Blog - HKG/MAC 2006 #4 - Day 2
HKG/MAC 2006 #4 - Day 2
On a second day in Hong Kong, our big plan was to go to to Macau, eat some good food and do a bit of sight-seeing, and then come back to Hong Kong.
Ferry to Macau
We woke up relatively early(?) and got to Sheung Wan station where the Macau Ferry Terminal is located. We bought sandwiches at a sort of Western-style family restaurant before buying tickets and heading to the gates.
Macau being a separate country, that means that just like an airport you have to go through immigration. It was the first time I got my passport stamped for leaving a country by boat! The one-hour ride was eventless, I just looked at the different islands and embarcations we passed and took a few dozens of photos.
Arriving in Macau, we first gathered basic information at the port, as we got there without a guide book and didn't even know what currency is used. Turns out Macau has its own Macau dollar, but it has the exact same value as the Hong Kong Dollar and all shops accept HKD, though the opposite isn't true.
San Ma Lo, St. Paul's and Monte Hill
After dodging a bunch of tour guides, we took a bus to San Ma Lo, a downtown part that has a lot of Portuguese architecture. Macau used to be a Portuguese colony, so it still has bits of the culture and Portuguese is still an official language. Streets all seem to have both a Portuguese and Chinese name. However the very large majority of the population seem to be of Chinese descent, and when leaving the center, Macau feels a bit like Hong Kong.
By the way, while Hong Kong was very hot and humid, Macau seemed even worse! I was sweating non-stop, and my poor hand towel was soon totally wet.
Anyway so we walked around the pretty streets for a little while, and went to check out the Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, of which only the facade is left. Towards the back there was a crypt inside of which was a mount of sand with a cross on top, and some windows on the sides displaying bones.
Back outside, we then walked towards the top of the nearby Monte Hill on which a 1626-built fortress used to stand. Now remain some cannons and walls, and also the Museu de Macau which opened in 1998. This is also a good place to catch good views of the city. In one spot there was a tunnel used for hiding, and it contained a small room with a bed.
After going around and finding our way down and back to San Ma Lo, we were getting very hungry and hadn't yet seen any decent looking Macanese/Portuguese restaurant even though the city looked like there could be a nice terrace at every other corner. We ended up asking a local lady who seemed to be on her lunch break, and she kindly recommended us a few restaurants, one a bit closer than the rest though a bit more expensive. We picked that one and it was delicious. I was so hungry that there are no Macau food photos, sorry! :)
Guia Hill
As our next adventure, we decided to head up the Guia Hill, on top of which is found a former lighthouse and fortress. With some help we got on the right bus, and while communication with the bus driver was limited, we were lucky that a family of tourists (perhaps from Hong Kong) were also heading to the same destination and seemed to know a bit better where they were going. So we got off at the same stop as them, which was still a little bit away from the hill, and we felt a bit shy as we followed their steps while they sometimes looked back at us as to make sure we hadn't got lost. :)
At the bottom of the hill, we decided to take the teleferic to the top, and got one-way tickets for only HKD$3! Despite the greenery around, it wasn't any cooler on the top of the hill. We walked around what mostly looked like a track for joggers, on the sides of which were located lots of equipment that was a cross of gym machines and kids' playground stuff. Here too there were tunnels that used to be for hiding and/or going through the mountain, though entrances are blocked.
We eventually made it to the lighthouse, which had some towers and some strange room that contained several large signals used to communicate when a cyclone was coming.
Otherwise there wasn't so much to see up there, so we went back down to the streets by foot.
Then we were about ready to head back to Hong Kong, but we ran into some troubles. We needed to get on a bus to the port, but our map indicated only bus stops, not the actual routes. Looking at the bus numbers I imagined that one not so far would make its way to the port, but I was wrong and we ended up somewhere pretty far. It took a while to find what bus to take next to get to our destination.
Probably having got a decent guide book would have made things easier, but anyway otherwise it was nice to spend a day in Macau! If I'd have to do it again, maybe I'd give a chance to one of those obstinate tour guides.
Back to Hong Kong
For the return to Hong Kong, we were far from the windows and there was nothing to see, so I ended up sleeping the whole time.
We ended the day by going to a dumplings restaurant (《餃子源》 259 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai). It's not obvious to find a place where they do fried dumplings like those popular in Japan (yaki-gyōza), but that restaurant offered fried versions of all their normally steamed ones. Also while the menu says all plates are of 10 dumplings, the chef accepted to serve us half-plates, that way we could try more varieties. He was strongly recommending his mutton dumplings, and indeed they were truly delicious! We also had ones with pork, and vegetables.
Larger photo sizes in my Hong Kong/Macau 2006 set at Flickr
Posted on September 12, 2006 at 00:12 | Tweet
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