Days 6 & 7
I’m going to be honest here by admitting I didn’t know much about Macau before arriving there. Yes, I knew it was a very old Portuguese trading port. Yes, I knew it was also very big on gambling. It also featured as a locale in the latest Bond movie, Skyfall. In the travel books I read before leaving Australia, it really only featured as a tacked-on leg to Hong Kong or possibly China or Vietnam. So when we hopped on to the ferry at Kowloon, after passing through the lines and getting another stamp in our passports, it was with an open mind.
And this mind was effectively blown sixty minutes or so later once we docked.
(A word about the ferry first: we took a Turbojet, and on the way over, I was the only one who didn’t get seasick. On the way back, we all did. My theory about my not getting sick, when I am prone to motion sickness, was because I could see out of the windows. On the way back, that particular ferry had frosted windows, so it was impossible to keep my eye-line trained on to the horizon, which helps me. So instead I was sitting there, not being able to anticipate waves or rocking because you can’t see them approaching. I don’t want to exaggerate, either, our sick levels. No puking, just ‘queasy’.)
We stayed at one of the smaller casino hotels, Grand Lapa, which I chose because it was close to the ferry terminal. A family suite, like so many hotels in China, is only really set up for three, comfortably, so we still had to order a fold-out bed. That said, the bed was so enormous, all four of us could possibly have fit in it!
The area I wanted to visit the most is on the opposite side of the island. And here it is: the Ruins of St Paul.
This is the view from the seventeenth, and top, floor of our hotel. This was the level we stayed on. The view is of the Avenida da Amizade, which the previous evening we walked home along from the Ruins, due to the fact it was impossible to find a taxi. Not that we minded (or I didn’t). That tall building with the gold spire on the right, at back, is the same casino that can been seen in the top left on the photo above it. Macau is a place that would be lovely (and almost small enough) to explore fully on foot, but alas, no time. We checked out and caught the ferry directly to the international airport at Hong Kong (handy!) to come home – via a chemist, so I could procure throat lozenges. Yes, I’d caught a cold by then and it was setting in fast.
No matter. The holiday – with its ups and downs! – had been wonderful.
That’s one living list item well and truly ticked.
