Macau

It was an early start today, as we all had to meet Maggie to get the ferry to Macau. We had entered Hong Kong as visitors, which meant that we had to leave again and then re enter in order to activate our working visas, and obtain residency. Macau is around an hours ferry ride from Hong Kong Island, and is known as the Las Vegas of Asia. We thought that if we were going to visit Macau, we might as well spend the whole day there, and explore the island. It used to be owned by the Portuguese until 1999, so there is still a lot of Portuguese architecture to see, and restaurants to visit.

We planned to leave really early, to get the 10am ferry over to the island. Not knowing your way around a city, can drastically affect how swimmingly plans go! We managed to make it to the port, and boarded a little later at 10:30am. The boat ride over was an experience! I was not expecting the ferry to travel at such a fast speed as it did, which made me feel uneasy (I think the early morning didn’t help!).

When we’d reached Macau, the queue at immigration was incredibly long, and took around an hour to get through. Once we had finally passed through immigration, we boarded one of the many free buses outside the port, and headed to one of the casinos for a buffet lunch. I would of preferred to sample some of Portuguese food, but at the time a buffet with a lot of variety, also appealed to my hungry tummy! There majority of Macau has been taken over by big, flash, casinos, but there is a section of the city that still has the remains of old Portuguese ruins and narrow cobbled streets, packed with touristy shops and Portuguese restaurants.

After our meal, we all headed to the old area of the city. It was such a hot day, and crowds of people filled the narrow streets. It was great to see some remains of the Portuguese architecture, and experience the more historical part of the island. Macau is also famous for the world’s highest jump from the Macau sky tower. This was something I had heard about and was keen to see what all the fuss was about. A few of us headed to the tower, although we didn’t see anyone attempt the 764 feet jump that day, it was nice to have a cool drink in the tower and admire the views of the city.

By 6pm, Jack and I were exhausted. We caught a ferry back with two of the other teachers, and went for a cheap chicken curry, locally. It was great to visit Macau, and escape the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. I just wish I had more money to gamble with the mainlanders!