My Amazing Race - Part 2

Hi!

To continue....

Sunday 9th:

First thing Sunday morning, we took a ferry from Kowloon to Macau. And this is where the customs and immigration marathon began! Immigration at HK stamps passport "Departed Hong Kong August 9th". Arrive in Macau an hour later (and can you believe it, even hotter than HK!). Macau immigration stamps passport "Arrived Macau August 9th".

Boiling hot!

What do I see?

Do you think anyone would mind terribly if I dove into the fountain?

Ok, I'll behave.

Now, Macau is known as the Las Vegas of the East. Oh my word! What an amazing place! Not only is it as hot as the desert, but all around, all you see are towering casino buildings, each one vying to be grander than the next. Quite an experience! And because the majority of Macau's income is generated from gambling tourists, they send glam shuttle buses to the ferry port to shuttle visitors to their casinos/hotels for free! So we hopped a bus for free and were treated to an eye-catching sightseeing ride along the coast. Eventually we were deposited at some or other hotel casino, with ridiculous gold decor and giant chandeliers. The weird thing, though, is that just outside the casino, was a residential area that is obviously on the poorer side of things. From there, we took a cab to the famous Central Square, from where it is easy to do walking tours to all the touristy places. I've never seen a posher McDonalds.

The ruins of St Paul's Church

A little piece of Europe in Asia

Now Macau has strong Portuguese heritage, thanks to Portuguese colonialism. It makes for a unique and interesting place in the East. Mainly Chinese inhabitants, European architecture, English and Portuguese street names, Portuguese food galore. Quite unlike the rest of the Orient. We did the usual sightseeing stuff; I bought an antique Chinese lacquered jewellery box (which also doubles as a pillow - you know the ancient Chinese wooden pillows we sometimes see in Chinese movies?). Macau is also renowned for all its antique stores. Wow! It's like walking through a museum! I browsed through a few antique stores, and absolutely beautiful furniture. One day, when I'm rich, I'll go furniture shopping in Macau and have it shipped to my villa in Tuscany!

Yummy to-die-for-hot-from-the-oven Portuguese egg custard tartlets!

Another thing Macau is renowned for is Portuguese egg custard tarts. Heaven on the tongue! I wanted to go to Macau just for this...seriously! The closest you gonna find in SA, is at Vida e Cafe. But of course, in Macau, it was hot from the oven, melt in the mouth, creamy, yummy....need I say more? They also do a style of jerkey (I'm not calling it biltong cos its more like jerkey, i.e. flat sheets of meat). Still delicious though. I bought some peppered beef, which I didn't get a chance to eat, as it stayed in my suitcase for the next week or so, and ended up in the bin at customs in Korea! Because I was honest enough to declare it. Oh well! At least I tasted it in Macau. And it was good!

Gyo Lim wanted to go shopping at the Ralph Lauren Polo factory shop in Macau, so off we went, and she got some really good bargains for Korean money. Then I needed to buy some tissues (cos of all the constant face mopping, I was fast running out of face mops), so I popped into what looked like a pharmacy. Only it turned out to be like a big Clicks, called Watson's, which was packed with customers, so it took a while to just buy tissues. And then at the tills, don't I see Lindt and Cadbury's etc etc and go crazy! So finally, after an extra kilo or two of chocolate and chewing gum, we headed to a Portuguese restaurant for lunch. Then back to the Polo shop, cos Gyo Lim had worked out just how much of a good bargain she got, and wanted to get some more. By then, it was time for us to start heading back to HK, so we walked to the nearest casino, naively thinking (rather...hoping) we could return to the ferry port via free casino bus again. LOL! Naturally, we were stopped by casino security, and asked for our casino tickets, which, by the way, you can only get at one of the gaming tables, hence, you HAVE to sped money at the casino. Of course! DUH! So, we politely, and as unobtrusively as possible, walked through the gambling section till we found the exit, and took a cab to the port! And yet again, at the duty free shop at the port, I saw more varieties of chocolate, bought some more, plus Magnum ice creams. I was educating Gyo Lim in the ways of the West, you see, not being greedy at all! ;)

Immigration stamps passport "departed Macau August 9th". Nice bouncy, bumpy ferry ride back to Kowloon across the South China Sea. (It feels so James Bond to say the South China Sea! I just had to do it!). One hour later, HK immigration stamps passport "Arrived Hong Kong August 9th". (My apologies to those who don't find this funny, but I get a kick out of it!)

We then took another ferry across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island, then a topless sightseeing bus to the tram station to take a tram uphill to the top of Hong Kong Island where we had another breathtaking view of Hong Kong at night, and of course, we saw the light show again, this time from a different angle. And we could look across to Kowloon.

See how much Hong Kong resembles Cape Town?

On board the Topless Bus touring the streets of Hong Kong.

Breathtaking night-view of Hong Kong, from the top of Hong Kong Island.

After an exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable day in the intense heat, we headed back to Kowloon by ferry, then subway to our area, and finally, aircon, in our tiny room!

Monday 10th....to be continued!

Luv,

Andrea