Today we decided to head over to the Country of Macau. Macau is a lot like Hong Kong in the aspect that it was previously under control of another country and was recently (1999) returned to Chinese rule. Macau was under Portugal's rule instead of Britain like Hong Kong was. I thought it might give us a little reminder of our time we spent in Italy and it was new territory to explore for us. This morning after we ate breakfast we gathered our things and headed to the Hong Kong ferry port. It is just across the street from our MTR station so it wasn't
too long before we were in line to get tickets for our round trip to Macau. The boat that goes to Macau is a Turbo Jet and it pretty weird looking. We had to buy our tickets and then when you get to the waiting area they put a sticker on your ticket that tells you what seat you're in. I guess I was thinking it would be more like the ferry at Disney World (that would be me in my little bubble) where you just get on and sit where ever and enjoy the ride. When it was time to board things were really tight, everybody was squished in the line and you had to take baby steps to get anywhere. A lot of people had luggage with them which was even harder to move around. Finally we got on and got our seats. The boat was pretty rocky but the weather was rainy and windy so that was to be expected, even still-Peter and I were not prepared for that. The ride took about an hour but the boat went really fast. There were a few times I was concerned we wouldn't make it.
No one else seemed to think anything was unusual but it felt like we were going to flip or crash or something. I kept thinking of the Star ship that sank last year in Hong Kong, but we made it and Peter and I were both happy to get off the boat. We had to go through immigration but it was quick and then we were free to explore. Peter asked about exchanging currency but he was told that they would also accept HKD but we would need exact change to take a bus. Since we had done so well yesterday and saw so much more by walking we decided to do it again today. Things in Macau are a lot different than in Hong Kong though. No one speaks English outside of the transportation areas and there are no English translations on signs. If the writing isn't in Chinese it is in Portuguese. On the way over we realized we forgot our Lonely Planet book in the hotel. We were really upset about that because we had looked through it and picked out a few things we wanted to see. We grabbed a map from the ferry port and after trying to get out of the port a few different ways we finally found the way we were supposed to go. We walked along a raised pedestrian walkway until
we saw a cool building on the street level and then went down and started walking along that street. We took a couple turns here and there towards the center of the city and then choose a destination on the map to loosely head towards. It was very cold there and there was a good chance of rain but since we had gotten off the boat we hadn't seen any.
When the wind blew it was even colder and I was doing all I could to stay warm. Walking helped a bit but the higher in elevation we went the colder it got. We stumbled across a little garden, S. Francisco Garden, so we stopped and walked around it a little bit before we headed back in the direction we were going.
As we walked we looked for food but it was hard to know what was being offered when there was nothing in English. We found a cool street that was pretty steep and walked up it until we came to Monte Fort which was built in the early 1600's.
We explored and took some pictures then walked into the Macau Museum. It was pretty interesting and we both learned quite a bit but it didn't take long before we were ready to get back to exploring and we really needed to find
food as it was already after 3:00. As we walked out of the fort we came right up to the Ruins of the church of St. Paul, our destination. It is really pretty cool even though it was just one remaining wall and the rest of the entire building was completely gone. The church, built in 1602 was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 1835. There were a lot of people there so it was hard to get any good pictures
(plus I was so cold I didn't really want to move much). Right behind the ruins was the Museum of Sacred Art and Crypt. It was a very tiny museum so we went through it and were done before we really realized what it was. From there were went back to the front of ruins and found a little street shop that had some food. I
was cold and my blood sugar was getting lower so I really needed to get some food in me. Peter found a "pork chop bun" and ordered two. I didn't even care at this point what I was eating I just knew I needed to get something in me. It helped that it was hot too. We ate while standing in the street and then took some time to look at the map and figure out our next game plan. We saw someone with a Starbucks cup so we knew we had to find that too, Peter was getting a headache and we were pretty sure it was because he hadn't had any coffee all day. Once we had figured out our next route (more or less) we took just a few steps and found the Starbucks. I was happy to get inside to warm up a little bit while we waited for Peter's coffee and my hot chocolate. I took my gloves off and warmed them on my cup before putting them back on and heading out for more walking. We took a road up
and around the ruins and north east, back the way we came but farther north. There were a couple souvenir stores so I went in one to pick up a magnet for our collection and then continued. Along the way we stopped at the
Cemetery of St. Michael the Archangel. It was really neat and we went through and looked at a lot of the inscriptions on the grave markers and tombs. We were on higher ground now so we wanted to get lower to be a bit warmer. We walked down a few more streets to Lou Lim loc Garden. This was pretty cool, it reminded me a lot of Kowloon's Walled City.
Not too big but had nice Asian plants and architecture with ponds and bridges. It was getting even colder now so from there we decided to head back to the ferry port. Our tickets back were for 9:00 but we were told we could get on an earlier boat if there was room. We walked around Guia Hill and then followed the reservoir back to the ferry port. Once there we went through customs and then got in the standby line for the 7:00 boat. Luckily there was room and this time
our seats were on the second floor of the boat. I thought it might be better since it wasn't raining this time but the ride back was just as frightening, or maybe more so, I was tired and had laid my head on Peter's shoulder. I drifted to sleep but woke up and prayed every time the boat jumped or jolted. Finally I awoke and saw a bunch of people standing up meaning it was almost time to de-board. We got off the boat in the same fashion we got on, by shuffling slowly through the lines. We went back through immigration and then got to our street to head back to the hotel. Peter wanted to eat at one of the restaurants on the way so he picked one and went in and shared
a plate of Beef with Peppers and Onions over rice and a few Singapore Spring Rolls. The food was good but I was glad we shared because I wouldn't have been able to eat my own. Finally we returned to our hotel and took showers before getting ready for bed.
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