A Short Adventure to Macau

This past Friday evening (12/14), we were informed that we had Saturday and Sunday off.  A weekend off?!  I didn't even know where to start...

(Okay, I'll admit that I started writing this post on December 18th but quickly got caught up in work and prepping for my upcoming vacation and didn't get back to it until now.)


Two co-workers and I decided to head to Macau for a night, departing Saturday morning.  Macau is a special administrative district of China just like Hong Kong.  It started as a Portuguese colony in the 1550s, and it wasn't turned over to China until 1999, at which point a deal was made to give the area to China as long as it retained autonomy until 2049 (50 years after the transfer).

Some interesting facts about Macau:

• The 2nd highest life expectancy in the world
• Ranked highly in the human development index (very rare among Asian countries)
• The literacy rate is above 99% for people aged 15-29 (93.5% overall)

Sunset out my Hotel Window

 It was a rather long adventure to get there involving lots of traffic and lots of standing around.  We took a taxi to the ferry terminal, and when we arrived, there was only 1 ticket left for the next boat (11:30am), so we had to buy tickets for the one after that (12:15pm).  Immediately after purchasing the tickets, we realized we would be arriving at the wrong ferry terminal, but the next ferry to the correct terminal wasn't until 1:30pm, so we didn't bother changing.

Christmas Tree Lighting at the Casa Real

After waiting in line for a while, we went through immigration and moved to waiting outside for another long while.  The ferry didn't show up until about 1pm and departed around 1:15pm, so we probably should have just taken the later one.  We had first class tickets for the ferry since they were only a few dollars more than the regular class.  The first class cabin was upstairs, we had comfier seats, and we were served tea/coffee.  Unfortunately, first class also somehow means "smoking allowed."

When we arrived in Macau, we went through immigration and then waited for a taxi for about 20 minutes despite there being only 4 people in line in front of us.  Our taxi driver didn't quite know where our hotel was, so we drove in circles for a bit, he pulled over and asked someone, and we eventually arrived.

House of Dancing Water "Stage"

Decorations at the Sands

After consulting with the concierge, we decided to go see a popular show called "The House of Dancing Water" that night.  We wandered around the casinos for a bit both before and after the show, which brings me to my conclusion about Macau: it's like Vegas but for MUCH wealthier people.  The lowest minimum bet we saw at any of the card tables was 300 HKD (~$40 US), and most of the tables were more like 500, 1000, or 2000, not to mention the "high stakes" sections.  People would sit down at a table and just throw out 10,000 HKD (~$1280 US).  Needless to say, we did not do much gambling.

Reminds me of the Legends of the Hidden Temple dude

The next morning, one co-worker left really early to fly back to the US, and my other co-worker and I wandered around the fisherman's wharf area and the reservoir for a couple hours before heading back to Shenzhen.  The fisherman's wharf area is full of Portuguese architecture and some replicas of things from the old colony, like the coliseum below.

Contrast of New and Old Macau

There was a moat around a castle replica filled with koi, and they were amazingly trained to humans feeding them.  Anywhere you stood near the water, all of the koi would swim over and circle.

Pedestrian walkways- these are everywhere!

I really enjoyed the blow up decorations around the reservoir:

View of Macau from across the reservoir

Things you can't do in the park around the reservoir

 It was certainly cool to experience a new place, but I am sad I didn't go see the pandas (I wasn't really aware that I should do that until after the fact).

Ferry back to China

Stay tuned for my next post about Christmas in Thailand!