start
Apr 16, 2009
1
8
24
Trip End
May 31, 2009
Last Monday, I spent the day in tiny Macau. In fact, Macau consists of the Macau Peninsula, the Taipa island and the Coloane island, all interconnected. I went there with Vishal, an Indian friend who I got to know when arriving in Hongkong. Interestingly, we queued up at the Immigration booth and started to talk to each other. Afterwards in the arrival hall, we again queued up at the Customer Service Desk to buy the Octopus (public transportation in Hongkong) card. We thought this cannot "just" happen, and found out that we both not only stay the almost same amount of days in HK, head for the same MTR station (Lam Tin) in HK, but also want to go to Macau on one day. Logically, we arranged that we do this together. We took a ferry from the Macau ferry terminal near Sheung Wan, HK Island, to Taipa island, headed first to the Venetian hotel & casino where one can easily get lost. Luckily, you get a map for the hotel area (!). With the free shuttle service we changed to Macau Peninsula, took a look at the Sands casino and Fisherman´s Wharf, before heading "downtown" into the center of Macau. For me, Macau was too noisy, too busy, and did not offer this peculiar Macanese/Portuguese flair I was hoping to see. Likewise, the list of sights other than casinos is rather small, and life in the back streets and lanes appears to be a rather poor one. My conclusion: there is the one life within the glamourous and glitzy casinos, and the other one which is as usual as anywhere else. Noteworthy is the immense number of motorbikes there, though, and the delicious food!
