Macau

For those of you who read my first email, you'll remember that I wasn't an official resident of Hong Kong because my passport was mis-stamped going through the airport. To fix that (and do some sightseeing), a few of us went to Macau for the day. Macau is another Special Administrative Region of China that was acquired from the Portuguese in the late 90s. You can read more about the region at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau.

To get to Macau from Hong Kong you hop on the ferry and go! It took about an hour to get there on this really nice high-speed boat. We got off the ferry and went straight to the tourist information area because we had no idea where we were going. We knew we wanted to see some of the ruins and old buildings in Macau, so that's what we told them. In return, the man handed us a giant two-sided map and told us to get on the #3 bus (stop unknown). When I say this map was huge, I mean like the size of a small child. Jenn was sitting next to me on the bus when I was trying to read it. I told her during the next leg, she would have to find another seat so the map and I could have more room together.

After about 15 minutes on the bus, I decided to ask a local lady where to get off. I pointed at the map and said "I want to go here." She proceeded to tell us where to go in some mix of Chinese and Portuguese. I just nodded and smiled. Another man on the bus noticed that we didn't understand and quickly said, "Go! Get off here!" So we did.

SIDENOTE: People in Macau were much nicer than in Hong Kong. Strangers were completely willing to listen to us and give good directions. We had another "bus moment" after dinner, but we had plenty of help getting back on the right bus.

We walked through this little square with the most gorgeous walkway with lanterns hanging overhead. It was just before dusk on Sunday, but the square was still packed! We saw some sights, had dinner at a small Portuguese restaurant (yum!), and headed back to the casino area to gamble (about $3 worth) and have drinks.

The girls in front of the New Years decorations (it's year of the rat FYI).


Festive!


Church of Santo Domingo


Inside the church.


In front of the Ruins of St. Paul




New roomie pic at the top of the fortress near St. Paul.


Walking to dinner! So gorgeous!


We definitely don't know 1) where we are or 2) where we're going. Oh well!


Unfortunately, since you can't take picture inside casinos, we didn't get any good shots of the casino entertainment. All I can say is you missed "great" dancing,"great" singing and "great" outfits.