Macau, Nov 3-4 2004

After our first day in Hong Kong we flitted over to Macau for a short trip. We took the one of those neatly techy hydrofoil boats which bounced quite a bit in the water even when docked. My dad complained that the boat was slow but I think he failed to understand that boats are by nature slow and even 25 knots was flying when it came to boats.

The terminal which we arrived to was quite big as it contained an immigration desk. Despite the fact that Hong Kong and Macau both belong to China you still have to fill out forms when travelling between the two and you have to fill out forms as well when you enter China from either place. We were greeted by the sister of a family friend who lived in Macau, she worked in the terminal and promptly took us upstairs to the dim sum restaurant. The food was great! It was simply some of the best dim sum I've ever had and it was in a ferry terminal.

After that stop we got taken on a tour of Macau. Macau is technically a very small piece of land but the neighbouring islands are generally also referred to as Macau and development has actually melded the islands into one (they filled the land in between to build an airport). Anyways Macau is very, very nice - the Portuguese influence really adds an air to it that makes it very relaxing, it was the first Cantonese place that didn't feel like Hong Kong. Oh yeah, the Portuguese egg tarts are INCREDIBLE, they put the HK versions to shame.

Our hosts originally wanted to take us up to the Macau Tower (their version of the Space Needle or the CN Tower) for dinner but we'd been eating far too rich (diet-wise) and begged off from another rich meal. Instead we settled for some normal Portuguese food which was very tasty and then we made a quick nighttime swing through a part of Macau's downtown district.

Finally we wrapped up in the morning by stopping by an old church where all that was left was the front wall - the rest had been destroyed in a fire. It was interesting nonetheless. We then went into the neighbouring museum which was better than I expected, I suppose with the number of visitors that they have that they can afford to ensure that it's interesting and worthwhile. After that it was back home on the hydrofoil. Goodbye Macau!