Lying 60 km west from Hong Kong in the Pearl Delta peninsula lies Macau, a former Portuguese colony with its intriguing blend of cultures. Macau is connected via three bridges to Taipa which along with Coloane forms the majority of the peninsula.
To reach Macau one can either take the ferry from Hong Kong island or from Tsim Sha Tsui. While i had read about ferries going to both Macau and Taipa, we could only locate tickets for ferries that go to the latter. A one way ticket costs about 160-190 HKD and it is better to just buy a return ticket for the last ferry back and if required one can always board an earlier ferry. While I left from the hostel reasonably early in the day but the entire process of locating the ferry terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui (it is inside a mall!!) and then another 1.5 hours or so to Taipa led us to reach only by noon. In case one has already been to Victoria Harbour in the evening and soaked in the glitzy view from Victoria Peak then the ferry ride during the day offers very contrasting, somber views of the same mammoth skyscrapers.
After reaching Taipa it was another challenge to actually get to Macau! Right outside the ferry terminal there are at least a dozen buses belong to the several casinos, which one can take free of charge and get off at the required stop. Since language is a reasonably strong barrier, I just got off on a bus for a casino which I think I had remembered was in Macau, though alas my memory failed me and after a 20 minute ride we ended up at the casino barely a few hundred metres away from the ferry terminal!!
But I don’t think I have EVER seen so much glamour concentrated in a tiny spot! It was almost amusing how contradictory the entire environment felt. While Taipa itself (or whatever little I had seen) seemed quite barren and forlorn in general, there were these massive and grand casinos like The Venetian glittering in the sun, like oasis of wealth, glamour and extravaganza in a desert of stoniness! Anyway, finally after much frantic questioning I finally found the right bus to take me to Macau!
Less than 2 hours away and yet Macau is so different from Hong Kong! There are still innumerable people and mainly tourists and yet there is a difference in their pace. There are no groups of people walking in a focused hurry with no time to stop and stare. With Portuguese influences Macau is a rather charming and interesting place to discover. Right from the sign boards in Portuguese and Chinese, to the cobbled lanes and alleys and the fusion food!
The main artery that runs across Macau is the Avenida do Infante D. Henrique, which halfway changes to Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro and leads to the old city in the north which has majority of the sights and the entire peninsula is almost walk-able though it gets a little tough with the sun beating down and the ridiculous levels of humidity!
The most common and probably the best place to start one’s tour would be the Largo do Senado which is the centre of the old city, which is bursting with people shopping, trying to grab a bit at the numerous eateries and tiny stalls. The most iconic sight to see here would be the ruins of Sao Paulo. The construction of this imposing facade started in 1602 and took 25 years to complete. The church and the adjacent college became a noted centre of learning and inspired awe in many of whom who visited. “I have not seen anything that can equal it, even in all of Italy, except St Peter’s” wrote one visitor in the 1630s. Sadly it was on a fateful day in 1835 when a fire spread through the entire complex leaving only the carved stone facade as a remnant of its glory and rapture. Now as one meanders through the nest of cobbled lanes to approach the ruins, it even now invokes the sense of awe and appreciation with this wide swathes of steps and the lonesome facade still retaining all its glory, power and charm.
Behind the facade is the the church’s subterranean crypt which survived the fire as well and now houses religious paintings and sculptures. Immediately to the west is the temple of Nan Cha built after the boy-God believed to have put down a nineteenth century plague and this joins into the last surviving remains of the Old City wall dating back to 1569.
Towards the east of Sao Paulo is the solid Fortaleza de Monte, a fortress that was a part of the Jesuit complex of Sao Paulo. The fort also houses the Museu de Macau which is its main attraction. The museum primarily explains the origins and development of Macau and it is extremely well maintained and has some excellent full-sized reconstructions of shops and houses.
Next I walked along to the southern part of the peninsula, which is rather quite and nondescript as compared to the centre which makes it quite interesting and charming to walk down in narrow lanes and see the old houses, sample cakes at the little shops, visit the A-Ma temple and the Maritime museum.
One can keep walking past the museum and the Fortaleza de Sao Tiago da Barra (once Macau’s most fortress, now converted to a heritage hotel) and walk along the lakes on the Avenida da Republica, a cobbled tree-lined esplanade with modern and colonial era houses. One the same way one can also see the Government House (Palacio do Governo), a graceful pink structure in a complex line with beautifully manicured trees. The path finally leads you to the huge roundabout at the end of Avenida da Amizade where roads from all over the peninsula and the bridge to Taipa converge. And it is here one can see two of the most iconic and outrageous buildings ; the Grand Lisboa and the Lisboa Hotel. Both were built by Stanley Ho who had a monopoly on Macau’s casino’s till the Chinese took over. Like me if you don’t gamble, it is still worth the time to check out the 24-hour casinos with a huge expanse of gaming tables and a very random naughty stage show. But it is just magnificent to see how one can spend money considering you have too much of it! After a few drinks at the casino I took a bus back to Taipa ferry to go back to Hong Kong.
Overall, I must say that Macau may be known all over the world for its glamour and casinos each one more outrageous and ostentatious than the other, but the true charm definitely lies in old part of the town, with remnants of its colonial history not only in terms of architecture but also language and food (must try the Portuguese egg tarts!) and to walk down among faces from all over the world, sample Chinese cuisine and try to figure out directions in Portuguese!
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