Macau

Hong Kong Day II  - Macau, City of Dreams

Herman

Herman, our tour guide, explained that to get to Macau we would take a half hour bus ride to the Ferry Port, process through immigration out of Hong Kong, ride the ferry to Macau, and finally process through immigration into Macau. It seems a little silly since we were going from one China Special China Municipality to another, like going from Texas to Oklahoma with borders.  Herman couldn't help us with immigration but promised  he would be waiting for us on the other side.  75% of the tourists in Macau are weekend gamblers from China.

Macau is 11.39 square miles with around 600,000 people, a former Portuguese colony with the first settlers arriving in the 1550's.

Mary P was under the weather so it was just the Three Musketeers on this trip. Our Turbojet looked like this one - we passed each other along the way - except ours was blue, i think. We crossed the Pearl River Delta which is the convergent point of three upstream rivers (East River, North River, West River) and is filled with hundreds of small islands. Macau Pennisula is actually part of mainland China. Guangdong (South Canton) is on the north, China Sea to the east. It includes two islands Taipa and Coloane, which are now connected by landfill forming the Cotai Strip

Mary A and Terry

Terry and Pat

Comfortable seats, smooth ride, good coffee, great company - i enjoyed the 45 minute ride. So did Terry, surrounded as he was by beautiful women.

It turned out to be another romantic day - this one misty and raining. We enjoyed it, but the resulting pictures of our tourist stops at Sao Paulo Cathedral, Macau Museum, A Ma Temple, The 360 rotating restaurant on the 60th floor of the the Sky Tower, those moving targets outside my bus window (we were moving, not the targets) resulted in less than optimal photographs.  For really beautiful pictures  just google Macau. Sunshine makes everything sparkle.




Our ship chaperone was one of the talented singers, Danny (i think), from Jamaica,  Delightful guy, great singer. Always more fun to go to the show when you've met the stars and they wave back when you wave at them from the front row.  We're pretty enthusiastic fans. (His face wasn't really blurry, it's just my inability to hold a camera steady.) Danny's job was to make sure we didn't lose any tourists in Macau...tempting  as it was, we really didn't have the time to try out any of the casinos there. It's likely we would have lost a few shipmates if we had.



Sao Paolo Cathedral



Our first stop was the St. Paul Church (Ruinas de Sao Paolo on the map) built in 1602,  destroyed in 1835 by fire during a typhoon.  The front wall was all that was left. They choose not to rebuild in the same spot because they judged it to be a bad location.

Chinese Temple

Right next to the church was a small Chinese temple for the god Na Tcha built in 1888 and rebuilt in 1901. Our guide told us it's proximity to the Jesuit chuch is  a testimony to the religious diversity and tolerance in Macau. 

Na Tcha is a favorite character in Chinese folk stories; a teenage hero endowed with powers by a Taoist priest which he used to fight the Sea Dragon King to protect his village.  Today he is worshipped as a god of protection.  Every year there is a procession departing from this temple in homage to Na Tcha god, an event that originated in this temple and continues today. 

Sky Tower
360 Restaurant

Across the street from the cathedral and temple isThe Museum of Macao devoted to exploring the history of Macao and Chinese culture. 15 minutes isn't long enough to do it justice, but we were trying to get to lunch...it had been a few hours since our last meal. We'll just have to go back.

We headed for the Sky Tower 360 rotating restaurant, enjoyed an excellent and varied Asian buffet with way too many tempting desserts and a spectacular view of Macau, despite the clouds and rain.

Lunch Entertainment

On one of our rotations we watched a guy jump off a perfectly good tower. I'm not sure what it looks like from the bottom of the tower, but there is a blow up mattress to cushion his landing.

I'm sure it is a thrill but it's not something I will be doing until I am unable to do anything else and then it may be the last thrill, if you know what I mean.






A Ma Temple



Our last stop was at the A Ma Temple, also on the map above, 1st temple built in 1552 during the Ming Dynasty. Actually there are 4 temples on the hill with a variety of options for purchasing incense and candles to make offerings to the gods. They seem to have a wide variety of gods, each with its own speciality and powers. Depending on what you need in your life, you buy an offering and present it with a prayer to that god. Probably a great oversimplification, but then it is difficult to comprehend, coming from a religion that has only one.  I'm not saying I am any more enlightened but having been raised with one god with all power it seems a little strange. But obviously it works for them. I mostly have given up on specific requests for myself. I was taught to pray for big ideas like world peace and other people in a general nonspecific, hopefully nonselfish, way.



Casinos, Casinos, Casinos



Macau of course is the gambling capital of China.  They probably have a god of gambling. We did not get the opportunity to explore the casinos but we passed a lot of them on the tour. The Sands opened in 2005. We spotted a MGM grand with the usual gold lion out front and a Wynn. There was a Rio, but it was not related to the Las Vegas Rio. I especially liked the center Grand Casino, towering above the rest and visible from all our stops although it was often covered with clouds/mist or rain. 

Yet another great reason to return for a week long stay to explore all the parts of Macao that we didn't get to see, and those we only briefly encountered.

Symphony of Lights, Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong

Best seats in the house, well ship, our balcony.